Ore.e Ref. has challenged Designers of the world to NOT design chairs. It's that simple.

To show that You have accepted this challenge sign up below. Your participation will be added to the People IN list (by default Your participation will be anonymous). When the campaign started 2012 participants send Ore.e Ref. SMS messages telling us what they did when NOT designing chairs. 2013 five designers were rewarded with "DnS - Design and Craft Diplomas". For history of the campaign look to our social media blog.

The challenge was developed parallel to the WDC-Helsinki (World Design Capital) and the NCD-C is a part of the Alternative Design Capital – Network. The campaign is run by artist blacksmith Jesse Sipola from Oshipala Air Hammer Studios and Eero Yli-Vakkuri.

Not like Video? Read a Comic (.pdf)

Downloads back to top>

If the issue appeals to You; download a package of campaign material and use it the way You like. You can use this material to promote NCD-C or just to amaze Your friends with nifty web-banners, stickers and posters. The material features an ambivalent slogan:

If nothing else print this TUTORIAL ZINE.pdf and share it with friends. [Opas suomeksi (.pdf)]

If You want to expand the project or fork it into something else contact us (not) 00-358-505729743 or "eero äät storijapan.net". The project was initially build in an agile manner and changes (+reasoning) in texts where documented (see Timeline for details).

People IN back to top>

Keijjo, Paula Lehtonen, Anonymous (1),  ReFound, Anonymous (2), Rainer Belfast, Outi Heiskanen, Bec Barnet, Tatu Marttila, Anonymous (3), Janne Rahkila, Anonymous (x), Charlotte Poupon, Ivanda Jansone, Tom, Jan Hakon Erichsen, littlebadwolf, Robert Eames, josedelfin, LS, Rob Smith, Josh, Thomas Levine, Guy in the US, Nicholas Ellan, Anonymous (4), Anonymous (5), DannyBoy, Valentina Trimani, diannakwinters.com, Emma Rose, Chan Herman, juro kouril, Lorenzo P., George, Barry, Carlo Luccioni, Liane,  Anonymous (6), Michael Schuster, Rebecca Mason, Noppan Kaewkanjai, Diana Tamm, Monica Pachon, lemu, Mitchell Dillman, Vanessa Karaoglou, Brendan Howell, Alice Moon, Said the King, Cuyabracadabra, Inka Pitkänen, Anonymous (7), TimBobTastic, Marvin, yvonne maddox, Kay Kay Scott, Anonymous (8),  http://www.pacocaballer.com, Sebastian Chavez, Futureistoday, tuijaasta, Anonymous (9), Nalle Mielonen, Tane, Anonymous (10), Ross Young, Kimmo, Anonymous (11), Anonymous (12), Jorge Orellana,  Mónica Pereira, Frida Gregemar, Anonymous (13), Mark Stake,

And via Facebook some 297 brave people.

Challenged by the Community

jh, cs, dd, nc, fl,

Challenged by Ore.e Ref.

Aalto University: Students of Design Department, WDC 2012 Helsinki, Designers of IKEA, Stefan Lindfors, Yrjö Kukkapuro,

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FAQ back to top>

Want to ask something? Call us 00-358-505729743 or by email "eero äät storijapan.net"

Q: I design chairs professionally. How can I make a living if I'm not designing chairs?

A: Ore.e Ref. Does not have a foolproof answer for this. Perhaps You could start designing tools to repair the chairs You have already made or offer refurnishing/repairing services for them. A day, month, year of not designing chairs goes past quickly and should not cause permanent harm to Your business. Consider is as a sabbath day, month, year; Learn new skills, travel and think of it as an experience which strengthens Your creative practice.

Q: I've designed chairs recently.. Can I still take part?

A: Absolutely! Starting from this very moment: You are IN. Do NOT design chairs and You have conquered the challenge. Sign up with the form above. Year 2013 the diplomas have been already handed out... But if You are doing something really brilliant with Your time send us an SMS anyhow and we'll think about remaking a batch of them. 00-358-505729743

Q: Can I still call myself a Designer if I'm not designing stuff?

