TED BRADLEY STUDIO
January, 2023
· Design Competition
· Sustainability
· Multidisciplinary Team Project
Ted Bradley is a lighting designer located in Boulder, Colorado. His sculptures are made of porcelain rings that take over 300 steps and several weeks to be produced. The brief asked for solutions to expand the range of these porcelain rings, capturing the significant issues around craftsmanship, material, slow production and sustainability.
Our team's response to the Design Sprint challenged the brief, consisting of some ideas rather than one final design.
Sustainability guided our first response: collaborating with an artist that performs the ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi on broken ceramics, repairing it by using gold.
Apart from the possibility of turning wastage into revenue, it could raise the brand's awareness online since the artist already has around 12k followers on Instagram @kintsugifrance.
The team worked on creating variations in shape for the sculptures, but still following the refined process created by Ted.
We also experimented with colouring the porcelain glaze, as well as the LED lights within programmable mood lighting.
Finally, we explored the possibilities in better communicating the process' value to the public.
We called it the ring DNA.
This idea consisted of creating a new Instagram page solely for sharing the process where each client could find their respective sculpture and its making.
Also, we thought of branding each ring with his fingerprint, insignias or any stamps to define them as an authentic and genuine Ted Bradley.
Personal notes on the process:
Focusing on better expressing the value of the product through thoughtfully communication, sharing its detailed and 100% handmade process, was my biggest contribution to the brief.
Apart from that, my role in this multidisciplinary project was to gather all the material produced by the group and organise in one final presentation. I also built the Instagram page mockups, edited the Ring DNA "branding" images, as well as the coloured rings.
Our team won first place in response to this brief, and second place overall in the competition with other briefs.