Wednesday 30 September 2009

Textile Times




Have I told you about Hedvig? She’s an industrial designer, specialized in textiles. And, sadly, that’s far more controversial than you might think. We’re in the year of 2009 and live in country famous for its attempts to achieve equality between men and women. Still, textiles are considerad a “female” material in the “male” industrial design business.
Although this is about to change, according to Hedvig, who wants to give a softer and more human touch to common household devices like radiators and vacuum cleaners.
Her ”Knitted radiator” is made by textile heating cables usually intended for floor heating. And ”Collapsible hoover” is an all textile vacuum cleaner. The fact that the plastic shell is stripped away make it much less energy-intensive to produce than the typical vacuum cleaner. Not to mention that it’s more flexible and lightweight.
These times, there are a lot of reasons to cut the crap. In the design business and elsewhere. And that´s exactly what Hedvig did.