A: Yes. But You'll be a different kind of designer... Define it as You like. You can call yourself an Anti Designer or Radical Designer (these terms link to the '60ties). To spice things up Ore.e Ref. promotes the concept No-Design and You can call yourself a No-Designer after You have conquered the challenge. This signifies that You cherish sustainability over the creation of new. This does not make You a conservative. It certifies that You approach modern production methods and lifestyles from a critical perspective.

Q: I'm not a Designer... Can I still take part in the challenge?

A: Sure! Send a message to designers out there to: Not create new before we've repaired the broken. Just sign up for the challenge and download our campaign material post it on Your library wall etc. Link to this site on Your webpages etc. Any and all help is very welcome.

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Links back to top>

NCD-Campaign

 Inspirational Organizations and Events

Interesting Chair related…

Usefull links

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Timeline back to top>

25.07.2011	Prologue	Links to this webpage and the video will be send to selected friends and colleagues and additional input on the campaign collected in face-to-face talks.
28.07.2011	Launch	Ore.e Refineries launches NCD-C at the "Unconference on Art and Sustainability" in the idyllic country-side of Estonia.
xx.08.2011	Marketing	Information on the project is send to selected design companies and institutions. Particular focus for marketing is on design schools. Also forums, social media sites etc. are targeted. Press-releases will be send to international design related magazines. Also a list of notable designers will be approached with personal emails/letters. A Social Media event will be made.
xx.10.2011	Dev. end.	At this time all the texts have found right form and the project development is complete. The http://oree.storijapan.net/NDC-C will remain relative static (Only People -list, links and FAQ are updated) until information on the persons receiving the diplomas will be received.
xx.11.2011	Random	Ore.e Ref. is looking for possibilities to present the project in seminars etc. We are pretty confident that some opportunities will arrive.
1.1.2012	START	For a year no-one designs chairs. The economy does not collapse because of this.
xx.05.2013	Mid-Cycle	Mid-Cycle Meet-Up for friends in Helsinki and launch of "repairing public seating arrangements" tutorial.
1.1.2013	STOP	People are deeply changed by the challenge and have altered their view on sitting.
3.2.2013	Diplomas	The persons awarded the DsN diplomas will be notified, contacted and send the diplomas. Along this press will be notified both in Finland and abroad.
xx.xx.2013	De-Launch	After we have received conformation that all the diplomas are received and we see there is nothing more to do marketing vise Ore.e Ref. goes for beers. At the same misty night the texts on this site will be changed from "NO-CHAIR-DESIGN 2012" to "NO-CHAIR-DESIGN the NEXT YEAR" so that if people so choose they may continue the project for an infinite duration.

Changelog:

