Look Into My Eyes

Freddie Yauner, a lecturer in Design for Industry, believes that design can engage, inform and make complex concepts accessible. Through thought provoking projects and installations which have exhibited in New York, Paris and London, Freddie uses critical design to challenge convention and encourage debate. Utilising this approach, Freddie, teamed up with typographer and graphic designer Paul Robson, also from our school and Cathy John, a freelance writer to create their unique publication - Look into my Eyes. Through combined expertise Look into my Eyes was created, a book that explores the labyrinth of decisions facing MS patients from day one of their diagnosis and examines the impact each of these decisions could have on their day to day lives. Look into my Eyes was created as part of a wider programme of initiatives that use real life experiences and interaction design to place audiences firmly in the shoes of an MSer, with the aim of increasing understanding and acceptance of MS for patients, carers and health professionals alike

Different perceptions of the design process in the context of DesignArt

This study investigates the area of DesignArt aiming to research how design knowledge, design process and coherence with the brief are perceived and valued by the involved parties. We followed the work and communication between Dutch gallery Droog and designer Freddie Yauner, gathering data from the designer, the client and our neutral perspective, using interviews and questionnaires. In the interaction designer-client, each of the parties had different access to information and diverse insights into the project. Our results suggest that intuition based decision-making and factual knowledge is valued differently by each of the parties with a different emphasis on "the outcome". Consequently client and designer understand "the process" as a sum of creative thinking represented by the outcome itself

The Context of Critical Design:Exhibits, Social Media and Auction Houses

Critical design and design for debate seek to critique contemporary society through the production of provocative artefacts that cause the viewer to reflect on current trends, assumptions and values. But such designs are typically displayed in relatively elitist contexts-art galleries, conference halls and academic publications. Many designers are now making short films of their work and posting them to sites like Vimeo and YouTube. This paper considers such sites as potential spaces for widening the context of critical design. It describes responses on YouTube to three videos of designs by Freddie Yauner. The Fastest Clock in the World is a clock that gives time to a millionth of a second, The Highest Popping Toaster in the World uses a compressed gas-powered mechanism to fire toast at the ceiling, Signs of Life appears to be a fire exit sign until the stick figure running for the door begins to yawn, stretch and wander out of shot to take a break. A film of each was posted to YouTube and the comments were analysed to consider the extent to which social media can be used to extend and promote the kinds of debate that critical design seeks to create. The paper outlines a method for analysing YouTube data which draws on site statistics, content analysis, grounded theory and critical theory. Viewing figures and comments indicate that such social media do have the potential to enlarge the audience for critical design although engagement may be relatively superficial. The paper argues that while critical design artefacts critique consumer society this does not prevent them from themselves becoming desirable objects to be consumed. It suggests that the context of critical design must be expanded if it is to escape this deadlock