A k i n

by Hollie Paterson

[byholliepaterson]

NOMAD side table + CHIMNEY tableware will be apart of the WORSHOPPED15 exhibition at Moore park, Sydney this August 6th- 23rd.

VIP Opening Night: Supa Centa Moore Park, Sydney: Wednesday 5th August via invitation.

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Aging as gaining

You throw most products out once they stop working, you throw other products out when they become redundant, but you also throw some products out simply because you don’t like the way they look anymore. This is a terrible habit you have and we need to stop. While it is not something that society actively frowns upon, we need to be accountable for the consequences that this behavior is having on our planet. One angle we can take to making a change is to add value to the things we own as they age.

One of the biggest factors in falling out of love with our belongings is no longer liking the way it looks, time isn’t a kind mistress to all products. White’s yellow over time, cords kink, fabrics pill, edges chip, styles date and photo evidence of our poor fashion choices live on to forever remind us that your feather-trim sheer cardi was more très bleak than très chic. The ideal situation is of course products that all together escape obsolescence along with the comings and going of fashion trends and this can be better achieved through a range of different approaches that both designers and buyers can adopt. These include classic, timeless and simple silhouettes, choosing materials that age well combined with quality parts and if possible a few clever extras like modular components that are easy to fix/replace, customize and if you are handy, hackability.

Kaikado‘s Chazutsa metal tea caddies After your purchase you will perceive a normal yet subtle change in the colour tone of your Chazutsu: copper in 2-3 months, brass in 1-2 years and tin in 3-5 years. Like fine wine Chazutsu becomes even more appreciated with age.

The Japanese have a long history of design and have defined many aesthetic principles which continue to be both relevant and applicable even in today’s trending minimal and modern aesthetics. Sabi means desolate or rust and describes a beauty which has been acquired through patina. Kaikado is a Japanese company who have been producing quality metal tea caddies and storage canisters since 1875 which patina over the time. This patina is a desired effect which represents quality and the evenness of this patina reflects the fine care and handling of the owner. This is an excellent example of Sabi as this patina grows the value of the object, creating a bond between owner and product.

Bethan Laura Wood, Stain Stain is a set of a teacups designed to improve through use. This project examines the assumption that use is damaging to a product.

Wood London’s Stain drinkware is a creative and modern inception of aging as gaining (or Sabi). The interior surface of the cup is treated so as to stain more in predetermined places. The more the cups are used, the more the pattern is revealed. A build up of an individual pattern occurs depending on the users personal way of drinking. This staining is individual to each user and can offer a perceived growth or gaining in value to the user as they are presented with this intensely personal platform of expression. This is excellent in my own opinion as it offers any person, even those who would not consider themself creative, an opportunity to claim creativity because in this case, the pattern cannot emerge without the help of the user.

NOTE TO DESIGNERS: If you love something you are far less likely to throw it out, I think we can all agree on this. As designers we need to offer users users as many angles as possible on their products to create a sense of gained value over time. Things will age this is inevitable, so why not make aging for for us instead of against us?

NOTE TO CONSUMERS: Buyers should take note not to be swayed by fashions, they never hang around long and make for poor investment pieces that are then far more likely to end up in the trash before the end of their useful life. Fashion trends account for a fair amount of land fill in this sense and we need to be accountable for our tossing habits because they affect everyone. Purchase products that you can see working for you in the long term and stand by your choices, which means not throwing out something until it is truly useless.

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B A L A N C E  Nadine Fumiko Schaub 

“This project is focusing on the relationship and the emotional bond between product and user- also questioning today’s consumer society which has lost the appreciation for what a product means, the value it embeds and the impact they have on our lives. Balance is the result of a deep research process in which the focus lays in the actual meaning and story of a product.”

I came across this beautifully thoughtful work some months ago but have never forgotten it. Nadine has thought deeply about the emotional relationship that we as users have with our products. She in turn has developed an intuitive product that offers a more wholesome form feedback for the user to enjoy.

“By bringing back the low-tech kitchen scale, I tried to strive to stimulate this, once existing, emotional bond to be created between object and its user.”

The user must actively interact with the scale by touching the pointers in order to verify the desired weight (arguably a more gratifying experience than pressing a button). The various sized porcelain containers play the role of counter weights and cleverly offer a visual sense of play while offering strong intuitive visual cues to the user as to the value of each porcelain weight.

The analogue scale is made out of valued and natural material such as brass, locally crafted marble stone, wood and porcelain. These materials give an air of quality and endurance, a feeling which a material such as plastic cannot always offer. Choosing materials that can be seen to gain a level of value as they age over others (like plastic) which loose value, offers a product greater opportunity to maintain and grow a relationship with it’s owner. When people form attachments to their belongings, they are more likely to maintain and hold onto them, keeping them out of the trash and out of land fill.

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D I E T E R     R A M S

Back in the late 1980s, Dieter Rams was becoming increasingly concerned by the state of the world around him — “an impenetrable confusion of forms, colours and noises.” Aware that he was a significant contributor to that world, he asked himself an important question: is my design good design?

