We spoke to Mumtaz Karim from BA (Hons) Product Design in the build-up to Degree Show 2023.
“My work is fuelled, by the desire to make a positive impact on society. I am committed to creating inclusive and user-centric solutions that address unique challenges, faced by communities. By combining my love for research, co-design, and prototyping, I strive to enhance people’s lives through a multi-dimensional approach and minimise the ongoing cycle of consumption.”
Find our more about Mumtaz’work here – https://degreeshow.mmu.ac.uk/2023/profiles/thomas-steeles/
Find out about our Undergraduate Course here – https://www.art.mmu.ac.uk/courses/
Hi my name is Montez Kareem and I am a ba honors product design student at Manchester School of Art my practice tends to be very research based or research orientated and the project that I have chose to exhibit at the degree show is this communication device which it’s almost
A stepping stone from cordless phones to smartphones for older individuals I’ve tried to look at it from more of a two-dimensional lens rather than a one-dimensional lens of looking at someone who is older and may not be familiar with technology so the the project kind of diverged from looking at how my grandmother
Communicates with her family abroad and I wanted to create this video calling device that accommodates not just English speaking individuals but also non-english speakers like my grandmother who comes from a diaspora community and I also wanted to create something or designs a product that resonates with her or resonates with the kind of
Cultural cues that she grew up with so within the color material finish of my product you’ll see detailing such as nakshi Katha which is a particular pattern created in Bangladesh or embroidered by Bangladeshi women such as my grandma my practice tends to be quite research heavy and that doesn’t mean
That it is just sitting on a PC or reading a book and looking all looking through articles it is it is also talking to people and understanding how they feel about a situation creating forms and prototypes whether that is making a foam model or 3D printing something or even looking through an
Article everything is combined to create that research you can create a precise or a specific fitting with specific measurements on on your computer through CAD softwares like fusion and then transfer it onto these printers and then as soon as you print them out you can see if these mechanisms
Actually work whereas in the workshop you’d be creating kind of form models within my final year dissertation a lot of the things that I looked at were behavioral design and how to persuade or motivate individuals to use products So within the design of this it kind of diverged from looking at a cordless
Phone looking at familiar existing technology the users or older individuals are accustomed to and then connecting that to more newer Innovations like smartphone devices I think with this course in particular it’s led me to realize that design is much more different than what I initially thought it’s not just about
Creating a pretty picture the way that I design now that there’s almost a meaning to this madness there’s so much work that we do behind the scenes but then we can really help someone with what we do whether that is creating some sort of system that could
Aid a charity or creating a medical device but that that doesn’t mean that you have to specify in that area you have the freedom to do what you want what you also have the opportunity to look beyond the initial Realms of what you thought design was foreign