1.
P Patty Johnson is a Canadian designer who is interested in the interchange between research and design, and, commerce and culture. She operates worldwide with
partners, enterprises, manufacturers, communities, governments, and designers
creating new kinds of design programs and product collections. Her mobile
studio network looks to combine the strengths of complimentary groups to build
new linkages, new cultures and new ideas. Patty Johnson tells Trends for a Handmade World about Love, Freedom, Flow: New Caribbean Design.
W
W What
is New Caribbean Design?
Love, Freedom, Flow:
New Caribbean Design represents
an unprecedented collaboration, weaving together elements of craft production,
community development and modern design. A focus on producing unique regional hybrids that combine
craft tradition and contemporary design process is the aim of New Caribbean
Design. Through the push and pull of cross-cultural collaboration the group has
balanced traditional cultural practice in the Caribbean and forward-looking
design solutions; developing new methods and new vernacular that respects and
elevates local traditions. In contrast with the familiar presentations of
Caribbean culture – souvenirs and resort experience – this collection presents
something much more dynamic: a living breathing culture with a critical role in
the global design marketplace.
What countries participate in this initiative?
This new project by
Patty Johnson was produced in collaboration with six designers from the
Caribbean region – Hansie Duvivier (Haiti), Stella Hackett (Barbados), Andy
Manley (Dominica), Philip Marshall (Barbados), Cassandre Mehu (Haiti), and
Lesley-Ann Noel (Trinidad and Tobago). Working closely with artisan producers,
communities and craft production factories the group created twenty new
furniture, textile, home accessory and lighting products that are debuting at
the International Contemporary Furniture Fair 2010 in New York City. This
product collection represents the work of twenty-one companies from eight
Caribbean nations including Haiti, Barbados, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Jamaica,
Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and others. The project is supported by the
Caribbean Export Development Agency, the Barbados Investment Development
Corporation, the Interamerican Development Bank, and, the Trade Facilitation
Office of Canada.
How did you manage to bring such diversity within a
cohesive brand?
Collaboratively. Over a two-year period I worked with a
regional design team and over 20 producers to develop the brand and the
products.
Caribbean culture is a confluence of African, European and
Amerindian heritage and cultural retention and fusion has produced a unique
hybrid. These complex and mixed cultural histories have tremendous value.
Material culture is central to the Caribbean region with a long tradition of
the use of indigenous materials, and, the production of art and craft is tied
to the politics of oppression and resilience. By
keeping these values central to the process we were able to create a cohesive
brand.
How do you tell the stories of the different islands?
Current design approaches and systems
are, to a very great extent, dissociated or disengaged from the needs of
‘people-on-the-ground’ and from the capacities of local production processes
and this is as true in the Caribbean as in other parts of the world.
Contemporary product
aesthetics that fail to capture consumers’ attention are a result and
reflection of this sense of detachment and ill advised development, In order to
create products that are at once sustainable, locally meaningful and globally
marketable, it is imperative to begin developing, or perhaps retrieving, these
integral connections. Design innovation applied in informed practiced and
with a "bottom up" or collaborative methodology can be a
perennial asset to artisan communities.
Working with artisan communities in
such collaborative projects emerges as an opportunity that can be equally
beneficial for both designer and artisan to share creativity about the
production of integral goods.
This was our central premise in developing the
narratives of New Caribbean Design in addition to telling the story of the
region rather than indentifying different islands.
Please describe one or more iconic products that
represent the concept
I like to think that all
the products are iconic but if pressed there are a few that really
represent the hybrid and collaborative concepts. All the ceramic work
produced in Barbados from indigenous red clay are good example of
how traditional work can find new vitality in contemporary markets.
The Liana Chair from Liana Cane - all renewable vine from the rain forest
and using bright, phosphorescent colors. And then finally, the indigenous work
which never ceases to amaze me - the Wai Wai in Guyana, the Kalinago
in Dominica and Nanny of the Maroons Traditional Baskets from Jamaica
How did you go from souvenir and resort to high design?
By focusing on contemporary design inputs and ideas in
combination with indigenous materials and techniques.
What is the future for New Caribbean Design?
New Caribbean Design is a registered not for profit
association that is driven by its directors, member companies and design team
and is partnered throughout the region by national agencies as well as
Caribbean Export. Product development is a collaborative activity with clearly
defined strategic goals and vision. NCD is already working on an expanded
product collection with plans to debut at ICFF 2011 and possibly at 100% Design
in London 2011. In partnership with Tom Dixon in London NCD will
be launching a selection of the collection at his new studio
complex during London Design Week this year.
