#heyddw: Hej UAU Project

Hey guys! Thank you for sparing the time for an interview! Could you tell us a bit more about UAUPROJECT: Who you are, where you are from and how your design studio came to be?

We are Justyna & Milosz from UAU Project, a design studio based in Warsaw, Poland. We both graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and our focus is on designing objects that are 3D printed using FDM technology. We always wanted to be independent designers, and 3D printing gives us the freedom to design and produce objects the way we want to.

We picked up on your #heyddw post and really like the detailed textures you have created with 3D printing; it looks so tactile! Would you tell us a little about the printing process and what kind of materials you use? Is it really fully recyclable?

We devote great attention to detail in our work. Textured surfaces are one of our signature decorations. It was our idea to give 3D printed products a more unique & elegant appearance. We use desktop 3D printers in our studio, and this works perfectly well for us, we manufacture products to order so as not to overstock. We are able to develop products rapidly and employ different ranges of colours. We want our designs to be beautiful and useful but eco-friendly too. We take great care choosing the materials we print with to increase the sustainability of our manufacturing.

Our products are designed to be printed without any supports and this avoids us wasting more material than we need and, on occasions, when our prints fail we collect them to recycle new filament from them. Our go-to printing material is PLA plastic, a plant based, fully recyclable material that can also be composted in an industrial facility. We recently started printing with recycled PET. There are no adhesives or other additives in our objects. We do not mix different materials, so that all our products are always fully recyclable.

What typifies your design studio?

We try to design beautiful objects of the best possible quality with best materials. Made from plant based plastic or recycled plastics based on the circular economy. We want our products to be as affordable as possible, so apart from selling objects printed by us, we also seek partners all around the world to produce our products locally. Some of our designs are also available to be downloaded online and printed by customers themselves.

 We were wondering.. how did the name of your studio come about?

Actually there is nothing hidden in ”uau”,  just 3 letters that are a palindrome, when we came up with the name for our studio name we wanted it to be simple and with no actual meaning in any language. Phonetically you can read it as WOW, but there is no deeper meaning to that. ;)

Where does your inspiration come from?

We are mostly inspired by other designers and artists. We like works with strong characteristics like those by the Memphis Group or Alchimia. More recently we have been looking at work by Gio Ponti and Gae Aulenti. One of our latest discoveries are the paintings by Hilma af Klint, they are truly amazing.

What are you currently working on?

We are now working on a project called Blurred Objects, it is based on material, texture and light research and how these three connect. This will be launched at Dutch Design Week 2019 (DDW19).

As we already have a wide range of products, we are now thinking of producing larger volume objects with the same technology. We are constantly experimenting with new materials, machines and shapes, so we never get bored in our studio!

What project or work are you most proud of?

We are proud of all of our projects, but if we had to choose one it would be our Sensual Objects. This is a collection of large vases and sculptures with crazy shapes and different textures. Something that is a pleasure to touch in this world obsessed with flat surfaces like smartphone screens.

What is the most remarkable thing you have ever designed/made?

We are always trying to push the boundaries of the technologies we employ. Every time one of our ideas works, it really surprises us, especially when it turns out right – our expectations are not too high, so an experiment can give you a really tremendous creative boost. This is exactly what happened when we created the first textured surface using algorithms that really changed the object’s appearance when 3D printed.

Is there something specific you would like to achieve?

We want to experiment with 3D printing and different materials, the next stage would be to make something really big. Another aspect is that it is really important for us to make products that are as sustainable as possible, so we are aiming to reduce our carbon footprint through making the manufacturing more efficient and powered by renewable energy. We are also working on our own recycling facilities in our studio, to get our production even closer to zero waste.

If you could pick anyone in the world (a designer, politician, artist, scientist or anyone else) to collaborate with, who would that be and why?

It would be great to work with scientists who develop new materials, or perhaps a biologist. Collaborating with anyone from outside your field of interest is always very exciting, exchanging ideas and knowledge helps both sides.

You will be presenting at DDW19, so we will all be able to see your work in real life. What do you expect from your first time at DDW?

We want to show our work to a wider European audience, we know that DDW is one of the most important design events in the world, so we are really happy we will be presenting our work here. It is also a great opportunity for meeting like-minded people and discussing and exchanging our visions of the future of design.

Is there any news you would like to share with the DDW community reading this?

We are working really hard to show you the possibilities of 3D printing; it is not just for prototyping. It is the future of digital manufacturing. We hope in the near future, so there will be more and more local production on demand. Less traffic, a smaller carbon footprint, and a better future for all of us.

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