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DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?

: The principle was limitations. It was an exercise in how to make a complex object without losing the integrity of the original material.

DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?

: I wanted the original material to be recognizable in the end product. The product also had to fulfill its role as durable, comfortable and stylish eyewear.

DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?

: I would like this design to be a statement of awareness to limitations.

DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?

: This particular concept did not take more than a few months to design. Developing methods to mass produce a quality product took years.

DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?

: I decided to persue an inspiration. I could not find suitable material to realize my eyewear designs until I found my fathers record collection in the garage.

DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?

: We are currently producing our work ourselves along with 30 other designs.

DI: What made you design this particular type of work?

: The deisgn stemmed out of limitations. We wanted to work with vinyl records as they had become quite abundant. The final product melded market and production requirements.

DI: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?

: Classical acetate eyewear design influenced the look, feel and quality. Cari Zalloni was one of the majors for me.

DI: Who is the target customer for his design?

: The size targets men. The concept targets people who think outside the box. The quality targets people who recognize craftmanship. The price targets those who support a cause.

DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?

: This is a concept that respects the integrity of the original material. A new manufacturing process has been developed to produce it.

DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?

: Vinylize is the name of the concept. Recycling vinyl into eyewear. Vinyl + eyes = Vinyleyes. But at the same time it is also a play on the suffix IZE. -ize, is added to adjectives and nouns to form transitive verbs with the general senses “to render, make”. As in standardize, plasticize, neutralize, etc. The name Toney is the actual name of the model and comes from one of the records used to make it.

DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?

: Hand drawing, autocad, solid works, 3d printing.

DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?

: The most unique aspect is creating a luxury item from upcycled materials.

DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?

: We worked with record pressing plants to understand the nature of vinyl. We worked with adhesive specialists to develop superior adhesion. We worked with opticians to make it compatible with corrective lenses

DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?

: Technology has 3 roles in this design. Once in the production of the raw material, secondly in the design and thirdly in the machines that are used to make it. The raw material production uses a proprietary technology to fuse the vinyl to the acetate. The design uses the most advanced CAD programs to maximize comfort and durability. The designs are then milled out of the raw material using state of the art cncs.

DI: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?

: We began to suspect that our product appealed more towards an older male audience. We conducted market research on both b2b and b2c level to confirm this.

DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?

: We faced production problems. The first pieces had lamination issues and it took much research to correct it.

DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?

: Our company is a small one which makes exceptional products. This is a great way to gain exposure since our marketing budget is very small.

DI: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?

: We learned that desig esthetics, production efficiency and market expectations must be met in order for success to ensue.