DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
RNOP : My design ideas revolve around one simple question: How to improve the quality of life?
DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
RNOP : I wanted to increase the practicality of a daily item. Coffee is one of those daily items and it holds a special place in everyday life. We might find ourselves looking for coffee when we need to wake up, to push through a challenging task, or to unwind after a long day. Regardless of how and why we drink coffee, we always need a cup to drink it and the design of that cup has a significant effect on our coffee drinking experience. At the end of this flow of thought, I chose the coffee cup design as the main focus of this project.
DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
RNOP : I would like to bring it to the attention of porcelain & ceramic coffee cup producers. As I truly believe it has potential to improve the quality of coffee drinking experience for many people who enjoy their coffee with coffee treats like me, I would like to pursue the route where this design could be mass produced and reach the consumer market.
DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
RNOP : This design took approximately two months.
DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
RNOP : This design was realized by pursuing inspiration.
DI: What made you design this particular type of work?
RNOP : There are two main reasons why I worked on this particular subject: (1) I am interested in glass and porcelain cups and often times find myself examining what makes them elegant and functional at the same time, and (2) based on my personal experience, I needed such product myself and since there was not a commercially available one, I had to create my own cup.
DI: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?
RNOP : I like the “Dunk Mug” design of Dominic Skinner, which has a dedicated slot in the cup for a cookie. In addition, I quite like the work of Alexander Seton and José Manuel Castro López in which they give hard lifeless stones an organic living appearance. Their work made me think what if a coffee cup was soft, pliable material, then the treats we put beside the cup would sink in the saucer & create their own grooves. That would bring another functionality to the saucer since we need the treats to stay where they are instead of loosely moving around and sticking to the hot coffee cup.
DI: Who is the target customer for his design?
RNOP : Anyone who enjoys their coffee with coffee treats.
DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
RNOP : The four different geometric groves on the surface of the coffee saucer are dedicated to coffee treats in different shapes and sizes and provide stable containment of these treats.
DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
RNOP : The crystallization of this project is designing a cup that offers better enjoyment of coffee with coffee treats. So “WithTreat” would be a good name for this product. However, phonetically “WithTreat”, does not come out smoothly. It has four consonants in sequence and having two /t/s, which is a stop consonant, very close to each other makes it hard to pronounce. I decided that it did not represent such a dainty cup with circular features and soft edges. At the end, I chose “WithDelight” as the name since it has an easier pronunciation, brings to mind Turkish Delight and I liked the fact that it means “with pleasure” which refers to the purpose of this product: the consumption of coffee with pleasure.
DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
RNOP : I used Cinema 4D and Rhinoceros to design this product.
DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?
RNOP : Current technology, which offers user-friendly 3D design software and open-source learning platforms, has eased the path to the realization of this design.
DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?
RNOP : After focusing on a particular project and spending time and effort on it, a designer hardly can be objective about his/her design. To learn the level of this design among other design concepts in the same field, I wanted to submit it to a design competition which would judge its value in an unbiased manner.
DI: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?
RNOP : I learned a great deal about how to present a product and how to make it visually appealing to the consumer market. As in every field, there are do’s and don’ts in product design, and since these concepts were not covered in my formal education, I had to be quick on my feet and cover them myself. That being said, my science background helped me to address each and every issue systematically and work on this design, not with hardship but WithDelight.
