The Kinship Method is here.

Now the book, with texts and documentation where participating designers tell us more about the thoughts and process in the project, has arrived. The project was exhibited at Sven-Harry Art Museum in 2020. During the spring it will also be on display at the Rian Design Museum.

Book to read as an opinion piece or inspiration 

In The Kinship Method, five designers challenge themselves and each other by trying new methods. It is both a story and an example of how an internship-based project can create new knowledge and help change the designer role, while at the same time questioning the ideas of how design is created. The book can therefore be read as an opinion piece but also serve as inspiration for anyone interested in process, artistic work and design.

The project is a means of developing new ideas

The project is part of Beckmans' investment in artistic subject development and has been initiated and run by Margot Barolo, program manager at Product design. She has in turn invited four designers associated with Beckmans - Andreas Nobel, Erik Björk, Fredrik Paulsen and Mia Cullin to a kind of design relay. Each of the designers was given the task of designing a chair that would form the first generation and then be passed on to the next designer in the group. The task was to design a new chair in which 20-40% of the shape of the previous chair, designed by someone else, remained. The process was then repeated once more, with each generation of chairs culminating in everyone in the group meeting for a 'design therapy' session.

-The purpose of the project has not been to make the best chairs. Nor to challenge copyright, deal with possible design traumas or investigate collaborative methods – it has rather been a means of developing new ideas around alternative design roles and design production," says Margot Barolo.

Samira Bouabana, graphic designer and program manager for Visual Communication and John Bengtsson who graduated from the program in 2020, have designed the book. Karin Björkquist is a photographer.

Artistic research at Beckmans

In 2017, Beckman College of Design launched an artistic research initiative. Since then, three different research projects have been carried out which are linked to our educational areas product design, fashion and visual communication. The projects have been presented in different formats during 2020, while new research projects have been initiated.