Uma Bazaar represents to us a project that is distinctively larger than design. The client is a low budget private/public joint venture to reintegrate individuals with severe social alienation through work training as staff of a small boutique vending fair trade goods. This remarkable union of local as well as global ambition was a great setup and an excellent example of a Muungano-process: We were involved in an early stage, while aspects of the business and marketing plan were still in planning to produce an analysis of the Fair Trade marketing realities. One of the main shortcomings of this business segment -a very pragmatic targeting of already convinced customers that is incompatible and ultimately also hypocritical in the context of increasing awareness in consumption -became direct incentive to our design strategy, which centred around the idea of non-exclusion. At the same time, this idealized image of demand had to be offset by the character of the goods that was actually available to market; far away from the slick and cosmopolitan and obviously limited to the cultural heritage of the producing artisans.
So while anticipating a widening of the range of product profiles on a global level, the design challenge locally was to maximize involvement and self determination of the project participants while also keeping material costs at an absolute minimum. A 1-2-3 design manual was developed to help participants in salvaging refused furnishing with our A-B-C formal concept and transforming it into a luxurious and intriguing environment.

See article in magazine Venue, no. 5, 2006.
Logotype by: Calle Ljungström