Vladimir Rachev is an emerging name in the field of product design. His idea of disentangling insights from the familiar experiences in unfamiliar contexts or settings really appealed to me, hence I thought of having him here with us. Some of his stupendous works worth mentioning have been incorporated in the (email) interview which’ll follow after a slight jump.
1. Vladimir, please give us your brief biographical sketch?
Vladimir: Bulgarian born, 26 years of age, studying and living in the UK for the last 5-6 years. At the moment just finishing my MSc in product design at UWIC, Cardiff.
2. How far were you able to convince the people with your concept of “familiar experiences in unfamiliar contexts” that you’ve tried to inculcate in “Phone“? And how did you come up with such kind of similar initiatives?
Vladimir: So far I had little feedback on the phone.
I like playing with associations – bringing back to surface forgotten, hardly appreciated or even unnoticed bits of personal memo and translate them into objects. This is a common process among designers and artists. We all get influenced by things that are happening to us every day – we often are even unaware of their existence, but they get stored and from time to time they make an appearance in an unusual and surprising way.
3. What were the people’s reactions when they encountered “Stackable Drowning City“, a humorous take on serious issue?
Vladimir: I think they liked it because of its honesty.
4. Vladimir, please acquaint our readers with the concept behind “Clock“.
Vladimir: I think it could be a fun chat piece – we often rush ourselves more than we really have to.
5. Other than shifting the fastening position from that of the conventional one, is there any other feature exclusive to the product Tabouret?
Vladimir: The tabouret is a simple seating solution – a reminiscent of a journey.
6. What is your design approach? Are aesthetics a large part of product design?
Vladimir: I don’t think my work is with high aesthetic value. Designing beautiful stuff is mega difficult.
7. There’s been a lot of discussion recently about the distinction between art and craft. What category would you say your work falls into? How would you distinguish between art and craft?
Vladimir: My work so far falls into the “ideas” category as it stays in neither shops nor galleries.
8. Designing is all about creativity so we cannot say that the genre follows a particular trend, how far am I correct in holding such an assertion?
Vladimir: I think you are correct although there are clearly trends in design which people can adopt in creative and unique manners.
9. I think you are correct although there are clearly trends in design which people can adopt in creative and unique manners?
Vladimir: Embrace all.
10. Finally, we’d like to have your views on our thedesignblog.org?
Vladimir: I would like to thank you and keep up with the interesting posts.
Quick bits:
If not a designer, Vladimir Rachev would have been?
Vladimir: I would probably go down the art and / or psychology route.
If there is one usability tool you could not live without what would it be? Why?
Vladimir: My computer / it’s just hard to do my stuff without it / speeds up a lot the process.
Form follows function?
Vladimir: This is one of many options.
What’s the best thing about your job?
Vladimir: The feeling when I think I have come up with a good idea.
If you had to walk in another person’s shoes for a day, it would have to be?
Vladimir: I can’t think of anyone in specific. Perhaps someone with comfy shoes.
Thank you Vladimir for sparing out time in doing an interview with us, it is greatly appreciated.
I’d also like to wish you luck with all your future endeavors.