Design Tactics Journal

Kathy Qian, 2nd year student @ RMIT

[objectcultures]

Zippo Lighter

Designed by George G. Blaisdell in 1933, America. Based off of a similar lighter he found in Austria by IMCO. Its primary function is to light cigarettes in a portable and safe manner, by having a closing lid that extinguishes its flame and protects the spark mechanism from accidentally being triggered in a pocket or bag. It is used by flipping open the cap and pushing down/spinning the spark mechanism to ignite the flame. The flame then holds until the cap is shut or when it is blown out from the top. This is all done in one hand.

It is a staple lighter design, often seen as an essential personal item even for non-smokers, as a multi-purpose tool. For some time they were very popular with backpackers and travellers before more specific technology became available for their purposes in the recent past. Many backpackers still prefer the zippo for its use of butane, being more reliable in the weather conditions they encounter, as well as having the cultural significance.

Its popularity in the American consumer market since its introduction has shaped cultural groups all around the world now. Zippos are difficult to extinguish when blown from the side as a part of their “windproofing” technology, making them more valuable and usable in harsher weather conditions. Because of this, they became especially popular in the US military, and during WW2 the Zippo company ceased all production to consumer markets and focused on distribution to the military. This is an important part of the object’s history - and has made a huge impact on its identity and place within human culture. Zippo lighters became an American national treasure in this time, an object that helped its country’s soldiers survive and fight their wars. This association gave the Zippo lighter its popularity within the general consumer community. It is now an iconic design that people seek after all around the world, as it is seen so frequently used in television, film and other pop culture and media. From this it has become associated with many a story that resonates with its audience, a symbol of rebellion, freedom, youth, patriotism.

Zippo lighters made for and used in the US military are now highly valued collectors items, within the culture that has been created around the lighter that collects different casing designs. The company started stamping date codes in their lighters in the mid 50s to aid in quality control, but these have been used by collectors in recognising special and rare versions of the lighter.

It has deeply affected smoking culture, as smoke stores all have a Zippo stand with a vast array of designs and insignia. There is a value held in the Zippo seen within smoking cultural groups that marks a user as a frequent or “serious” smoker - because it is a on-disposable, personal item, and more of an investment than a disposable lighter.

[objectcultures]

Old Picture Books

I've enjoyed going to op shops to find clothes and shoes and the like for a long time, but I never really would look into the book section. I always assumed it was just full of people's unwanted copies of the Twilight saga and the bible. However, one day, I looked into the area, and found this book: Bearables (Bear Parables). I love this book. It's so full of wholesome but comical sweetness, with bear facts and advice tied into the little bear family's stories.

I don't know why I never thought to look into the children's book area at charity shops - I have always loved picture books. I have a lot of picture books that I hold really dear to my heart that I received from my older sister as gifts for birthdays and Christmas. Every gift she gave me from as soon as I could read was a book. On my fourth birthday I got The Red Tree by Shaun Tan. On my fifth, I got a beautifully illustrated copy of Aesop's Fables by Helen Ward. Six, it was The Giving Tree. Seven was Queenie the bantam. Eventually she started giving me novels and books with no pictures, but they all came with a little note she'd written in the front to me: something really personal and lovely that I could remember that part of my life by, something she was teaching me, helping me learn.

As an object, the tactile feeling of a physical book is so important – to feel the age in the brittleness of the pages, the colour, the smell, the weight in the hands, the creases of natural wear. Books remember where your favourite pages are, they will fall open to the passages that you love the most if you let them. The paper allows for note-taking and input, customisation, collaboration. Paper is a canvas on its own. It invites you to write that little note in a gifted book, add your own illustrations in the margins, highlight special messages. Picture books highlight that physical value in their printed images: The way one views a picture book revolves around its physicality in such a tender way; they run their hands over the whole image, trace lines with their fingers, hold it closer to their face, cradle it in their arms. The grand, gentle gestures of turning a large illustrated page, gingerly to reveal the next image, unlike a novel where the contents are not immediately readable, the picture book presents each page all at once. Every reader will be initially drawn to a different detail, a different moment in the story.

