For twenty years, OXO has been at the forefront of great, functional industrial design. Their products are not always the most aesthetically pleasing, but they find problems and create products that solve them. They adhere strongly to the concept of 'universal design,' making their products usable, comfortable, pleasant for as many people as they can. They look at how people use products, and what problems arise that users might not even know about. OXO's president, Alex Lee, gave a riveting speech at Gel 2008, which does a good job of explaining what makes OXO great. To me, it's not just having good, smart design (technically, the majority of OXO's design work is done by firm Smart Design, an apt name…) but rather getting said designs in the hands of the masses, rather than making absurdly-priced one-offs or even the somewhat-more-accessible products sold by Alessi.
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date: 2010-04-12 19:32:27
Who hasn’t built an indoor fort out of sheets or chairs as a child? However, looking at the Tukluk, designed by Benedikt Kirsch+ Katharina Schildgen makes me wish I had this as a kid. A rough translation from the German website the Tukluk is featured on describes these triangles as microfiber, with sewn-in magnets running along the sides of each piece, enabling a child to reconfigure these triangles to their hearts content. The website demonstrates uses ranging from a play mat to a cave or fort structure.
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date: 2010-04-08 10:27:42
Welcome! The Collapsible and the Modular is a small blog branch of the tree that is brainaxle ideas, dedicated to finding and examining products which make use of two of Brian's favorite industrial design techniques - that which is collapsible1, and that which is modular. Brian says:
By now we should be past excessive, bigger-is-better notions. More products are coming to fruition which allow us, even encourage us to only take up as much space as we actually need. To better make use of small spaces while still having the products we need to lead a comfortable, normal life.
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date: 2010-04-07 10:24:50
The Collapsible and The Modular