Oscar Lhermitte is studying product design at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design. One of his main interests is the relation people have with objects, and the different reasons they prefer one object to another. In most of his projects, he tries to create a unique relation between the user and the product, by giving it a “hand-made” touch or by involving the user in the design process. Resolving issues with simple eco-friendly solutions is also one of his aims.
He thinks it is a designer’s responsibility to observe every single aspect of daily life, and to constantly question the existence of things.

His Close Encounter project is a series of objects that have been designed without any function but with the purpose of fulfilling an unpredicted need.
At first they might appear useless, but the fact that they are present in time and space give them the opportunity to be used for something. It is up to the user to perceive/think of a function or not. If used as a seat, then it is a seat; if used as a bowl, then it is a bowl.

In the designer’s own words:

Instead of deciding of a function and to create an object to achieve this function (Form follows Function), I wanted to create unknown products and see how we could use them (Function follows form).
The object is here, it has a material, a shape, a colour, a weight. What can it achieve?

During the design process, I realized it was impossible to create useless objects as the simple fact of sketching a shape and giving it a scale was already giving it a function. In order to fulfil my objectives, I had to step away from the design process; I had to dislocate myself from any rational thinking. The RX227 process is a card game combined with 3D software that allows me to create random useless objects. Its aim is not to create highly complex forms, but only forms I would not expect. All the objects emerging from this process are rapid prototyped so that any product designed by the game can be produced.

The initial aim of this project was to research the phenomenon of misuse (finding new functions in something that has not been designed for them) but it turned itself into an understanding of the relation Function/Form.

See more of Oscar’s work here