{"id":15299,"date":"2022-03-18T13:53:15","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T13:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.anicecommunication.com\/en\/?p=15299"},"modified":"2022-03-18T13:55:40","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T13:55:40","slug":"aiways-whats-next-does-good-design-always-have-to-be-practical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anicecommunication.com\/en\/aiways-whats-next-does-good-design-always-have-to-be-practical\/","title":{"rendered":"Aiways What\u2019s Next: \u201cDoes good design always have to be practical?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Shanghai\/Munich, March 9, 2022<\/b><\/strong> \u2013 Under the title \u201c Aiways What\u2019s next\u201d, Aiways is launching a series of interviews with discussion partners from industry, business, and politics. The sixth interviewee is Alexandra von Frankenberg, founder of the legendary traditional costume label Amsel and successful interior designer. She talked with Aiways Managing Director Dr. Alexander Klose primarily about design and why form does not always have to follow function. Alexandra von Frankenberg likes to quote Carlos Obers: \u201cDesign is art that makes itself useful. Because there is a small but subtle difference between useful and practical.\u201d<\/p>\n What is design anyway?<\/i><\/b><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Alexandra von Frankenberg: \u201cI think it\u2019s difficult to answer that in principle, but I always refer to Carlos Obers, the legendary copywriter. In the eighties he coined the phrase: \u201cDesign is art that makes itself useful\u201d and I think that sums it up perfectly, because good design is art, definitely.\u201d<\/p>\n Alexander Klose and Alexandra von Frankenberg<\/em><\/p>\n Is good design also practical?<\/i><\/b><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Dr. Alexander Klose: \u201cWhile we\u2019re on the subject of sayings, when it comes to cars, it\u2019s usually clear that the motto is \u201cform follows function\u201d, because a car has to fulfil a purpose and you have to design it accordingly. Aesthetics have to be there, of course, but one doesn\u2019t work without the other. It\u2019s an amalgamation that needs both. Function is never beautiful, and neither is form alone. In addition, there is another factor with cars, because you can\u2019t implement everything. Design always has to go hand in hand with engineering, and at the same time you always have to keep an eye on things so that they don\u2019t take on a life of their own. During the development process, you always have to ask yourself: \u201cIs this function really needed? Does it really benefit the customer?\u201d Because you\u2019ve only created good design if it does something, if the customer benefits from it.\u201d<\/p>\n Alexandra von Frankenberg: \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t design a bike that is square. Of course, it\u2019s an art to design a beautiful bike, but it has to be round. Useful does not always equal practical, because good design, (i.e. something beautiful), doesn\u2019t necessarily have to be practical. I like to take the armchair I have in my living room as an example. It\u2019s a designer piece and beautiful, but it\u2019s not necessarily practical. Sure, you can sit on it, but it\u2019s not super comfortable and it\u2019s huge. So, it\u2019s useful, but not practical and that\u2019s why it\u2019s \u00a0clear to me that good design doesn\u2019t have to be practical.<\/p>\n Can a good designer design everything?<\/i><\/b><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Alexandra von Frankenberg: \u201cA designer must always be able to put themselves in the shoes of a product. They must know what makes up the materials and the technique. In tailoring, for example, you must know exactly what a garment is used for, you can\u2019t just tailor anything. In principle, however, I would say that a good designer can work in all industries if they understand the product.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Alexander Klose: \u201cUnderstanding the function is essential for designing a car, because it then quickly becomes a matter of topics such as aerodynamics and efficiency, which of course immediately have an effect on consumption and costs. The design makes a huge difference in these areas. Function therefore has a very high priority and the line our designers have to walk is extremely narrow, because of course, the decision to buy a car is always an emotional one and you don\u2019t win hearts with an unaesthetic vehicle. So, for us, you can\u2019t have one without the other, form and function have to be kept in perfect balance.\u201d<\/p>\n Does good design need a recognition value?<\/i><\/b><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Alexandra von Frankenberg: \u201cI\u2019m undecided about that. If you become known as a designer, whether in fashion or interior design, then of course you have your own language and thus a recognition value, but does good design necessarily need recognition? I don\u2019t think so. A good designer can do anything, even new things, if they have a good feeling for aesthetics. Above all, a design is only good and pure when there is little egotism involved. The product, or the furnishings, must meet their requirements and not necessarily what characterizes my style.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Alexander Klose: \u201cI find that very interesting, because I have had a case of egotism before. We worked with a designer, someone with the best reputation and excellent references, who developed his own egotism and designed a car that only met his expectations, but which went in completely the wrong direction. That showed me that someone with a lot of fame and an impressive portfolio doesn\u2019t necessarily have to be a good designer.