Sam Hecht spoke about how consumer electronics companies tend to look to their competition for inspiration, versus considering the actual context of need. He showed a short animation of a glass, zooming out to reveal the glass is on a table, zooming out to reveal the table is in a living room, zooming out to reveal the living room as part of a flat, zooming out to reveal the flat as part of a larger building, zooming out to reveal an entire city street. His point was how we cannot focus merely on what is in front of us as a strategy for understanding the problem at hand. This is no coincidence of course, as Sam was my original inspiration for the sixth Law of context.

Later in his presentation, Sam spoke about how the philosophy of Industrial Facility, his studio with partner Kim Collins in the UK, is about thinking of humans as elements of the ecology of objects versus the normal human-centric stance taken in design. He drew a ring of objects: telephone, airplane, cup, etc. with a human being in the middle of the ring to signify the human-centered approach to design. Sam then drew a ring of objects where the human figure was just another element amongst the ring of other objects to signify his differing approach.

One surprising assertion by Sam was that he never designs on the computer because he feels that the outcome is unnatural. Instead he designs in paper and at actual scale. He said that the process of working with physical materials is an important part of designing for the physical world.

Sam closed by showing one of his projects where he designed a series of designed knives for Harrison Fisher that embody the first Law of reduce. On a deceptively simple note, the plastic handle of the knife is made of a special plastic that is cold to the touch — which was an important embodying point to signify a more hygenic and upscale experience.