GOOD Design Show
Saturday, October 30th, 2010 in: News
Kaoru gave me the heads up that the GOOD Design Show was back in town, so I asked her to come check it out with me. I remember my first encounter with the show back in 2006, when I randomly stumbled into an exhibit at Geidai (Tokyo School of Art) on a field trip for my art class. I wandered into a random exhibition hall at the school and found myself surrounded by objects new and old that have been honored over the years. A public interview with a product designer of some of the products was going on under the spotlight of the crowd’s eyes and cameras, and despite the intimate setting, it felt like a big deal.
Holy shit, I’d stumbled into Inside the Actor’s Studio for designers.
That memory was laying dormant somewhere in my mind, but it’s always served to remind me that regardless of what you’re into, anyone can be a rock star. Whether you’re an actual rock star, a designer, an architect, a yo-yo player, or a forensic analyst (been watching a lot of Dexter), celebrity is just a manifestation of admiration, whether you deserve it , or don’t. Anyone who gains recognition can attain celebrity status if they are so inclined, but I am so much more interested in people upon whom celebrity is thrust for their excellence in a particular field, rather than those who seek it out.
Which is my first problem with the Design Awards. You have to submit your work.
That’s not to say there isn’t good design present, but I felt a little choked with the mundane. What does it take for something to be a good design? Does it have to depart from the norm, to fly in the face of common sense? Does it need to look appealing? Should it have some clever practical use? Should it be built using sustainable materials and means of production? Or is it just enough for it to serve its purpose. I suppose if that were the case, there would be more than the 1,000 or so products that were on display at Tokyo Big Site that weekend.
We arrived just a little before 3pm, and realized that as the last day of the show, we had just an hour left to take in the show.
The GOOD
Modular planter, the soil is a special sponge so there's never a mess to clean up
New brain wave reader, replaces tons of bulky, one-time-use equipment
Bags made out of hops used to make this beer.
The paint on the bottle is heat-sensitive, showing you how much liquid is in the bottle
Really cool bookmark, can also hold your book open for you, or serve as a money clip
Dyson's famous bladeless fan design. So cool, so expensive
A different kind of urn, this planter uses your ashes as fertilizer. The circle of life!
Desk with a built-in cat tree
bookmarks, clever
Definite inspiration by Charles and Ray Eames
Tomato planter, everything you need to get your garden going
Biodegradable packing foam, with the added benefit of being letterforms
The not-so-good
A computer case with a built-in ipod dock. Not much for product longevity, considering Apple's upgrade cycle
You don't need a hairdryer-sized gadget to wash your hair. The concept itself is wasteful.
This little wooden bike doesn't even have pedals.
It looks nice, but I know better. This laptop is a piece of shit.
This was just a concept, it looked nice enough but as soon as I touched it it literally fell apart.
Not comfortable. At all.
A rather large piece of furniture for two chairs that face away from each other.
This... didn't make any sense.
Tea can. Not exactly impressive
Rather mundane
As nice as the idea is, I really hate the flower industry
Sorry, but this design says "Swiss modernism," not "condoms"
Cute, but tiny little bean sprouts don't exacly offset tiny little plastic things made in China
The WTF
An electronic donation machine? Are people going to use this?
half toilet, half urinal. hmm
The backside. Pee here
Crazy car design
Crazy cup, actually kind of interesting
bedside forest. Kind of pointless
No idea what's going on here
There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this
So, this isn’t all we saw at the event, but it’s a taste of some of the things that made the event worth visiting. It’s good to be reminded that there are still a lot of companies looking to produce innovative solutions. If you look past the undercurrent of everyone patting themselves on the back, there’s some impressive stuff there.
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