DIY Hybrids

With Hybrids, Brazilian designer Rodrigo Almeida explores material culture, craftmanship and tradition.
Posted 15 Aug 11 By Design Indaba Craft Creative Work / Design News Comments

Brazilian designer Rodrigo Almeida explores the creative process and material culture of traditional Brazilian craftsmanship.

His Hybrids collection of work looks specifically at the mix and fusion of industrial and popular design, craftsmanship and contemporary culture.

Unravelling the formal construction of various objects, for the collection  Almeida considered objects that are flexible, composable, demountable but still functional. It also looked at projects that understand comtemporary culture but takes it cue from pre-industrial craftsmanship, while understanding the consumption value aesthetic.

Much of Almeida’s work also explores the mix between Brazilian and Japanese culture and includes the investigation of an object’s function. In his designs, Almeida explains that he creates a “hybrid between action and thinking, object and user”. He believes that it is important for the object to stand on its own, to communicate itself and it represent its culture.