Tools for Everyday Life

The goal of the Tools for Everyday Life project is to treat people, not as passive ‘victims’ of design but as skilled operators of rewarding products, hence calling the things we design ‘tools’. The project is run from Northumbria University’s School of Design and draws it’s designers from the community of practice that surrounds BA(hons) 3D Design and the post graduate Designers in Residence scheme. The Tools for Everyday Life project and the briefs it sets to the designers result in both commercially viable artefacts and opportunities for designers to articulate their positions on the creation of things in general and the relationship between craft knowledge and product design more specifically. Launching the artefacts at Trade fairs alongside established design brands, and presenting them for sale, places the products firmly in a commercial context.