onizou idea nomads - tashkent workshop - gerhard seizer & klara sibeck

2009/JUL/04 TASHKENT WORKSHOP

SMOOTH WATER

How can you promote a soft water? Maybe it’s sold in a soft package. Maybe with graphics that show the water transforming into silk. We got the ideas flowing at an afternoon workshop in the meeting room of Technobiz Equipments, a company where some of the joining designers work. Others work in the beverage industry, which led us to the task of the day: come up with a concept for communicating that a bottled water is extraordinarily soft. Do it in Uzbek style. And do it with a strict process: 5-3-1.

Now, what’s the 5-3-1? We call it our ideal design process and it starts with five different concepts. Out of these concepts, the one that best solves the design task is selected. In the next stage, three variations are made. Finally, the designer is left with one concept to develop to perfection. What if you already have the perfect concept in stage one, someone asked? Good for you – but that never happened to us, we replied.

Next question: how do we incorporate Uzbek style? Having been in the country for just a few days, onizou had no clue. But a quick brainstorming session gave us some answers: traditional patterns can symbolize water. Mosaic. Silk. Two hours later we had gone through the whole design process and everyone had come up with a final concept. We left Tashkent with new insights on how Uzbek style can transform into modern design, and left behind some ideas how a design process can be carried out.