Sometimes, the simplest things tend to be the most practical and versatile. NUA, an ensemble made of a compact basin, a faucet and a mirror, aims to delve into minimalism by adapting one design to different bathroom styles and locations. It is a project by Anna Rudnicka, Anna Wozniakowska and Paweł Lasota, inspired by the test they faced at the Roca One Day Design Challenge, where they won the third prize of the 2018 Polish edition with Liky.

One of the most daunting challenges an industrial designer needs to face is to turn an idea expressed on paper (or rather on the computer) into a produced object. The designer can imagine the product, its possible uses, its appearance, which materials to use, and previously analyze all constructive details, but the real challenge is to get it right in the production stage: finding industrial solutions that allow the manufacturing of the object, checking the performance of materials in different situations, finding the right pieces…

We have already mentioned several creativity techniques in this journal that have been conceived to help you solve a problem or to overcome a creative block. 

The one we present today is fairly special because it is carried out… while sleeping. But, regardless of how easy and appealing this technique may appear, you need to prepare yourself for it to work.

Today no one doubts that the future of product design lies in digital manufacturing, a set of integrated processes that allows you to move from a digital design using CAD software to a solid tridimensional object, obtained from a 3D printer. But digital manufacturing includes not only 3D printing (objects are built up out of layers of metal or plastic) but also CNC Machining (where, typically, shapes are cut out of wooden sheets) and Laser Cutting (where materials like metal are burnt or melted by a laser beam). Any kind of object can be manufactured today: a pencil, a furniture unit, a shoe, a drone and, unfortunately, even a weapon.

Three new winners of the One Day Design Challenge have written articles on rocagallery.com, the digital platform with exclusive content about architecture and design, playing a prominent role at the side of internationally renowned columnists and writers, such as Pedro Gadanho, Ben van Berkel and Carlo Ratti. 

Following the path of actively working to build a better future, Roca One Day Design Challenge has taken on the Sustainable Development Goals driven by United Nations in all its activities and communications. These seventeen goals, included in the Agenda 2030 about Sustainable Development, aim to achieve a fairer and more sustainable planet and include aspects such as raising awareness of the importance of the universal access to drinking water and sanitation, the elimination of poverty, the disappearance of hunger all around the world or universal health and well-being. 

Are you starting a new project and you find yourself sitting in front of a blank page for hours? The client is requesting the design and you have not even started it yet? Do you have plenty of ideas but do not know how to narrow them down? If you are familiar with any of these situations, we now present a possible solution or even a way of starting a project and moving forward in your creative process. This moodboard will allow you to select, organize and have a clearer picture of your goal when designing. 

We will celebrate a very special edition of the competition next year, a grand final in which all first prize winners of the 2019 editions held in seventeen cities will be able to participate. The grand final will take place in Barcelona, at the Roca Barcelona Gallery, at the beginning of 2020. 

Aleksander Łukaszewicz, third year student of Interior Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and winner of the second prize along with two colleagues in Poland 2018, combines his classes with collaborations in architecture studios designing public spaces and visual identity projects. He also works as a freelance graphic designer. Thanks to this emerging experience, the designer has started to develop his own graphic design, product and interior projects, hoping to enter the professional world as soon as he ends his studies.

Last year was a year of growth for Roca One Day Design Challenge: it increased the number of cities that hold the competition, the number of participants and the collaborating institutions also grew… A success we hope to repeat in 2019, with the addition of new editions and a final surprise.