Portrait/Interview: Oscar Diaz
Product Designer
Oscar Diaz is a London-based product designer known for his plain and playful objects.
Anna Stewart has followed his work for some time. Here, she asks a few questions
about his creative process.
Oscar, I first came across your work when you showed the Ink calendar as part of
a RCA graduate group show in 2007. I still love this project!
How has your working practice changed since then?
The short answer would be: a lot. At that time I didn’t have any objects in production with any companies and I had just recently graduated. I was still what we call a “moonlight” designer, working as freelancer for others during the day, and on my own projects at night.
I have since established my own practice and we have worked with some well-known companies like Muji or Hermès, designing mainly products and also installations.
You work a lot with useful, functional objects. Is this essential for you, i.e. would you ever design something that you would not perceive as useful?
I studied art before switching to design. I used to create “useless” things everyday.
In a way, one of the reasons why I switched to design is because I wanted to make simple things that people would use everyday and relate to. It is very important to me that it [the finished product] is not about me, that the object and what it does comes before the person who designed it. It also has to work, therefore it is not a piece of art to be admired,
although I try to insert some emotional qualities into each project.
Recently you took part in a series of talks at the V&A called The Creative Process
(with Curator & Co). Can you tell us a bit about your talk called ‘Design as a verb’?
I wanted to use the opportunity to reflect about my own process. I am usually jumping from one project to another project, and a big part of what I do is making in a semi-intuitive way.
I thought: what if I don’t show any of my projects and talk just about my idea of design?
I am currently very interested in maps and diagrams and I tried to explain my process
by using just these elements.
“Design as a verb” is a way of focusing on actions, on the process, and forget for a while about the result. Design is often used as a noun or adjective, but is the verb that indicates action on a sentence.
We know that designers, writers and photographers collaborate in different ways.
As a designer, how important is a collaborative approach to your work?
It is very important to collaborate with people from other disciplines; it often brings a new perspective on things. I constantly collaborate with craftsmen, engineers, graphic designers, writers, etc… I have found that if you want to create something strong, you need to have
a holistic approach.