040417 Fixed dead link.
021215 Added New people IN. Still kicking!
010214 Changed Faulty bitcoin address. Work on Trans-Horse uplifting spirits. NCD-C will possibly be also featured in a "design year book".
071013 Added New people IN. Found old emails from the prime-time of the campaign apparently I've missed a few submissions.
150113 Added Links to articles.
050113 Today we received confirmation that we managed to sell 10 invisible chairs to the Kingdom of Bahrain. I also remade the site. Did You know we've used seamonkey to write this page? Over the time the software has evo.. changed. As a result some probles resulted in the hml text. With this update I've attemped to clean "corruption due to developmet".
040113 (FB 297) Added New entries. Fixed Changelog order –> Newest First. Other improvements on text (in preparation of de-launch). Changed Video embed away from vimeo.com and into html5 video ogv/mp4 on server! (Issues with .ogv will be resolved later) also re-edited the video and removed refrences to world-design-capital year. NOTE: We lost a lot of paste at the end of the year and a lot of things where left undone.. Jesse Invisible Street-Art Performance, Public Mono-Chair HACK and some writing work to name a few. Such can be done later.
140812 (FB 293) Added New entries. NOTE: Four moths ago I got a personal grant from the state: 8000€ (-insurances 1/7). I wrote the application during the last night and attached to it a dvd with videoartwork.. I wrote: "THIS IS MY BEST VIDEO ARTWORK" on the cover of the dvd with a felt pen. That's how desperate I was. The funding is now near used. I used 1000€ to buy "educational services" from Jesse. Also made a documentary on a performance art group etc. and started to update the Ore.e Ref. main site. NCD-C related: I recently got an sms message from someone who had seen the video in the Now Here Finland exhibitions at Savonlinna: "I came with my school to the Savonlinna art exhibition, even as I don't care about art, even as I study at Artemia. But that video was so random and epic.". I've been mostly working with the NCD-C blog.
190312 (FB 291) Added New entries and zine in native Finnish with "sign up by post" option (will do this for eng. later).
120312 (FB 290) Added New entries. NOTE: Preparing for Jyväskylä with new FB event and first ever Finnish press releases.
220212 (FB 290) NOTE: Just received conformation from Jyväskylä that you invisible chair will be presented there during design week 21.3. There is also a small fee involved. Also worked today on the public workshop "Swingers Club for Mature Chairs" during which we'll be fixing chairs at Kääntöpöytä, mid-Pasila, Helsinki. That's scheduled to take place 13.4-15.4. Added New Challengers.
140212 (FB 290) Added New entries and blog links. NOTE: We didn't get any funding from the state/etc for this year and I feel sad about that. I didn't expect much but still.. It feels tiresome to fight windmills. This is precisely the kind of work that should be funded by grants – As there is no plausible business model out there to support such a chivalry cause. There are definite plans for the spring and these plans keep me going. Jesse is shoveling snow down from rooftops for 10€ per hour to fund his practice. I have some gigs but barely enough to scrape by. I'm over 10k in depth. Wonder how much of great art/design is actually made possible because of bitterness? The less financial support we get = The more bitter I come and out of spite I become wittier in working with funding issues and motivated to work unpaid. This is now about revenge.. To destroy the evil empire of product design and modernization.
260112 (FB 287) Added New entries. NOTE: Exhibition building for Now Here Finland is complete – Lucky new is that the exhibition venues are expanded abroad too. Look us up in Finland: 28.1.-13.5.'11 Suomen käsityön museo (Craft Museum, Jyväskylä), 15.6-26.8.'11 Savonlinnan maakuntamuseo (Savonlinna Provincial Museum) and 4.-22.9.'11 Sibeliustalo and in Madrid later the year (I don't know the venue yet). There has also been some discussion about lectures and performances too.
090112 (FB 285) Added New Challengers. NOTE: Still in agony over the "share this" button.
060112 (FB 283) Added New Challengers. Added "Share this" button. NOTE: Normally I hate these kinds of systems.. I used to hate youtube too... I'm in a process of virtual gentrification.. A result of this development could be that I have adsense banners all around and host these kinds of texts on wordpress sites.. I have to be cautious.
030112 (FB 279) Added New Challengers.
311211 (FB 268) Added Newsletter link to .pdf (I think that is more robust then link to mailchimp).
261211 (FB 262) Added Mid-Cycle Meet-Up and tutorial to timeline. Changed From "...next year" to "...for the rest of the year" to make campaign more epic. Changed Stuff from Campaign kit from "...next year" to "...not to" or "...rest of the year" and updated Campaign Kit.zip also Wufoo form updated.
211211 (FB 261) Added New entries. Added "Testimonial #1" link.
091211 (FB 238) Added New entries. Added Tutorial Zine (both into the campaing kit and as a separate download link).
071211 (FB 236) Added New entries. NOTE: It seems that making a tutorial on how to fix the public chairs in Helsinki is delayed untill spring. A possible video to promote the campaing during hollidays it Topi promoting it.