I lost a lot of my books when my family moved house, which was extremely upsetting. I had so many memories in those books that I was given, It was like a collection of letters from my sister, marking each year with a note, a lesson and a story. As I got older it was books she'd loved and wanted to show me, gave me to grow into, gave me to grow out of. After she got married, my brother in law would sometimes give me his books that he'd read and loved as well. Unfortunately, as I got older, I stopped reading so much. I didn't love it like I did when I was a kid, there were so many other things to take my attention. My sister gives me other things as gifts now which obviously I am grateful for as well, but a part of me does miss this tradition we had. It is a feeling of loss, of my own love and curiosity for reading, and in a way, my childhood. The books were a symbol of my older sister teaching me things. She will always be so much older than me with so much to teach, but the older we both get, the further apart my knowledge will be from hers. She is no longer the oldest person I have spoken to as a friend, no longer my only inspiration and aspiration. But - she will always be a part of my childhood learning, and I am grateful for the few books I have that I can still read that in.

[objectcultures]

Marbles

Marbles originally were designed to be a childrens play thing, an extremely simple object form for playground games. However, they were historically often beautifully and intricately handcrafted, in part as a quality of the game - children would compete using chosen marbles and if defeated, the losing player would have to surrender their playing marble to the winner. This in itself lead to its own type of collecting culture - one that saw those with the best marbles as those most skilled in the game. These associations combined with the pure beauty of a finely designed marble and the appeal of nostalgia have lead to the huge collecting culture surrounding marbles today. 

The game of marbles, however, ceased mass popularity in the playground a few decades ago, so collectors are usually in their later years - though there are exceptions to this.

Sam and his friends bought a bag of marbles when they became curious about the game and wanted to try to play it. It was a sort of irony-fuelled attempt at a revival of a very old children’s game for them, at ages 17 and 18, though they did end up playing it for a while. During this time, Sam became interested in the marbles themselves. The pack he bought was just a $2 bag of simple, mass-manufactured glass marbles from the bargain store but he was fascinated by the detail they held suspended inside nevertheless. He ended up researching how they were made, and all of the huge varieties of different marbles that have existed throughout history. He started to collect different types he found here and there, keeping them in an old ceramic strainer he’d also found at a thrift store. He tells me he especially loves how they look all together, the way the light reflects around the translucent ones, the different sizes, the swirling colours that make them look like a galaxy of planets all brought together. When reviewing his collection he takes out a couple of the opaque blue ones and tells me they’re the water planets, they have no land. I watch him gently roll a larger pearlescent one between his fingers, practised in the angles and turns to capture the light patterns he enjoys the most.

His favourite ones are the transparent coloured glass ones, because they cast a coloured shadow and when held in the hand under light, they look like little glowing orbs. The way light moves through and around different objects has always especially interested him so his bowl of different sizes and opacities of marbles is really beautiful to him in this way.

[objectcultures]

My Every Day Backpack

From 2011 onwards, I'd always use the same blue denim backpack with leather straps. It was my favourite because the straps were really easy to use so that I could take stuff out without taking off my bag, but had a long top flap so that all my belongings would stay inside securely. Around the end of high school, this backpack started falling apart. I sewed the base back together a few times but I knew it was time to move on. I thought getting a new backpack just before uni started would be a nice fresh start as well for me. However, because I had become so accustomed to my current backpack, my criteria when looking for a new one was really strict and narrowing. I did heaps of research and shopping around but it was fruitless for a long time.

I'd been looking for a new backpack for almost a year when I was on my way home from a gig one Thursday night. It was Arthur Penn's September residency at the Evelyn Hotel and it ended just before midnight - I was running to the train station from the gig venue because the last train from Parliament was at 12:07, and the tram wouldn't make it in time. As I ran down the shopping strip at 11:58pm I saw my dream backpack in the window of a shop. I just saw a glimpse but I knew that it was the one I'd been looking for. I didn't have time to stop but I thought about it all night and all day until I went back to check it out. I then did heaps of research on it, it was really expensive for my budget but I knew that I'd end up buying it eventually so I did it, and I've loved it ever since.

