ISSUE 1 • FALL 2023
Saltik’s “Frosting Collection” Wins Isola Design Award
For Bilge Nur Saltik, the research aspect of her academic profession as an assistant professor in CoAD’s Product Design program is rewarding in more ways than one. Specifically—and most recently—it earned her an Isola Design Award in 2022, which led to her winning project being exhibited in this year’s Milan Design Week.
In addition to her role as an educator and as director of CoAD’s Product Design program, Saltik is the founder and director of Form&Seek Design Studio. Her winning entry in the Isola Awards competition, in the Tableware category, consisted of products developed as part of Form&Seek’s Frosting Collection.
Nur Saltik, Fom&Seek, Frosting Collection.
Frosting Collection is a series of 3D printed objects exploring new methodologies for the design process. In each step of the design process, the final outcome is reliant on craftsmanship. The designer might be a good sketcher however if they cannot use the 3D software well the final outcome may change completely. Frosting collection changes this approach by reducing the steps of the design process and manufacturing. Items in the collection are sketched through VR software to turn designers' sketches into 3D models and manufactured through additive technology. The final 3D printed pieces reflect designers' initial sketches and hand movements directly without adaptations of manufacturing methodologies. The Frosting Collection gives us a reflection of the designer's sketchbook. Playful lines are extruded and looped to create functional objects. (From the Isola Design Award announcement)
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Frosting Collection is series of 3D printed objects exploring the design process. Items sketch through VR software manufactured through additive technology. The project is part of ongoing research that reexamines and structures design methodology.
Isola defines itself as “the world’s first digital and physical platform bringing visibility to independent designers and design studios, by connecting them to design professionals, companies, curators, journalists, and potential clients. Its dedicated curatorial team selects projects with a focus on sustainability, innovation, and handcraft.”
“My view is that designers are the contemporary craftspersons.”
Bilge Nur Saltik
Director
CoAD Product Design
In its announcement of the award, Isola said: “Form&Seek’s 3D-printed Frosting Collection brilliantly emerges from a powerful narrative and is fueled by an interest in human behavior and interaction with objects. The products are sketched through a VR (virtual reality) software that turns designers’ sketches into 3D models that are further manufactured through additive technology. The final 3D-printed pieces reflect the initial sketches and hand movements directly without adaptations of manufacturing methodologies. It gives one a reflection of the designer’s sketchbook, where playful lines are extruded and looped to create functional objects.”
Frosting Collection used as a flower vase.
Saltik’s Frost Collection is, in one respect, a product of her ongoing research into the contemporary transformation of the craftsperson’s process as it is influenced by modern technology and methodology.
“My general research is about craft and technology and about how contemporary craft is evolving and adjusting, which includes the designer’s actual methodology of making,” said Saltik. “My view is that designers are the contemporary craftspersons. The methodology behind this project [the Frosting Collection] is interesting because it gives you a free surface in a 3D world that we normally don’t have access to, so that you can, for example, carve or extrude things in their actual sizes. Ideas can be realized in such a way that they are manufactured. It also allows rapid iteration through the design process.”
Form&Seek’s website describes the process as follows:
We create and curate uniquely crafted products and experiences. Each product we touch emerges from a powerful narrative and is fueled by an interest in human behavior and human interaction with objects. Form&Seek design studio focuses on newly developed processes and contemporary, globally local craft techniques. Emphasizing craftsmanship, materials, and process, our studio designs unique, functional, and playful objects.
The Isola Design Award is among numerous honors Saltik’s work has earned since she launched her career in 2013. Her designs have been shown at dozens of museums and exhibitions worldwide and have been referenced in numerous publications.
In addition, Saltik has two additional solo exhibitions this year. Form&Seek is featured in Wasserman Works, to celebrate their 10 year anniversary and will exhibit as part of Detroit Month of Design at the Simone DeSousa Gallery in Detroit in September.
By Paul Hall