021211 (FB 230) Added New entries.
291111 (FB 202) Added New entries. NOTE: There is still a boom going on and I have to push to make the new tutorial video before Christmas so that people can look it over during the holidays. Added Google Analytics (this is dirty – But the campaign needs some tool to estimate why people are not signing up for the form on this site).
191111 (FB 197) Added New entries to People IN and reviews/etc. NOTE: There is some kind of boom now and we hit 1,265 viewers on Vimeo. The video is embedded on a lots of sites which is cool. Still not getting people to commit to the project and sign up on this site. Also interesting to note that some blogs have mentioned stuff from around the oree.storijapan.net. They have gone trough the trouble of calling looking up that I'm a carpenter.
131111 (FB 196) Added Added "getsatisfaction.com feedback" badge (wish I had done this sooner but it was only after the Occupy week I begun think about any sort of community this project links to).
121111 (FB 194) NOTE: Site participation in Internet Occupy has ended (7days).
101111 (FB 192)  Added Links to new artwork and blogs, etc and People IN NOTE: Did a promo for people "Not Yet Responded" on Facebook. Changed Video embed to link – Was to messy.
071111 (FB 185) Added Special video embed (to make the site video independent from patents, also helps with archiving project) Added New entry's to People IN. Added Link to interview. NOTE: Site is occupied with random gif animations in support of the occupie movement for a week a project by "The Free Art and Technology Lab (F.A.T)".
310111 (FB 182) Added New entrys to People IN Fixed Iframe size to fit submit button on s60 mobiles. NOTE: Dev. Cycle end.
241011 (FB 162) Added Nifty "Back to Top>" navigation links and almighty "Downloads" link and ADC link. ChangedAlt+WDC to ADC as was agreed in network meeting. NOTE: We where selected to join an exhibition called Now Here Finland which will be in Jyväskylä. We are working to build a kick ass exhibition piece with Jesse. Hence I took away "but is not affiliated with their  program from WDC intro" Fixed Text positioning and took away faulty headers left from editing. Added "Bored with tutorial?" link. NOTE: This possibly marks the end of dev. cycle.
280911 (FB 154) Added Mention to Alt+WDC (Alternative World Design Capital project) with link to Pixelache.ac.
160911 (FB 151) Added Jesse Sipola and Oshipala.com link and took away reference to WDC OFF (the name Parallel WDC is now being talked by people working on the project. Changed Some external video link so that they also feature the name "epätuoli" so that they might link here - Due to failures in artist-journalist communications (while attending Habitare Fair).
050911 (FB 141) Added More entries to People In.
300811 (FB 139) Added First challenges by the community. NOTE: Hurt my ass when trying to sit on "invisible chair" in attempts to convince German journalist of the NCD-Campaign.
260811 (FB 137) Added Entrys to People In & Challenged. Fixed My personal attitude, will pitch the project for German journalist what ever it takes (the project needs a boost - We need press).
170811 (FB 127) Added LinkedIn.com group link. Added Massive emailing for Finnish design bloggers and newspapers. Added Material to Campaign Kit. ChangedFocusing more on WDC-OFF.
060811 (FB 111) Added Robots.txt and updated lists Fixed spelling error in page title challenge to challenge.
060811 Added Tutorial in Campaign kit together with tutorial .gif Added Ultraboring FB badge thing link. (FB 101). Fixed Run out of space on server, Deleted Vuosaari interview material. Added Instructables.com link and tutorial (Hope it sticks) also took part in eco design challenge on site (its moderate hope they have sense of humor).
050811 Added New entries to People IN. (FB 100!). ChangedYoutube video to public under title "Tutorial..." to attract more traffic.
020811 Changed (FB 86) Added Links to people involved trough iframed. Added Usefull links (repairmanifest pf21) Added Notified blogger sphere. ChangedList of People and Organizations from taking part in the challenge to ...NOT designing chairs 2012. Added Tumblr Blog link and Jussi Koitela video link.
010811 Added Facebook link and made event (FB 52). Added Links allsorts friends etc. Added First entries to "People IN". Fixed iframed sample "Be polite" to "Play fare".
280711 Changed "Challenge a Friend" iframed form more user friendly. Changed"After talking with Jesse we decided to go to Facebook after all. NCD-C will be promoted as an 'Event' for 2012".
260711 Changed "Get Involved" to "Challenge a Friend". Added Links. Added Focus on anonymity in participation. Added Businesscard to Campaign material. Added Businesscardsample as a banner, removed old "good vs bad" banner. Added Additional iframed from for challenging friend. REMOVED Menu link to Timeline. Changed form to join Newsletter iframed form to simple link (too many forms). Added <example> letter to challenge a friend.
250711 Fixed Wufoo form spelling errors. Fixed random spelling errors. Added unlisted youtube.com link under video (for Mobile devices etc). Added "No-Design" to FQA etc. Added A4.pdf with URL to here (also found in Campaign package). Added 1x1 anim gif. blacktheme and qr-code (also found in Campaign package). Added Bitcoin tip option.