{"id":21302,"date":"2014-08-15T14:38:17","date_gmt":"2014-08-15T18:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/designlife\/?p=1820"},"modified":"2014-08-15T14:38:17","modified_gmt":"2014-08-15T18:38:17","slug":"design-on-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/2014\/08\/15\/design-on-demand\/","title":{"rendered":"Design on Demand"},"content":{"rendered":"

“To be a designer you have to be an entrepreneur, period.\u201d says Aly Khalifa [’90 BEDN, ’93 BS in Product Engineering] You have to be someone who\u2019s thinking creatively and energetically about the market as well as how social networks play into the use of your product. That\u2019s a big change from the way I was taught design originally.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

To be a designer you have to be an entrepreneur, period.\u201d says Aly Khalifa [’90 BEDN, ’93 BS in Product Engineering] You have to be someone who\u2019s thinking creatively and energetically about the market as well as how social networks play into the use of your product. That\u2019s a big change from the way I was taught design originally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khalifa points out how his time at the College of Design still broadly influences his work as a product designer, especially in the interdisciplinary context of his student days when he was also studying mechanical engineering concurrently, which Khalifa has dubbed his \u201cbipolar education.\u201d \u201cWith mechanical engineering, you have a focused amount of attention on something very specific and it was all about content. In constrast, design school was a\u00a0 24\/7 type of experience, not as linearly focused and always project-based,\u201d he says. \u201cI recall my lessons better from design school than I did from engineering school, but engineering gave me the skills and tools to be a better designer. On one side I was getting my technical chops and on the other, I was getting my mind opened up. I just loved my experience there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khalifa, a member of the College\u2019s Leader\u2019s Council, founded Designbox, a \u201ccreative hub\u201d for multidisciplinary designers who work within the space in downtown Raleigh. His firm is Gamil Design, which he manages with his wife and designer, Beth Khalifa. \u201cI don\u2019t think to be a \u2018product\u2019 designer makes sense, or to be a \u2018graphic\u2019 designer makes sense. I think you have to be a designer first, then you add on your own unique abilities to it all,\u201d says Khalifa, who is a strong advocate for multidisciplinary study and practice.<\/p>\n

He emphasizes that a product designer\u2019s role is generally to create things that can be mass manufactured. \u201cProduct designers are intimately involved in the manufacturing of what they design. Often the biggest challenge is understanding how things are made with regard to the user as well as your own passion for the work. If you are making stuff in a factory that you don\u2019t feel good about, what\u2019s the point?\u201d he explains. The inherent issue of product lifecycle and use is another significant factor. \u201cA lot of times we only think about the single use of a product. We don\u2019t think about its pre-use or where the product is going to end up.\u201d he says. \u201cIs it going to the landfill or is there a way to design for recyclability or even disassembly? Can you use open-source principles so people can repurpose certain components?\u201d he asks. \u201cThat\u2019s another big challenge as a designer that I still aspire to. It means the designer has to think beyond a component.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khalifa is currently embarking upon an exciting new product line called LYF Shoes. \u201cWe\u2019re rethinking the design model of making customized footwear on demand. We can do it in 15 minutes, right in front of your very eyes, via a method called the \u2018Digital Cobbler,\u2019 \u201d he says. \u201cThe on-demand factor is cool enough but the real wow factor is their \u00fcber hipness. Compare them to Chuck Taylors made just for you and only you and in your unique color scheme. The shoes can be digitally printed from whatever image you want to provide and come in a endless variety of patterns and colors.<\/p>\n

The LYF concept is not simply a design challenge. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at all these metasystems \u2013 where the materials come from and how we rethink the manufacturing to delivery model. When you stop and think about how many feet there are to clad in the world and the extreme individual appeal of LYF shoes, the possibilities are endless. Not content to stop after the design and purchase phases, Khalifa and his team have also put careful thought into the afterlife of the shoes. \u201cWe\u2019ve designed a full life cycle for the shoes \u2013 when the user is done with them, we purchase them back at a discount to recycle so they can be completely landfill free. Additionally, this method of specific customer-focused manufacturing allows the user the ability to customize new ones based on their last pair.\u201d Khalifa explains, \u201cIt is a closed loop story for the materials as well as the customer that will hopefully become part of a community where the shoes could be manufactured in downtowns everywhere and distributed locally. LYF Shoes are designed to fuse people, planet and profit into a new and disruptive model to bring customized, nontoxic footwear manufacturing back to our downtowns.\u201d<\/p>\n

