Great Design Isn’t For Everyone
Many moons ago now, I took a trip to London to visit the Design Festival with my class. There was a little spotlight on the new Montblanc M Ballpoint Pen designed by Marc Newson (who I just wrote about on my Design and Technology World View blog), and being the diligent young designers in search of inspiration that we were, obviously we needed to take a look. Upon entering this extremely high end store, feeling a little underdressed, we explained we were design students interested in said new pen, and they kindly obliged to take it out of it’s (most likely laser protected) glass case.
The pen had beautiful balance, it looked and felt both sleek and professional, and the best part in my opinion was definitely the magnet concealed within the lead and tip of the pen. The magnet almost pulled together pen and lid autonomously, as if it wanted to protect itself. This is definitely one of those incredibly satisfying little things in life.
There is no doubt in my mind that this pen has been designed incredibly well, I’d even say it’s been engineered very well too, but unfortunately I have a couple of issues. Aside from the magnetised lid mechanism (which is beautiful), I don’t like it! Now perhaps I’m just a little too outspoken when it comes to things like this, (my dual nationality probably showing) but as soon as I tried writing my name with the pen, I instantly disliked it and didn’t hesitate to say in the [very high end and expensive] shop “Well it doesn’t write very smoothly does it...and it’s a bit big don’t you think?”. Maybe not my finest moment, as the shop assistant hesitantly took it away from me and put it back in it’s secure glass case.
The point I’d like to make here though is that great design is not going to please everyone! The truth is, I’m one of the pickiest people when it comes to choosing the perfect pen to write with for hours a day, but just because it doesn’t meet all of my criteria doesn’t mean it won’t meet someone else’s. Yes, I thought it was too thick around, but maybe my hands are smaller than it was designed for, and it didn’t write very smoothly, but then it was only a ballpoint pen (though on second thought a £270 pen better write pretty seriously smooth). Maybe if I had tried the fountain pen it would have been different? But then, I think fountain pens are too inky and messy so that probably wouldn’t have suited me either. It also comes with a pretty hefty price tag that won’t be accessible to many people within the mass market, but then, I’m quite sure that’s not really where this pen has been marketed for anyway.
Conclusion. Good design? Yes. Is it for me? No.
I think it’s important to remember though that just because it doesn’t appeal to one person doesn’t mean it’s a bad design, it doesn’t mean you have failed as a designer. Besides, that’s what Universal design is supposed to tackle, and that’s a whole ‘nother kettle of fish entirely.