It perfectly fits my laptop in it's special laptop sleeve, it has a waterproof base so it can sit in puddles or on the wet floor without issue, It has heaps of pockets to fulfill all my compartmentalising desires, as well as a top flap with two straps and buckles, and an extra compartment at the top!

The quality of the materials used has really impressed me over time as well. A couple months into owning this bag I noticed a cut on one of the sides. This distressed me so much and I planned to sew it up as soon as I could, but my procrastinating self did no such thing. Still, the tear never got bigger and the fabric around it is staying in tact very well. I will fix it eventually.

The every day object is really important in its details in terms of its relationship with its user, they shape the users habits and rituals in ways that are hard to change past the lifetime of the object. I became really accustomed to being able to get my wallet out of my old backpack without taking it off, so not being able to do that anymore would seem extremely inconvenient to me. Instead, my hands quickly learnt the inside map of my new bag by touch, how to use all the pockets backwards and upside down, how to blindly close all the snaps and buttons. I have an order to which I arrange my books in front of my laptop to maximise upright structure, and I make sure when buying new sketchbooks and folders that they have a different cover texture sturdy binding for my blind handling. I know when this bag meets its end of life I will have an even harder time finding a new one, but maybe it will still be on the market, in which case I will just buy the same one again.

[objectcultures]

2013 Birthday Wishes Barbie

I have always enjoyed dolls and Barbies as a play thing and object. As a child I saw them as just a toy but I knew that there was something special about them, because we always had this one Barbie in a special gold box that I wasn’t allowed to open, kept on a high shelf in my play room. When I was around 7 or 8 we had a neighbour that my family referred to as "the little white haired lady", she'd come in to our family milkbar every week or so to get emergency milk and a newspaper. Just before we were moving away she gave me one of her Barbies that she had collected. It was a 1990 Holiday Barbie, in a huge neon pink dress and big, fluffy hair, matching shoes and green jewellery. She was unpackaged but gifted with her stand and hairbrush, my friend and I called her Stacy in our games. I remember later some time one of my parents friends’ kids came over to play and she tried to brush her hair and it got all matted and awful, and somehow her head broke off. I didn't understand at the time how valuable this doll was but I knew to be careful with her, and I remember being so angry at this kid for being so careless and rough with my special doll. 

My childhood interaction with Barbies do represent a big part of my life and have, I think, inspired my love for miniatures, crafts and other toy collecting. However, I didn't think of them as much more than just a toy from my childhood until a few years ago when I saw the 2013 Birthday Wishes Barbie. I saw her on the toy shelves sometime during that year and immediately fell in love. Something about her face, her dress, her hair and her packaging really called out to me. I love the soft detail of her eyelashes, the way her sleeves and skirt puff out and how gentle all of the aesthetic choices are in her design. I couldn't afford her at the time but I would go into Target and Toy World every time I passed by to the doll section to look at her, see if there was a sale, admire and obsess. Being in the doll section so frequently brought to my attention the other dolls that were currently on the market, and it really brought a whole new interest into my life. I started to research other dolls and collector Barbies on the internet, I discovered doll modification as an art form, and gradually I became a part of a community I never would've met if not for this one doll that really spoke to me. Around the end of the year I saw her on sale in a toy shop that I'd passed. The discount was marginal but I'd been obsessing about this doll for so long, I realised I couldn’t wait any longer. I actually had walked on by initially but had to run back because I couldn't stand letting this go. This doll was the first and currently is the only doll I have that I have kept in its box. Other dolls I usually like to take out, play with, modify and pose - I generally like to get "playline" dolls as opposed to ones made for adult collectors, because I find the casual playfulness and qualities more fun as well as affordable.

