Handling it
Laval, QC, November 2007 [Click to embiggen]
I'm fascinated by industrial design. We use countless objects to get ourselves through any given day, but we rarely take a moment to look at them and wonder how they came to be as they are. Well-implemented industrial design concepts ensure they perform their intended role as intended, often not drawing attention to themselves in the process.
But I'll pay attention anyway because I'm weird. The syrup holder at the restaurant we went to before getting on the road for the long drive back to London had a neat shape to it. It seemed simple and purposeful, and I thought it would make a fun quick study in shape and surface texture.
It didn't hurt that my shooting the image made fellow diners furrow their brows, wondering why the strange guy with the Ontario accent was playing with his camera and not eating his breakfast.
Your turn: Pick an everyday object near you right now. Please describe it in a comment.
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9 comments:
that is one sweet boysenberry syrup holder handle.
Hello, Michele sent me
Oops... I forgot my assignment.
I have a sky blue plastic tumbler...
ciao, Carmi
Actually, it's my keys. Sometimes they stick. Sometimes the lock freezes. They unlock, turn on, open doors. Keys have always amazed me. When I was a kid I always wondered how the lock knew who was holding the key so it would open.
That looks like a functional syrup dispenser. My quarrel with a lot of industrial designs is that they are dirt catchers; made with grooves, nooks and crannies just waiting to trap dirt!
I have a stainless steel desk lamp that only catches dust on the very top and base of it - no grooves to get grimy!
Darn it, Carmi, I took one look at that and am craving pancakes from this Pittsburgh institution called Pamela's.
Now to make it happen...
In front of me I have a soft red and white stocking. I've never had a stocking before, and apparently stockings don't have to be sock-shaped. It is long and rectangular. It has a pair of laces with little snowball-like pom-poms on the ends, but unfortunately it does not close like a drawstring, though it can be tied closed. The inside has a rough, networked fabric. I don't have a use for a stocking, but I can use this as a nice Scrabble tile bag.
The combination calculator/calendar/alarm clock, that pops up with a push of one button is pretty cool if you ask me. It's on the desk and although it was a cheap purchase, is soooo handy.
There's a mug beside me. It is a smooth porcelain cylinder, white, with a handle on the side made of a loop of porcelain. There is a simple design applied on the outside.
You've seen thousands of them in your lifetime, and you've probably not stopped to consider how well designed most mugs are. They will contain about 1 cup of liquid, which is a satisfying amount of coffee or tea, not too much, not too little. The handle is flattened and is oval in cross-section, and it is sized such that most human hands fit comfortably and allow a stable grip without touching the hot surface of the mug. A man like me will use three fingers through the loop: a small woman like my wife four. We will both place our thumb on the top of the loop, and we will be able to control the mug.
Nobody designs new mugs, or, if they do, they are fancy over-designed and fashionable departures from the basic mug-shape. They're never as easy or as comfortable to use as the old-fashioned dependable mug.
That's one of the signs of a good design, when departures from the design do not improve it.
It's the spiral cord of the telephone ... with kinks in it. In spite of my best effort .. why does it always have kinks?
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