\u201d<\/p>\n Alexandra von Frankenberg: \u201cI think that being a good designer actually means not taking yourself so seriously and not putting yourself in the foreground. Of course, that is a contradiction in terms, because you want to be recognized as a designer, but you have to be able to read between the lines and clearly communicate between the client\u2019s wishes and your own ideas. I usually do it in such a way that I introduce my ideas and put them up for discussion so in the end the client thinks it was his idea. Then both sides are happy.\u201d<\/p>\n Do you notice bad design immediately?<\/i><\/b><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Alexandra von Frankenberg: \u201cDefinitely. You can not only recognize bad design, but also bad quality, but of course it is also a very subjective topic. For one person it\u2019s \u201cmega\u201d, for another \u201cOh God\u201d. Things like quality and function can be evaluated much better and assessed objectively because they are measurable factors, but even things that are no longer trendy don\u2019t necessarily have to be bad. If you rethink them, make them new and simply charge them with new emotions, then you can suddenly unleash a whole new wave again.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Alexander Klose: \u201cBut I do think that good design is often practical. If it is impractical, then in my eyes it is no longer good design. Unless you don\u2019t really want the function. Like an armchair that looks good but isn\u2019t comfortable. It\u2019s great as a visual object, but if you had to sit in it every day, you wouldn\u2019t buy it.\u201d<\/p>\n How do you hold your own in a very traditional and conservative market environment like traditional costume fashion?<\/i><\/b><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Alexandra von Frankenberg: \u201cGood question. We didn\u2019t start out with the aim of turning the industry on its head. We started with what we enjoy, with something new in a traditional industry. Traditional costume is something that has existed for centuries, it is an industry that will never die out because it belongs to the country and the people. We are now simply mixing this tradition with modernity and even though it may sound hackneyed, it works, and it works very well. Especially among the younger generations, traditional costume has been experiencing a real boom for some time. The modern customer is also more demanding; they demand new looks, new trends, and all that within the very narrow framework of traditional costume. The challenge, therefore, is to constantly reinvent and innovate the familiar.\u201d<\/p>\n Is the key to success in such fiercely competitive and well-staffed industries to overtake the big corporations with a small team?<\/i><\/b><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Alexandra von Frankenberg: \u201cI don\u2019t want to talk about overtaking. Because we have our focus on other things than just quantity, but diligence is a huge issue in this context. Especially at the beginning of Amsel, we worked in an incredibly disciplined and concentrated way, put every euro we earned straight back into the company and invested all our free time. We made a lot of sacrifices, privately and financially, but we did it with passion and passion is the key to success. If you are passionate about what you do, if you like to go to the office or the studio every day, then many things will happen on their own. The second essential factor is quality, because in the end it\u2019s always quality that decides. We had really big problems in the beginning: production facilities that didn\u2019t deliver at all, or those that simply delivered poor quality. Then you have to communicate that transparently and see how you can get the problem solved.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Alexander Klose: \u201cQuality is also the key for us. When you come to Europe as a Chinese start-up, you are naturally followed extremely critically in the industry. Every weakness is immediately exploited, but that was exactly what drove us. Not just to build an affordable car, but a very solid one at exactly the right time. The egotism that you mentioned earlier is certainly still present in one or two traditional manufacturers and that\u2019s where you can overtake. We all start with a blank sheet of paper when it comes to electromobility. We all have the same problems, and the advantages of a long history can no longer be used in the same way as they were with conventional cars. Add to that the ever-shorter development times demanded by the market, and here too we are much more flexible with a young and lean company.\u201d<\/p>\n Alexandra von Frankenberg: \u201cFortunately, that\u2019s not the case with us. With folk festivals, you always have the same cycles when demand is highest. Although we also see more and more requests for traditional costumes for weddings and other celebrations, the most important date for our collections is still the Oktoberfest. That\u2019s why we\u2019re very happy to be actively shaping the look of the Wiesn again this year.\u201d<\/p>\n Aiways What’s Next series: here more info<\/a><\/p>\n Anicecommunication<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Press Office Aiways Italia<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Aiways What\u2019s next:\u00a0 a conversation with Alexandra von Frankenberg, founder of Amsel Trachten in Munich and successful interior designer Design is art that makes itself useful A talented designer is not limited to one product and one industry The harmony of form and function must always be the goal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15300,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[272,266,71,265],"tags":[273,328,352],"class_list":["post-15299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aiways","category-press-room-press-releases-en","category-services","category-anicecommunication-blog-en","tag-aiways","tag-aiways-italian-press-office","tag-aiways-whats-next"],"yoast_head":"\n
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