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Argentine Industrial Design Franz Veigener Editions
FV
Ferrum
I have no backpack.
I have no past.
Hugo Kogan, Industrial Designer.
I believe there is much to do.
He is one of the most important
and prolific Designers of Argentina.
People are the main axis in Design.
Within his hundred of designs
the Magiclick has turned into a true icon
of Argentinean Industrial Design.
For some reason,
as it happened with this design,
people make sure you don't forget.
He received two merit diplomas from Konex.
His name integrates the permament archive files
of Designers at the Industrial Design Centre
of Pompidou in Paris.
Currently, he is a consultant for national and international companies
and organisms such as the Metropolitan Centre of Design,
an jury at the program "Innovate".
I've lived my whole life doing that,
crossing the line.
CROSSING THE LINE
WITH HUGO KOGAN
I'm Hugo Kogan
I've been handling Design for about fifty years.
Since a very young age, I was a sculpturer.
I had been designing for a long time
before I was even aware of it.
I was lucky to end up in a company,
at that time called Philips Argentina,
where I was taught what Design is.
Philips Argentina had published a job offer in a newspaper
asking for students in their last year of Architecture.
At the time, I was in my first year of Architecture.
So, I thought
"Why not!"
So, I applied.
I get a phone call
and he says "Look, we've selected you".
One year later, he tells me
"Do you know why we picked you?"
"Remember the forms you had to fill in?"
Yes.
"Well those forms were designed by a dummy
because they had the tiniest letters
and a very small blank to fill in
and you wrote from border to border
you wrote on top of all the text
and that's what made us decide."
And that's what I've done my whole life
i.e., disarranging what is already arranged.
Ha... Crossing the line.
PROFESSION
It's an absolutely enriching and passionate profession.
Such is the variety of situations you face
that they oblige you to be constantly learning.
If you know how to listen, if you know how to hear,
and if you pay attention to what they are saying,
you always learn.
What you learn, on the other hand
synergizes all the knowledge
because it adds up to your previouse knowledge other topics,
other stuff, other materials, other ways of designing,
new ways of thinking,
You have to stay updated with technologies,
with raw materials, other materials,
with procedures, ways of production.
THE PEOPLE
People are the main axis in Design.
I.e., you've got to know their profile with the greatest
accuracy possible of those people who will benefit
or those who will suffer the results of your design.
CHANGES
Important changes have always been triggered by
changes in technology
and Design is built on technology.
In 1967 I was Manager of the Design Department in a company called Aurora.
This company's owner was a true avant-gardist.
He had come across a little gadget like this in Japan,
that when pressed it would discharge a spark.
And he found out that they used it in kitchen sets,
so he brought it.
I was fiddling around with it and the thought occured to me
"This is a marvellous lighter for kitchens!
Autonomous, independent from the kitchen itself."
So, I designed this prototype before making the formal proposal.
It's this one.
This one, I have here, was my daughter Alejandra's grandmothers'
and she used it for forty years.
I only had it polished.
And what did this come to modify?
At that time, if you wanted to light to stove, these matches
"La Ranchera", were the only option available.
You would pick a match, pray to God not to burn your finger with it
you would light it and if you were lucky it would light
or its head would fly off or stick under your fingernail.
That's what there was.
We then jumped to this.
That's why, today, people still talk about the Magiclick.
It's success wasn't actually because of its design,
although it was a nice design for that time.
Its magic was, that you would do like this
(presses the trigger)
a spark would ignite, and it would turn on.
So it was incorporated to the market
with an enormous consumption rate.
Because it was necessary.
NECESSARY
INVENTION vs. INNOVATION
Inovation is not invention.
Changes are generated on what already exists
that improve this product,
or system,
or culture,
or administrative system,
or whatever is being dealt with to make it more efficient,
for it to work better, for it to provide greater benefits,
for people to be more comfortable.
INVENTION is different. Invention works on what does not yet exist.
The case, for example, of the ball pen
or the case of the matches as an invention.
Now, matches have also had important evolutionary change.
These matches appeared, the wooden ones.
They are matches that don't self-ignite, like these used to.
DESIRES
For the last fifteen years,
people no longer have needs.
The refrigerator is no longer a need, it's already there.
The Television is no longer a need, it's already there.
So, WHERE IS THE MARKET LEADING TO?
I refer to the market as the offer to meet DESIRES.
TEXTURES COLORS
SHAPES
A new area of need related to the desire of having beautiful stuff,
surrounding oneself with objects that give pleasure.
CITY
The city, specially the city of Buenos Aires,
has a number of demands that nobody investigates.
The streetlights, the lighting,
the trashcans.
I believe there is so much to do
and the Designer doesn't see it.
I believe these are spaces for Industrial Design.
Just like you'll never forget your first girlfriend
I'll never forget the first products I've designed.
They were three of four.
Afterwards, the activity and the frequency in the rotation of products
that of course you're proud of,
makes you forget them.
You don't even remember them.
Except for one, that for some reason, like what happened with this one,
PEOPLE MAKE SURE YOU NEVER FORGET.
The future, that for many is this moment, the present;
is the imagination.
IMAGINATION
will be ahead of technology, of knowledge, of experience.
Imagination will show the future of people,
the future of this world in which we live in.
And inside this frame of imagination
is where I'm working.
I have no backpack.
I have no past.
I've never been interested.
I'm always LOOKING AHEAD
Not wasting time. For me, each day is that day.
"I was going to ask you,
if you were to design a backpack
what size would it be and what would you carry in it?"
Well, very small.
I'd carry for example, three or four bottles of bear,
some good prosciutto, a bit of good French bread...
Not much more, some paper napkins...
ha, ha, ha...