Storage for teenagers
On the subject of design, here's a polish firm who understands the unique storage needs of teenagers. I know I would have needed one. Or perhaps I still do. :)
Happiness for the whole family in three easy steps. :)
Gogo has a nifty and simple journal stand too, keeps track of how far you've read.
/O.K.
(Listening to while posting: Alexander Glazunov - Piano concerto no 1)
12 comments:
That closet is... very useful, until you need something at the bottom! Great idea, and some of the other things at their web site is really cool too. But more cool than useful or beautiful I think.
So how do you combine beautiful and practical? Isn't that the main question for design, PP? Or maybe design shouldn't be pretty? Just functional?
PS. First I thought you meant this was a place to store teenagers...
I realized it could be interpreted like that, but I didn't bother to change the headline. So, closets shouln't be confused with cryogenics... ;)
"very useful, until you need something at the bottom!"
But that's what the red button is for, to restore order/disorder depending on your point of view.
A good design meets certain design goals. You don't design a nuclear missile and a whisk the same way. Different goals...
Or maybe you do? Any thoughts, pp?
"A beautiful thing is as useful as a useful thing"
The most useful things can also be the most beautiful! Like an old bucket or hammer, or a well. The problem is to make new things that are beautiful and functioning.
My favorite beautiful and functioning things we have in our house:
* spoon rest shaped like a fried egg
* leather sofa
* raised garden beds with copper stands for plants to climb on
* terracotta pots
* the round whisk we have
* the hand mixer
* the scale in the kitchen
* my mom's handmade rugs
* kitchen island, built by PP
* Fiestaware water pitcher in cobolt blue
(there are lots more)
Functioning, but not pretty (=bad design):
* toilets (hard to clean!)
* kids' bathtub (too low, too small, drain unreachable)
* kids' beds (IKEA, boxy)
* OJ cartons
* all microwave ovens in the world
* plastic bags
* deer fencing
* mailbox
random comments:
LS,
spoon rest shaped like an egg: Ilike it too, but it really is not very functional, it has no lip so stuff drips off the edge on to the counter.
Mailbox...to me this is a "classic american design" and its image conjures up thought of a "simpler, happier time." True it might not be "pretty", but it is certainly functional and has been made pretty much the same for decades. I hate the new molded plastic ones!
The mailbox is part of the "American vernacular" vocabulay. Many(not nearly all)of my favorite things are in this group.
This is one example.(note not everything on their site is "it".
I suppose you don't design a missle and a whisk the same, but for me everything that people interact with must start the same way, from the user(s) perspective. Once those requiremnts are met then the form can take many dirrections. There is(was, actually, I think) a lot of talk about that when designed right an object will simply "become" its shape. Bull! I thought and think. One of my teachers at Grad school(Rowena Reed Kolstello) said:
"Not enought time and attention are given to the designer's first responsibility: to find and develop the visual solutions for living in our environment. Of course a product is no good to anyone unless the function is properly worked out. The object should express what it is very directly, but it is possible for a design to express what it is and also to be a beautiful object in its own right."
She taught that design and form were skills like, say a sport or musical instrument playing. One HAD to practice it to get better at it. Design was not Art, ideas did not just spring up in a momnet of inspiration, but were born of study and lots of iterations.
ok, enough now!
OK, I understand that the mailboxes are part of US history, but is it great American design? The new ones are uglier, of course, but I think they are strange - things have to be folded to fit, it can rain into them, and so on. But I have to agree, America would not be the same without its mailboxes, and when you see a US mailbox you know it is a mailbox.
PP, you are right about the spoon holder, it is not the perfect functioning object. But I like it!
"There is(was, actually, I think) a lot of talk about that when designed right an object will simply "become" its shape."
I've heard this too, but if it was true there would be only one "correct" design, something I find very unlikely.
Interesting views, PP.
One could argue whether even the function is good on the toilets, bathtub and microwave oven, LS. I'd say unless the toilet is selfcleaning, cleaning it has to be part of the design. If the design of the user interface of the microwave oven hinders you, is the oven really functioning?
Of course I mean :
"cleaning it has to be part of the function"
"I've heard this too, but if it was true there would be only one "correct" design, something I find very unlikely."
What I think the meaning is, there is no ONE correct final form, but every "form giver" will bring something different to the project and thus the result will difer. Witness the number of patents for something as simple as say a clothespin or a paper clip.
I did my thesis at Pratt on a wayfinding system for the NYC subway. I interviewed a lot of people on how they found their way around. One thing that came up a lot(which was not really even part of my project) was people could not see where to put the token in the turn stile machine.(this was before the electronic fare cards) And it was true, I witnessed it many times. It was a tiny little slot not enhanced are called out in any way. Many people commented "I'm so stupid, I couldn't see where to put it". My reaction was "Gee the designer was so stupid as to not make the one part that interacts with the user obvious and easy to use"
"What I think the meaning is, there is no ONE correct final form, but every "form giver" will bring something different to the project and thus the result will differ."
Exactly, there are so many decisions to make so personal preferences comes into play.
I read an excellent article about the different maps for the subways in NYC, of course I cannot find it now. Heres is one of the latest proposals anyway: Kickmap
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