DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
: Aside of the prickly pear cactus, I wanted to create a special moment when drinking mezcal and tequila with friends with a ludic approach, and linking the prickly pear textures and colors along with the experience of drinking alcohol created a perfect match.
DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
: I wanted to connect people from a sensorial experience standpoint. When people drink they start by looking what kind of beverage the will choose and the role of the glass is to maximize the experience by adding an emotional value.
DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
: I want to add a value proposal to Cactus glass and increase the overall quality of its design.
DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
: The concept took one month and regards the production of the first pieces five months.
DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
: It started as an inspiration thanks because I visited el Charco del Ingenio, a botanical garden in San Miguel de Allende. Later on I found a national competition called Materializa by La Tora, Mexico where I won the 3rd place and the chance of producing it for Abierto Mexicano.
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?
: My intention is to sell Cactus glass by the name of Miguel Silva Design, however I am open to explore new business opportunities.
DI: What made you design this particular type of work?
: I want to make people's life happier.
DI: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?
: The hole influence I got when studying in Domus Academy helped me to mature my Designs ideas and it was definitely a big player to consolidate with excellence this project in particular.
DI: Who is the target customer for his design?
: People who enjoy drinking alcoholic beverages, especially Tequila and Mezcal.
DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
: The project besides its ludic appearance and sensorial characteristics was made by the use of modern technology 3d printing, taking care detail production aspects, pushing the local industry in Mexico.
DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
: The name means Cactus, because the texture of the glass resemble thorns.
DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
: I started with hand sketching, 3d software, rapid prototyping such as 3d printing and handcraft to produce de plaster molds.
DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
: The emotion it gives to people when used.
DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?
: I worked with La Torre, Mexico which is a creative lab specializes in ceramic solutions for designers.
DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?
: Technology helped to keep the idea as it was originally conceived and it was a great support to short production time frames.
DI: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?
: It was mainly about ceramic materials.
DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
: The integration of the big picture that surround Cactus glass.
DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?
: First of all, I wanted to add more value to my design, plus giving it more advertisement and increase the chance to contact businessmen and designers to increase my working network for some future collaboration on the road.
DI: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?
: I improved on learning new design ideas that I will use for future projects.
DI: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
: My intention with Cactus glass in the A'Design Award & Competition is to sell it and contacting new designers, investors and clientes.