Debate

SYD SuperyachtDesign
The Superyacht Group

Design Debate - Q14

During the SuperyachtDesign Summit in September last year, guest panellist and designer Stefano Pastrovich suggested that domotic or automated systems, such as those governing illumination and audio-visual appliances, have become overly complex and that this has the potential to spoil the owner’s enjoyment. Is cramming the latest technology on board yachts always the best option, or do we need to take a step back to simpler and possibly more reliable systems?

Are high-tech, automated systems always better than low-tech manual methods?

Are tablet devices such as iPads the best control units for use aboard yachts?

Does the latest technology ultimately enhance or detract from the onboard experience for owners and guests?

8 comments
Category: Yachtbuilding & Design

SYD SuperyachtDesign
The Superyacht Group

Q13 - Tender Design

Custom limo tenders: vanity or valid expense?

0 comments
Category: Yachtbuilding & Design

SYD SuperyachtDesign
The Superyacht Group

Design Debate - Q13

Tender design has advanced beyond all recognition in recent years. There are umpteen concepts out there, many of them owing their looks to automobile styling, a heritage implicit in the description ‘limousine tender’. Exterior and even interior designers are often asked to contribute to such projects, which makes a custom limo tender from a leading builder a hugely expensive proposition. Is this just vanity on the part of owners, or is there something more profound at stake?

1. What are the specialist criteria that have to be considered when designing a superyacht tender?

2. How can top end production tenders compete with custom tenders, aside from the obvious cost benefit?

3. Does the creative link with the automotive industry help or hinder tender design?

4. Although tenders provide workable platforms for emission-free technologies such as electric or even fuel-cell propulsion, there have been very few developments in this direction. Why?

3 comments
Category: Yachtbuilding & Design

Hayley Smith
Coventry University

Ecological Design within Superyachts?

considering the recent movement towards ecological design, it could be considered that the defintiion of luxury is changeing. How should yacht designers integrate this new design thinking within the design process and how has design practice adapted to better accomodate this?

0 comments
Category: Yachtbuilding & Design

SYD SuperyachtDesign
The Superyacht Group

Q12 - Going Solo

The basic requirements of a successful designer are the desire to know and to review, but what else is needed?

0 comments
Category: Yachtbuilding & Design

SYD SuperyachtDesign
The Superyacht Group

Design Debate - Q12

Most successful young yacht designers who choose to branch out on their own have served an apprenticeship period with the top design studios. Even Andrew Winch, Terry Disdale and Tim Heywood launched their careers with Jon Bannenberg. In turn, designers such as Michael Leach, Peder Eidsgaard, James Claydon and Mike Reeves, Pascale Reymond and Andrew Langton, started out under the auspices of Terry Disdale, Andrew Winch, Donald Starkey or Redman Whiteley Dixon.
1. What are the main lessons to be learnt from working for an established design studio?
2. Is such experience an essential prerequisite to success as an independent designer?
3. How can young talent be encouraged to remain with a company?
4. What other options are open to designers looking to enter the field of yacht design?

5 comments
Category: Yachtbuilding & Design

SYD SuperyachtDesign
The Superyacht Group

Design Debate - Q11

Carrying on from the Editor’s Letter in Q10 and comments we’ve received from readers, in this issue we look at the business and management side of design and its relevance to the yachting industry. Are corporate executives the best choice to manage the creative process? Can top-level managers also be designers, or do you need an MBA to qualify? If the solution to a design problem is framed by business first, where does that leave the role of the designer?

1. Should designers be allowed complete freedom of expression, or is management always necessary?

2. Are non-designers well placed to manage creative people?

3. How can design thinking benefit business thinking?

4. In what ways does design management differ from design leadership?

2 comments
Category: Yachtbuilding & Design

SYD SuperyachtDesign
The Superyacht Group

Q11 - Management

Who should manage a design team? Should it always be someone with a design background?

0 comments
Category: Yachtbuilding & Design

SYD SuperyachtDesign
The Superyacht Group

Q10 - Replicas

Are legitimate copies of iconic product designs justified?

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Category: Yachtbuilding & Design

SYD SuperyachtDesign
The Superyacht Group

Design Debate - Q10

In her Editor’s Blog last October, Editor-in-Chief of Elle Decoration, Michelle Ogundehin, described Samantha Cameron, the wife of British Prime Minister David Cameron, as “cheap, hypocritical and fake” for buying a legitimate replica of the iconic Arco lamp, designed in 1962 by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. Strong words indeed, but an indication of the powerful emotions surrounding the reproduction of classic designs.

1. Is criticising legitimate reproductions of product designs justified on ethical grounds, or the misplaced opinion of an elitist minority?

2. As a designer, would you be delighted or distressed to see your work legally ‘copied’ 25 years from now?

3. Is there a difference between replicas of mass-produced products, such as a floor lamp, and reproductions of bespoke designs, such as a
custom yacht?

4. Can designers ever hope to fully protect their work, or should they instead focus on developing new and innovative ideas to remain competitive?

2 comments
Category: Yachtbuilding & Design