The Jack lighting family manufacturing process

As usual, a couple of remarks before starting - I said to Mr Covington that we have hesitated between Veuve Cliquot's Comete and Jacks; nevertheless it remains mainly something that I thought and you may disagree on that point. If you Nicholas want to talk a bit about that in your introduction we can discuss the topic before class.
I read Guillaume's part, and my part seems to be coherent with his work. I tried to emphasize the fact the materials and processes used are like coming from heavy industry and are used in manufacturing an expensive object.

I'll talk briefly (straight to the point) about the technical aspects of the Jacks and then make a synthesis. Because, what is important in my opinion is to give some accounts of this industrial making process which eventually ends in a 360euros product.
Concerning the medium, basically it is this stuff at the very beginning:


Mass-tinted synthetic polymers ==> a non expensive material that you can reuse just in re-heating it. And btw it is not sugar cane, which could be used in an environnmental-friendly approach. The idea is really to be inspired by the industry, by a flavour of mass materials and mass-production. + The shape comes from the Jack game !!!!!

Concerning the value, 2 things are to be noticed: the method of production (rotation moulding) and the selling network.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPLaUzMh3Rw

Used to produce Kayaks and bins ! A process in which finishing touches are not that much important. but certainly a mass-producted object jacks are part of the Eurolounge line (designed to be multifonctionnal and produced within the less complex processes possible) and were a keystone for Dixon in 1994. Produced in England via Eurolounge supply chains.

Interview for the Design Museum:

Q. Which of your projects from the late 1980s and early 1990s do you consider to have been most important to your development as a designer? And why?

A. The S-chair provided a step out of the self-production ghetto. The Jack Light proved a convincing attempt at mass-production .

Then, this industrial object is for sale in premium furnitures stores, as Capellini, Habitat or Inflate (main partners) or Jensen-Lewis ==> mainly on the web, and in very few showrooms. It costs from 280 (Black and White) to 360 euros (Fluoro), a value that is not related directly to the costs of production: incolor polythen= 27,5 euros/ton and rotation moulding is not expensive.

Now, as this overview might have given some clues to understand the manufacturing process of the Jack Lights, you may "smell" something. That is to say that this will to put on the market such a "rough" product denotes certainly an artistic approach behind it. On his website Dixon emphasizes this in mentionning plastic and rotation moulding in the description of the product.

It is designing contemporary furnishing; something that you realize by yourself (I don't want to incroach Guillaume's work though) which is not a masterpiece per se (the anthitesis of cautiously crafted object with noble materials) ==> Maybe this is why Jack Lights were part of the "Designing Modern Britain" in the Design museum in 2006.

Going further: links to the biographical elements gathered. A very intersting interview of Dixon in the Times (http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/interiors/article1636403.ece) gives us clues about his vision. He is a designer "by accident" ==> he came to design through materials: metal, rubber band etc... In 2007 he was on bamboo, seeking how to use its properties (chemical, biological)

His vision is not the one of an artist; as he said in the Normann interview, he tries to find function to materials - giving them a convenient shape. [His path: Chelsea school of art ==> Funkamania ==> Design] factories+ thermos / British spirit. It remains expensive but it is not design for design. it is using mass-production process to provide furniture.

Some keywords to summarize: industrial (or mass-product) - expensive - modernity - adaptability - versatility