This doll has introduced me into a whole community and culture, as well as a part of me that I didn't know existed. I had known doll collectors as a child but never thought I would become one. I always thought of them as being old ladies with lots of shelves of fancy expensive barbies and porcelain little girls, not this huge and diverse community I have now met, of artists and engineers, designers, thrifters, mums and their kids, people with specialised interests that incorporate dolls like pop culture toy and figurine collectors, Disney lovers, etc.

[objectcultures]

Upright Pianos

This is my Sohmer and Co. wooden upright piano, the first instrument I have ever owned. It holds a dear place in my heart in the same way many people feel about their first instruments, because of the attachment it has to my childhood, my memories of learning and practicing, and my relationship with music.

I remember when I got my piano, I was turning 5 years old and was just about to begin lessons. My mother took me to a family friend's house who was selling her little upright piano because she'd just gotten a big shiny black grand. She was 18 and had finished all the learner levels of piano and was beginning her C.Mus. I thought I would have that story too when I was 18. I saw that huge grand piano, gleaming and too big for their living room and wished for it, I wished to earn it.

I remember all of the pianos I have encountered with the atmosphere that surrounded them, I see them in my memory with the emotions I felt when playing them and hearing them.

It was spring when I went to my first ever piano lesson. My teacher Phillip had a big white grand piano that sat by the front window looking over the court that their house was in, and they all had these trees that bloomed big white flowers with petals that would scatter across the lawns when the wind blew through them. I went every Tuesday afternoon after school. Phillip would give me three Yellow Pages to keep my feet on so they wouldn't dangle. As I grew I only needed 2, then one, then I could use my standard piano chair.

All my parents friend's kids played piano too. All the homes we visited would have a piano and at parties and holidays we would all have to play a little song for everyone. I dreaded those times.

Most of the people we visited had shiny black uprights covered with a long piece of silk or linen and some family photos, a couple figurines, maybe a candle.

In primary school our hall had an old wooden upright with loose, yellowing keys. When unattended my friends and I would play short little songs, easy songs that we all knew, silly songs we made up. I learnt songs that my piano lessons never would've taught me, songs that used entirely the wrong hand posture, songs that used my knuckles, songs that needed four or six hands.

Habits that I picked up from my time learning the piano have stuck with me despite me not playing for so long. Hearing music I still tap out the melody on an imaginary keyboard, add my own chords, sing the tune from sheet music when I read it, separate the treble and bass clef parts so I can hypothetically play it on the piano. Even though I have not played or practised technically in years, every time I hear the sounds of a keyboard instrument or see someone playing theirs, I long to go home and play mine. I miss the songs I felt so much frustration trying to perfect, i miss my scales and exercises, I miss my scribbled notes on my piano books above all the parts I could never get right. I remember as a child when I would get annoyed about having to practise every day, my mother would tell me that I’d thank her for making me learn when I was older, and now I know she was right.

[objectcultures]

The Folding Umbrella

The folding umbrella is something made to be packed up and carried around, so you can pull it out anytime. But you don't want to put it back after you've used it. It's wet, it'll damage your books and laptop. You leave it at the door when you go inside so it doesn't drip on the floor. It's small and compact so you don't notice it in your bag, but you don't notice it at the door when you're leaving either. It gets forgotten, you get a new one. Eventually, this cycle will repeat itself.

I found this umbrella propped up against the wall near a doorway, clearly forgotten but still waiting. It made me think about how disposable these umbrellas end up being, how many umbrellas we have each come across, how many each of us have accumulated unknowingly, unintentionally.

It is involved in a circle of rituals that calls for having multiple - one for each bag, one for the car, emergency ones at the office or in the cupboard, for visitors who don’t have one but are leaving in the rain, ones you’ve bought in an emergency when you’ve forgotten yours, ones you’ve borrowed. People end up buying another one at the grocery store because the one they used yesterday is drying at home. It is a system based on human forgetfulness, on dislike for getting one’s hair wet, on need for convenience and being prepared for the weather.

[objectcultures]

The Red M&M Pin

The favourite colour is an interesting aspect of human culture and psychology. It is often said how much one’s favourite colour reflects their personality, which can also be seen when their favourite colour changes. Children often have a very strong preference for a certain colour or specific character and are then drawn to anything that involves said thing. 

