If design can embody natural forms, why can’t it also reference man-made objects?

»Ready-made in Design« was the title of our Intermediate Project at Köln International School of Design. Starting as a theoretical evaluation of the history of Ready-made Objects in Design we developed several Design Objects that transform ordinary products into different objects with new appearances and usages through minimal modifications such as recombination or recontextualisation.
Our aim was to demonstrate the relevance Ready-mades have for the design and its process.

Comtemporary art today is strongly influenced by Ready-made Artists such as Duchamp, Beuys or Picasso. Changing the context of an object or manipulating it in a certain way can transform a typical object into a piece of art. Even though there have been many designers (Castiglioni, Morrison, Schreiner, Arad, Campana, Remy, etc.) who followed vaguely the same principals in order to create unique Designs, Ready-made Design Objects are often viewed as tinker and craft objects, and frequently are overlooked in the design world. Our challenge was to try to define when a Ready-made Object becomes a Design object and determine its relevance within the design, according to its past and present usage.

We love hacks, mods, recyclables and crafts – but we also love design. We believe that design is more than just building something in your garage, thats why we tried to combine what we know about design with craftsmanship. By producing furniture and lightning objects that can easily be reproduced in someone’s garage or for mass production, we created objects that inspire people and show once again, that in fact ready-made is happening in design.

Prior to concepting, we conducted extensive research on the history of Ready-mades in Design, determining it’s initial roots in the art world. After this research phase, we attempted to define the Ready-made Design Object, distinguishing between similar approaches such as non-intentional design or recycling design, and evaluated what is actual design. Based on our idea, which emerged from different sources and definitions of Design, we created concepts that are simple, surprising and easily reproduced (see the PDF).

We are not trying to reinvent the wheel, Ready-made Objects existed long before us, but we wanted to revisit these objects and draw attention to their “pre-made” possibilities. Using already produced goods in order to create something new –for us at least– can have the same relevance as creating something from scratch but referring to somethings else, like nature, physics, or whatever. In a very abstract way everything is just a redesign of a redesign of a redesign. Ideally, a ready made design object follows the same principals as classical design disciplines in terms of form and function but democratizes the whole design process.
The relevance of our work is to make this democratization of the design process, in a more and more technologically driven field, through DIY visible. We have the potential to rethink each and every object that surrounds us. Rather than producing our objects we want people to be inspired by them.