As good design cannot be measured in a finite way he set about expressing the ten most important principles for what he considered was good design. Sometimes they are referred as the ‘Ten commandments’.

Here they are.

- Vitsoe

Good design makes a product useful A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.

Good design is aesthetic The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products we use every day affect our person and our well-being. But only well-executed objects can be beautiful.

Good design makes a product understandable It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product talk. At best, it is self-explanatory.

Good design is unobtrusive Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.

Good design is honest It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.

Good design is long-lasting It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society.

Good design is thorough down to the last detail Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the user.

Good design is environmentally-friendly Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimises physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.

Good design is as little design as possible Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials.Back to purity, back to simplicity.

TP 1 radio/phono combination, 1959, by Dieter Rams for Braun

RT 20 tischsuper radio, 1961, by Dieter Rams for Braun

606 Universal Shelving System, 1960, by Dieter Rams for Vitsœ

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N E N D O

Nendo is a design studio run by Oki Sato, a Canadian Born Japanese designer. Long time big fan, I love the diversity of Nendo’s products and how they are able to retain their relevance to the market over many years. They have a beautiful concept which they share on their website which I will put below for you, just like Nendo I believe that it is our small everyday happy (or “!”) moments which piece together to make our life a good one.

Giving people a small ” ! ” moment. There are so many small ” ! ” moments hidden in our everyday. But we don’t recognize them. and even when we do recognize them,we tend to unconsciously reset our minds and forget what we’ve seen. But we believe these small ” ! ” moments are what make our days so interesting, so rich. That’s why we want to reconstitute the everyday by collecting and reshaping them into something that’s easy to understand. We’d like the people who’ve encountered nendo’s designs to feel these small ” ! ” moments intuitively. That’s nendo’s job.

^ Rassen Chopsticks, 2013

^ Pyggy Bank, 2010

^ Fade Out chair, 2009

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M A R T I N    A Z U A

Martin Azua is a Basque designer working in Barcelona. A 1994 Graduate of Fine Arts from the University of Barcelon, he is particularly interested in the inclusion of natural processes in daily life and the use of handcrafted resources in order to preserve cultural and technological diversity. Martin’s work has a simple and minimal aesthetic that speaks to my own taste, often incorporating a juxtaposition of materials which emphasize texture and the quality of the materials them self. As a part of my own aesthetic taste, I greatly enjoy raw materials and there are a few in Martin Azua’s collection that very much play on raw natural materials and finishes.

^ Martin Azua design, handmade by the artisan Beatriz Unzueta Motxilak basket Made in one size: 
40 x 30 x 12 cm. Interior bag and belts are 100% cotton. It is a natural and vegetal product

^ Martin Azua in collaboration with the ceramist Marc Vidal Vase with Stone Vases of white clay with Colera stones / Costa Brava / Catalonia White vase with horizontal stone / 23 diameter, 24cm high White vase with vertical stone / 16 diameter, 27cm high Signed and numbered series.

^ Martin Azua’s Winter Kàntir Water container hand turned in red clay. 30x15x12cm Capacity: 3L Numbered and signed series limited to 250 units.

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E T H O S

Quality of life is often measured in happiness. The pursuit of happiness is an inherent part of humanity, it transcends race, gender, culture and class. Our emotions are a direct result of the experiences we have, be it through travel, good food, friendships, comfortable living or gratifying work. Emotions are intangible and difficult to measure or assign a value to, yet we base quality of life on the level of happiness we have received from our experiences. So we must recognize the wealth of potential happiness that everyday products and rituals offer us in positive experiences over a lifetime.

The products that we interact with day-in & day-out are the ones which offer us the most opportunity to create happiness for ourselves as they accumulate the most hours of contact/use over a lifetime. Products like kettles, mugs, chairs, door handles and cutlery all fall into this category I call ‘functional commonplace everyday products’. You will use your front door handle on average 2+ times a day and when you do, you will feel one of 3 ways;

You will see your beautiful door handle and happily admire it and the way it effortlessly works as you whisk out the door.

You will not even notice your nondescript door handle as you whisk out the door.

You will hate your stupid door handle for not doing it’s one simple job as it jerks you out of your otherwise carefree morning routine because yet again it has jammed/caught on your clothes, hurt your hand as you have failed to whisk out the door.

If it equates to spending 6 weeks straight over your life time opening and shutting your front door, don’t you think it is worth the satisfaction that a well greased hinge can offer?

M I S S I O N

Arguably, functional commonplace everyday products (FCEP) are most deserving of a designers attention. My products will offer a re-education to show that no FCEP should be deemed too banal or unworthy of design input. And whatever seemingly small worth FCEP’s may appear to have in our daily lives, equates to a potential wealth of happiness and fulfillment over a lifetime.

The main ideology behind the design of my products relates to their greater context, to their integration into our lifestyle on a whole, highlighting the positives and encouraging healthy habits. My mission is to design products that connect us to our environment, create awareness of what we consume and inform empowering ideas through interaction, function and aesthetics, to encourage ongoing positive lifestyle choices.