This February, Form Us With Love opened their studio in central Stockholm to the public, introducing Prototypa, a mini-series of exhibitions, dialogues, and workshops under the theme of prototyping.
First out, was an exhibition and dialogue with industrial designer, Shane Schneck, the man behind the celebrated studio Office for Design. In an informal talk, moderated by writer and strategist Lia Forslund, insights were found, including ways in which materials are used in prototyping to inform the outcome, and how a quick prototype differs from a slow one.
‘I always make analog prototypes, using paper for instance, before I start 3D printing or creating a digital design file. It is important for me to start with something where I can reach quick conclusions before I get too tied up in a particular form,’ Shane Schneck explains.
Day two, welcomed the design challenge ‘Q&A with BIG-GAME’ curated by Form Us With Love. A travelling interpretation exercise initiated by Swiss design studio BIG-GAME. Within the realm of prototyping, the result became an exhibition of ten ideations by Form Us With Love mirroring ten objects designed by BIG-GAME, presented with an emphasis on the shared commonalities of a process, as well as some interesting iterations or ‘hacks’ of the Swiss designs.
‘This is the eight time we do the Q&A, and it is interesting to see how this particular challenge became entirely about discovering the ideation process, as oppose to the interpretations of the finished product,’ Augustin Scott de Martinville, Elric Petit and Grégoire Jeanmonod, founders of BIG-GAME reflects.
The mini-series then culminated in a final assessment, a prototype workshop including a push pin, eggs, paper, and scissors. In ten multidisciplinary teams of three, seventeen different nationalities collaborated to create an impressive array of paper engineering—woven belts, interlocked containers and perpendicular wrapping techniques.
‘I was so proud to see the studio filled with creative people from all over the world coming together in craftsmanship, using very few means. Within just two hours we had incredible design results,’ John Löfgren, Creative Director at Form Us With Love recalls.