 Steph’s favourite colour as a child was red. It was a bold, vibrant colour that drew her attention every time, and, as a child, she was unabashed in her preference for it. She wore only red clothes and ate only red foods. Of course nutritionally, this was unsustainable so as a tactic to get her to eat her rice, her mother would put a few red M&Ms in it, allowing the colour to run through and making it acceptable in the eyes of young Stephanie.

This is the story that gives this pin its value, as something that reminds her of her fond childhood memories; of the way her mother tried her best to make adequate nutrition appeal to her as a child, and the way she felt when surrounded in her favourite colour, eating her red rice and wearing her red skirts. It was given to her by her piano teacher who actually didn’t know about the story but instead gave it as a part of another tradition they had together of giving sweets-themed memorabilia as Christmas gifts. Gifts from tutor and teacher figures always have an air of accomplishment to them, especially music teachers who stay the same throughout your studies and watch you grow from early childhood. Steph values this component of the gift as well, as well as the aspect of coincidence - the surprise of receiving a gift more personal and perfect than she could have ever anticipated.

 This pin is a symbol of the care she was given, of the love she received, and of all the best, happiest parts of her childhood.

[objectcultures]

My Favourite Cup

The favourite cup is such an important and universal concept. It is a common object that develops huge tenderness and emotional attachment in all people, a common thread between us all. In part because drinking is an essential part of human survival, but there is an additional aspect to it that has been created from other cultural rituals and conventions. The Favourite Cup holds so much personal identity, like many Favourite objects do, but on an external level this is heightened by everyone else also having a Favourite Cup, making itself like a broadly used identifier.

My favourite cup is the one I use every day, multiple times a day for all of my hot drinks. It was gifted to me by a friend that I actually am not so close to, but I love this cup because of all of its material properties that resonate with me in their own ways. It is extremely similar to my original Favourite Cup in all the areas that I enjoyed about it, which was gifted to me by my piano teacher the first Christmas after I began lessons, for attending my first piano recital. I really loved this cup because it was Winnie the Pooh themed, which was a character and story series that I particularly enjoyed as a child. It was my special cup that nobody else could use because it was so obviously mine - all the other cups we had in our house were part of the household set - so this cup became really dear to me. I loved that it featured the original A.A. Milne artwork as opposed to the newer Disney version, which I also enjoyed but didn't match the book that I'd received from my sister that same Christmas, a complete Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. This cup had soft pastel-like colours that I was really drawn to and my favourite part - two little shoes - Christopher Robin's shoes - on the inside rim. I would always fill the milk up in my hot Milos to where the shoes were, so to seem like he was dipping his toes into my drink to test the warmth of the milk for me.

My new favourite cup is also Winnie the Pooh themed and has a little decal on the inside rim so I have a measurement for consistency, but now it's huge for my new adult-sized caffeine needs. It's so tall and big that I always need a long milkshake spoon to stir in it, and now those spoons are a part of my routine as well. These particular physical attributes of one of my Favourite objects have shaped me to develop particular drinking habits and preferences. It becomes difficult and unfamiliar, uncomfortable to drink from a different cup that this now.

For me my original favourite cup signifies a lot of parts of my childhood that I now fondly remember - the beginning of my piano lessons before I got tired of practising, the relationship between my piano teacher's and my family before it got sour, the way I enjoyed Christmas as a child before it lost it's magic, and my unashamed love for all things Winnie the Pooh, all the adults who'd give me themed gifts they know I'd love because of this story and collection of characters that I enjoyed so much. It reminds me of the cute songs and sweet stories of a group of stuffed animals in an imaginary forest, and of times when I believed that the world would always seem like that world.

My attachment to these cups has now inspired a collection, of different types of Winnie the Pooh theme cups for different drink types and purposes.

[objectcultures]

Poring Plush Keychain

This is a plush of a character from the computer game Ragnarok Online, a game that Megan has played since she was a child, 8 or 9 years old. She won this plush recently during a server opening event that was held by the game where if you got to a high enough level and were in the first 50 to do so, they would mail you one of these plush keychains, that came in green, yellow and brown.

