Interview with red dot award: design concept winner Alberto Villareal

Alberto Villareal is a Mexico City-born industrial designer who is currently working as senior designer for LUNAR design in San Francisco. His recent clients include Nike, Hewlett Packard, SanDisk, Adidas, and LeapFrog. Alberto is also an active humanitarian. He is a member of Fundacion UNAM, which donates to educational programmes, and also volunteers in humanitarian projects for Project H Design and Engineers without Borders.

red dot: What is innovative and different about your winning works?
Alberto Villareal: The radically designed MX-Libris utilises a range of existing technologies and optimises the use of energy and natural resources, including using collected rain for the cooling system, while the CASCUZ was conceived with a coherent integration of both ‘helmet’ and ‘light’ in mind, as opposed to current cumbersome helmets with attached lights.
BrightWalk lights up using user-generated energy. More than being a light source for the runner to see his path, it is a way for one to be seen on the road at night.

red dot: Which companies are interested in your products, or have already collaborated with you to create a prototype?
Alberto Villareal: As regards the MX-Libris, two companies in Mexico have expressed interest in further development. One is a taxi management company and the other a manufacturer. I cannot disclose details, but there is potential to start work on a prototype and a test project with them.

What does it mean to win a red dot? Has it helped you to achieve your goals?
Alberto Villareal: red dot awards have definitely helped me get good exposure (both in publications and in exhibitions) as well as great recognition because it gives these projects a sort of “quality seal” that is internationally recognised. It is one of the most prestigious awards in the industry. It also gives clients (current and potential ones) an indication of the experience and credibility of the designer they’re working with and how up-to-date he is within the field.
I have been lucky to get at least one red dot award a year since 2005 (besides BrightWalk, Cascuz and MX-Libris, as part of Lunar Design I also received a red dot design award for the “Habit Forming” concept in 2007 and most recently a red dot award in the red dot award: product design 2009 for SanDisk ImageMate® readers).

What feedback have you received for your works?
Alberto Villareal: Feedback for my works includes major printed publications identity (Nr.40), Metropolis, Bizz, and websites like ecofriend and metropolismag. The BrightWalk was also presented at the Metropolis Conference “Design Entrepreneurs Rethinking Energy” in New York in 2007.

What was the inspiration behind your products?
Alberto Villareal: I usually start a new project like this when I identify an unsatisfied need or problem; I guess these days most designers create concepts this way. The difficult part is to actually get them made and implemented. You have to do much more than just create a design; you have to enter the terrains of entrepreneurship, law, logistics, manufacturing, etc.

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