It is common to talk about aesthetics, functionality or even environmental impact of design goods. This time let us focus on another game changer - dear storytelling, and its influences on us as human beings and creators.

WHY DOES THE STORY MATTER?

“Throughout the years we have noticed that emotion drives people into action - it creates a stronger connection with an audience and empowers the team, too”, says EMKO director Erika Markovska-Mikulskiene. “A great story also connects all the dots, from purifying the concept to introducing it to the world well”.

CURIOUS, HOW ARE SUCH IDEAS BORN?

Let’s take a look from the designer’s perspective!

Barbora, where does your daily inspiration come from?

I feel the biggest inspiration when I am back from the countryside, a lengthy holiday on the Baltic coast or even after a night’s getaway in the forest. The silence and ability to disconnect evoke visuals of the nature, which I later adapt when creating forms or textures of new objects. I also find designs and objects created by other designers highly inspiring, the stories of creation, as well as the author’s point of view. The thought ‘why I didn’t create that?’ is a real kick to sit and start the process.

Which is your favourite part of being a designer?

The ability to create a new object every week (or day) that is totally different in its purpose from the previous one. Before I took to product design studies, I had been shocked having realised what a wide range product designers work in but in time, having developed my own system of creating as well as certain aesthetic values, I managed not to lose myself in a huge diversity of this industry. I find it highly exciting to create a tableware object or a rug and then jump on to a medical device specifics.

How would you describe your style?

Clean, monumental in a way that it would be relevant at least for a decade to come (I wish so).

Which are the major steps of your creative process?

Sketching and analysing the analogues with a fresh mind, first thing in the morning, followed by quick prototyping to test the idea. As I work with clients from different industries and the materials used are quite specific, it is quite often that I have the possibility to instantly test the product in real life prior to mass production. This allows to spot the points that still need to be adjusted and eases the whole process. Then the discussion stage follows where other professionals get involved and the main decisions of manufacturing and other steps are taken. You can watch how the process converts from ME to US. I believe that each object should have a caring family of professionals.

What according to you, is the role of collaboration in design?

A must. In collaboration with other professionals, the product gets the best attention from viewers of different perspective and it can grow and be developed much further than by one person only. In such way the object, containing the designer’s idea and aesthetic value in the initial stage, becomes a real and functioning product. Besides that, each collaboration is an opportunity to learn something new, to understand different materials and techniques, as well as to better know people.

Is there any particular message you'd like to convey by your designs?

Beauty of function is a core dominant.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST - BLITZ QUESTIONS

Favourite work tool?

A pen.

Best soundtrack for design?

Silence and/or the refreshed soundtrack.

Favourite material?

Wind and things it can create.

Favourite shape or figure?

A circle.

What’s the closest thing to real magic?

Those five seconds when you realize you have thought of a new design idea.