london 100% design 2001: designersblock. the biggest report ever seen on the web .......................................................................................................

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RAINER SPEHL 'qoffee stools', stackable, rotation moulded high density polyethylene stools retail from £ 29.00 at several outlets including scp, mint and the london design museum. comments of the designer: 'the initial idea of the qoffee stools was developed as a competition entry for a stool design to go into the tate britain. when I visited the gallery numerous times my perception and interest concentrated on how and to whom art was presented and art&Mac226;s context within contemporary consumption. the experience of having a coffee in the gallery cafeteria or rummaging through the gallery shop seemed equally important to spending time in the exhibition. art had been made available to a wide audience. I tried to transform and incorporate these observations into my design. - a product which connects art and design, and which is mass produced and available to a large amount of people. - an iconic, familiar object with a strong connection to consumption and mass production. the process of manufacture was a key element. the lack of financial resources pushed my thinking towards finding an economic way to make the project work, and initiated the success of the project. I found out that rotational moulding was the most simple plastic moulding process, using moulds which cost a tenth of those being used for injection moulding. so far, the process had been used for basic applications, such as water tanks, waste bins and other applications where the visual quality of the product was not of such great importance. applying the technology to a product as detailed and complex as the qoffee stools was an unusual and challenging enquiry for the manufacturer. therefore, the toolmaker and manufacturer had to be pushed in their way of working as they had not been involved in applications such as the qoffee stools. I had to make them aware of the importance of the detailing such as surface finish, edge details and the evenness of radius.'

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