While not available on the market just yet, LYF shoes have already generated interest via a Kickstarter campaign. \u201cCrowdfunding is an amazing experience.\u201c Khalifa marvels. \u201cWe thought we knew our supply chain until we started this campaign, then a lot of people started contacting us about how they could help with it. Now we\u2019re going to re-engineer and improve some things as a result. Where we thought we\u2019d be in ten years we can now do by next year. We feel like we\u2019re in touch with a global community about this project. For us, this is a real game changer. It\u2019s all about looking at systems engineering and stepping outside what design would normally be. That\u2019s top on our list.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\"To be a designer you have to be an entrepreneur, period.\u201d says Aly Khalifa ['90 BEDN, '93 BS in Product Engineering] You have to be someone who\u2019s thinking creatively and energetically about the market as well as how social networks play into the use of your product. That\u2019s a big change from the way I was taught design originally.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>\n\nTo be a designer you have to be an entrepreneur, period.\u201d says Aly Khalifa ['90 BEDN, '93 BS in Product Engineering] You have to be someone who\u2019s thinking creatively and energetically about the market as well as how social networks play into the use of your product. That\u2019s a big change from the way I was taught design originally.\u201d\n\nKhalifa points out how his time at the College of Design still broadly influences his work as a product designer, especially in the interdisciplinary context of his student days when he was also studying mechanical engineering concurrently, which Khalifa has dubbed his \u201cbipolar education.\u201d \u201cWith mechanical engineering, you have a focused amount of attention on something very specific and it was all about content. In constrast, design school was a\u00a0 24\/7 type of experience, not as linearly focused and always project-based,\u201d he says. \u201cI recall my lessons better from design school than I did from engineering school, but engineering gave me the skills and tools to be a better designer. On one side I was getting my technical chops and on the other, I was getting my mind opened up. I just loved my experience there.\u201d\n\nKhalifa, a member of the College\u2019s Leader\u2019s Council, founded Designbox, a \u201ccreative hub\u201d for multidisciplinary designers who work within the space in downtown Raleigh. His firm is Gamil Design, which he manages with his wife and designer, Beth Khalifa. \u201cI don\u2019t think to be a \u2018product\u2019 designer makes sense, or to be a \u2018graphic\u2019 designer makes sense. I think you have to be a designer first, then you add on your own unique abilities to it all,\u201d says Khalifa, who is a strong advocate for multidisciplinary study and practice.\n\nHe emphasizes that a product designer\u2019s role is generally to create things that can be mass manufactured. \u201cProduct designers are intimately involved in the manufacturing of what they design. Often the biggest challenge is understanding how things are made with regard to the user as well as your own passion for the work. If you are making stuff in a factory that you don\u2019t feel good about, what\u2019s the point?\u201d he explains. The inherent issue of product lifecycle and use is another significant factor. \u201cA lot of times we only think about the single use of a product. We don\u2019t think about its pre-use or where the product is going to end up.\u201d he says. \u201cIs it going to the landfill or is there a way to design for recyclability or even disassembly? Can you use open-source principles so people can repurpose certain components?\u201d he asks. \u201cThat\u2019s another big challenge as a designer that I still aspire to. It means the designer has to think beyond a component.\u201d\n\nKhalifa is currently embarking upon an exciting new product line called LYF Shoes. \u201cWe\u2019re rethinking the design model of making customized footwear on demand. We can do it in 15 minutes, right in front of your very eyes, via a method called the \u2018Digital Cobbler,\u2019 \u201d he says. \u201cThe on-demand factor is cool enough but the real wow factor is their \u00fcber hipness. Compare them to Chuck Taylors made just for you and only you and in your unique color scheme. The shoes can be digitally printed from whatever image you want to provide and come in a endless variety of patterns and colors.\n\nThe LYF concept is not simply a design challenge. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at all these metasystems \u2013 where the materials come from and how we rethink the manufacturing to delivery model. When you stop and think about how many feet there are to clad in the world and the extreme individual appeal of LYF shoes, the possibilities are endless. Not content to stop after the design and purchase phases, Khalifa and his team have also put careful thought into the afterlife of the shoes. \u201cWe\u2019ve designed a full life cycle for the shoes \u2013 when the user is done with them, we purchase them back at a discount to recycle so they can be completely landfill free. Additionally, this method of specific customer-focused manufacturing allows the user the ability to customize new ones based on their last pair.\u201d Khalifa explains, \u201cIt is a closed loop story for the materials as well as the customer that will hopefully become part of a community where the shoes could be manufactured in downtowns everywhere and distributed locally. LYF Shoes are designed to fuse people, planet and profit into a new and disruptive model to bring customized, nontoxic footwear manufacturing back to our downtowns.\u201d\n\nWhile not available on the market just yet, LYF shoes have already generated interest via a Kickstarter campaign. \u201cCrowdfunding is an amazing experience.\u201c Khalifa marvels. \u201cWe thought we knew our supply chain until we started this campaign, then a lot of people started contacting us about how they could help with it. Now we\u2019re going to re-engineer and improve some things as a result. Where we thought we\u2019d be in ten years we can now do by next year. We feel like we\u2019re in touch with a global community about this project. For us, this is a real game changer. It\u2019s all about looking at systems engineering and stepping outside what design would normally be. That\u2019s top on our list.\u201d"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aly Khalifa points out how his time at the College of Design still broadly influences his work as a product designer, due mostly to his the interdisciplinary path as a student.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-21302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-experience","category-uncategorized","tag-industrial-design"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}