What were some of the challenges and good surprises?
The challenge was working with a collaborative methodology
and the surprise was the great result of working with a collaborative
methodology!
Is the collection sustainable? How so?
Designing all products and packaging
with consideration for their environmental impact is a central strategy for New
Caribbean Design not only in terms of current marketability but also for
longetivity of product reach. An emphasis on product durability, innovation,
and quality to build effective production reinforces the long-term
sustainability of the products. Incorporating environmentally sustainable
materials, features, and manufacturing processes into new product and packaging
designs is essential for capacity building. The objective is to develop
programs that focus on sustainable design as an international and local process
that can contribute to southern livelihoods in the contemporary global context,
and, to expand insights adding to longitudinal knowledge of sustainability and
ecology in regional manufacturing communities.
The product development focus of New
Caribbean Design has included sustainable and ecological criterion such as the
use of local materials and renewable inputs, lightweight manufacturing and
reducing material inputs, the development of environmentally sensitive
packaging from local sources and waste material, and, the building of awareness
of progressive business strategies that give preference to the creation of high
end sustainable products over cost reduction measures.
Were you surprised by any of the materials and techniques
found?
Well, I'm always amazed I have to say. The dedication of
practioners, the techniques especially of indigenous groups and the beauty
of handwork is inspirational.
How has the market responded?
Very well. We have had good success in a very
short period of time and have developed linkages with high-end retailers in the
UK and Europe. Directly, this means sales and orders as well as representation
in the US. It is this momentum that NCD will build on over the next three to
five years.
You believe in elevating tradition and targeting the
high-end market. Why? Can you please elaborate on your reasons for
choosing this approach?
In part, my intention is to act as advocate for
the creative communities that I am engaged with and to ensure that the nature
of product development is a sustainable process that can extend beyond the
length of the project timescale. At core, my
projects suggest that designers look beyond the individualism of Western
consumer philosophies that currently drive design practice to include investigations
of craft production and indigenous artifact in developing countries and to be
explicit about those partners and makers.
The cultural position of craft and design remains an intense
and contradictory matter but one that is successfully played out through a very
wide variety of methodologies. There are many positions for design in
contemporary culture. Quality and innovation have a whole bundle of sources:
designers need to be alert and knowledgeable, and there has to be an awareness
of design and making as a positive engine for change in the larger context of
contemporary social concerns.
My approach
allows Southern producers and communities to translate designs with their own
unique skills and regional materials into new products. Certainly it takes the
empowerment of producer communities as a given. The work is grounded in the
physical world, as contrasted with the technological world, and is tied to a
place and its manufacturing traditions making it more specifically
representative of the people who make it.
If the artisan furniture and craft
products of the developing world are to be valued properly and create
sustainable livelihoods in those places, their design must realistically
reflect and communicate the labor and skills of the producers who make them.
The aim is to avoid the branch plant mentality of multinationals that plagues
Southeast Asia, and other places where craft skills have been degraded, and
offer instead high end design products that are suited to the skills, technologies
and histories of these places.
What is the North-South project?
North South Project: A
new model of design and craft collaborations in
the developing world took place over a two year period in Guyana, South
America and Botswana, Africa and was launched at New York’s International
Contemporary Furniture Fair in May 2006. The project was awarded an Editors'
Award for Craftsmanship and was included in Newsweek's Design Dozen 2006.
The tenets and principles were the
same: a collaborative effort involving small scale craft factories and
indigenous producers in the creation and branding of new design products that
used regional vocabularies in unexpected ways to reach high end markets.
The project aspires to create a human centered and
partnership based model of design collaboration that produces sophisticated
hybrid products that are launched in high-end markets. Implicit in this
investigation is the idea that design practitioners must expand their focus to
include strategic development and through this begin to redefine the designer’s
role in a contemporary context. The research and the implementation specific to
the product lines and market launch of this project show that a new model of
viable design and craft collaborations in the developing world is possible and
that these findings can have a broader relevance for sustainable design
practice.
Can you please write one word next to the following
words?
*Design Collaborative
*Development Bottom Up
*Global Local
*Local Global
*Recession Opportunity
*Identity Hybrid
*Mass production Old School
*Limited New School
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