Poring is like the mascot character of the game, and is the lowest level monster or enemy. It is the first character anyone would encounter in the game - so her memories of it are all from when she first started playing it as a child. Ragnarok Online is also the first computer/video game that Megan ever played and became really invested in, it was the start of her now avid interest in computer and video games and so she considers it like her original favourite; her first love, in a way. 

This plush keychain ties her to the beginning of her interest in gaming culture, which has a huge community of its own that revolves around this shared hobby.

She doesn’t use it as a keychain, just keeps it in a cabinet because it is really special to her. It is not only a rare, limited-edition piece of collectible memorabilia but something that signifies her hard work and dedication to this game that she really loved as a child, something that she earned through getting really good at something she has enjoyed for most of her life, and reminds her of her childhood whenever she sees it.

[objectcultures]

Favourite Cups

Music: Something In Your Smile - Macroform

[objectcultures]

Tote Bags

Music: Readers Do You Read - Chris Zabriskie

[objectcultures]

Lanyards

Music: Cold Day - Macroform

[objectcultures]

Wizard Statue

An old ceramic wizard statue that is kept on the top of a shelf between the front door of his home and his bedroom door, something he sees everyday as he comes home and enters his room. It is an item that ties his frequently changing rented addresses to the idea of home.

Troy’s great grandmother collected wizard statues, and handed her collection down to him when she died because she knew he really liked them. From here he started collecting them himself, as a way to honour her and remember her but also because it aligned with his own interest in wizards, something he’d been interested in since he was young and why he was initially so drawn to his great grandmother’s collection.

He describes her as being very much like a wizard herself; really clever and sharp until the day she died at 92, living in a house filled with huge tall bookshelves and swirling smoke, always telling stories of her adventures travelling the world.

This statue is Troy’s favourite out of the 6 she gave him as well as all of his collection, because of the motion captured in the figure and the fine details in sculpture and painting, the realistic face, the slight shimmer of the finish, and the deep purple being his favourite colour. This statue has always been his favourite, and it is the reason his great grandmother left him her collection, because she noticed how taken he was with it every time he came over as a child.

Troy’s collection has grown and shrunk at various stages in his life after receiving the initial 6, from giving them away to close friends as a way for them to have an important part of his life while he was trying to minimise the amount of objects he had and kept around, to restarting his collection after wanting to accumulate possessions again. Through all of this, he has kept his great grandmother’s statues as they hold the most value to him.

[objectcultures]

Confession Candles

These are candles that the priest gives you after finishing a confession in the Catholic Church. He tells you that you are forgiven, lights the candle and gives it to you with prayer recommendations such as 5 Hail Marys. You are then to walk around the empty church with your candle and reflect on your experience and say the prayers etc. What is done with the candle after is up to you.

My family has kept all our confession candles from over the years, with no intention of ever lighting one again. It is unclear as to why we have over 20 of the same, plain candle with a small pale-coloured ribbon tied around the middle, as they hold little to no practical, financial or even sentimental value. Confession is not a particularly memorable or significant life event in any way, as you can do it any day of the week, as many times as you’d like, for any reason you please. The experience is not usually something you’d want to remember in years to come, and the candles are not distinct enough to be a good souvenir.

Objectively speaking, these are extremely underwhelming candles, made literally to be given away - they have no monetary worth. They are not particularly visually pleasing or good quality at all - they clack when hit together and the wax is streaky, uncoloured and unscented. However, though plain, they, with their little pale-coloured ribbons tied around them, have an air of sincerity. Their modest appearance offers a sense of forgiveness and sensitivity, they’re made to make you feel better, and to reassure you that you’re allowed to feel better.

You wouldn’t throw out your confession candle directly after doing your confession, so I guess because of that limbo time, there becomes never a great time to throw out your confession candle.

[top-ology-blog]

[really-shit]

I’m Korean is a minimalist design by Sayme Choi. [thanks]