Vocational School of Justice
THE PAST COMES TO THE FORE IN DESIGN
Design spirit items come to light in the hands of Zafer Tuna Poyraz, a Ph.D. student in Design Studies Program at Izmir University of Economics. Poyraz’s store in Alaçatı includes many items dating back to 1950’s such as long plays, phones, toy cars, luggage, etc. which left their mark in history.
Poyraz stated that as soon as people entered his store they reacted emotionally to the items they encountered because their memories came flooding back. He said, “I believe what I do is magical. I get emotional feedback from people. Especially customers of certain age get very happy as if they reunited with relatives, friends they haven’t seen for years. And I focus my design on these emotional feedbacks.”
Poyraz indicated that he wasn’t an antique dealer, that he collected design items of close era that touched people’s lives. “Items in my store are not products of manual labor. They are more like mass produced, special sized items designed on paper. Some of the items are out sold. I try to relay the adventure and design process of these items with the information I learned at my doctorate program. After this program, I understood the place of design in social life much better,” said Poyraz.
‘Design trends shape life’
Poyraz reported that items played important part in lives of certain generations, and design trends shaped people’s lives periodically. He said that after his doctoral study, the types of items he collected started to change. Poyraz said, “I’ve started to be pickier about designers or item groups I liked. I’ve become a more refined individual. I’ve become better at both sales and collecting. I now collect items in line with the information I gained at the program.”