DUNCAN MEERDING: Hey, I'm Duncan Meerding. I'm a designer and maker of lights and furniture and I'm based in Hobart, Tasmania and much of my work concentrates on overall form rather than intense detailing and also concentrates a lot on light bursting from the side and that's partly a result of the fact I've only got less than 5% vision concentrated around the peripheral fields. NAVA: WHAT'S BEEN A TURNING POINT IN YOUR CAREER? DUNCAN MEERDING: I suppose I've had a few turning points and a lot of them do revolve around sort of community, community of design and community of artists, and I think that's one of the really strong things that Tasmania has, a lot of very strong sense of community within the design field and within the art field. And on that front, one of my big turning points was I got a scholarship to a designer or artist practitioner-led organisation, which, it's called Designed Objects Tasmania and that scholarship is called the Springboard and that was sort of mid 2010, straight after I graduated university and that gave me a bit of a launching platform into designing and making after my university studies. But without that sort of launching board, I probably may not have necessarily even started as a professional in the field. NAVA: HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU CREATE WORK? DUNCAN MEERDING: When I make work, I feel sometimes frustrated. I think everybody does but sometimes I get, from that frustration, it then leads on to the problem solving that's involved in working it out, that challenge that people get, like it's something that people really - that's the sort of feeling that a lot of people stay in the visual arts for, stay in design for. So it's getting the problem and going, how do I execute it? You know, it's not just sort of like - it's not just the end product, it's the process of getting there and it's sort of a sense of fulfilment, not just the actual end product but the actual process and I suppose a lot of my design is very process-driven as well, partly because the way I design is often in a very three dimensional way, model making. And then I go back to somebody with the skills of drafting to help me work out how to potentially execute it without the... The making school said that I may have or might need to be done using a computerised machine or something so, I have to engage someone else to draw. So it's very process-driven because I'm trying to work out stuff in the real world with some either mock-ups or models or just playing around with some samples and then taking it back to - so it's sort of a different way of designing because my main medium is very process-driven. NAVA: CAN DESIGNER / MAKERS LEARN FROM FAILURE? DUNCAN MEERDING: Some people refer to mistakes as not mistakes but design alterations. And it's a bit of a cheeky way of saying something but it's also kind of the truth. And one of the more successful designs that I've had came out of a result of the timber doing the opposite of what I thought it was gonna do or just through playing and through going, OK, this isn't going to work but then also realising I walk away from it for a while, would go, OK, think about it for a while and then come back to it and that's what I did with that particular design. So be able to take a bit of space from it if you can and then work out a way to sort of problem solve. But the problem solving is probably one of the things that I think a lot of designer makers really thrive on because it's that process I was talking about that people really enjoy. But, you know, that process does also involve failure and from that failure, you can then grow creatively and grow in terms of your skill set as well.