Product Design and Innovation

There are many parallels between architecture and product design; both involve the creative analysis of function and aesthetics toward the goal of visually beautiful, accessible, and unique structures and objects. Often the two are directly intertwined, as in 56 Leonard, where Herzog & de Meuron designed the interiors of the residences, or the numerous products designed by aclaimed architect, Zaha Hadid.

The most interesting part of product design, for me at least, is the ability to transform commonplace objects into stunning and thought provoking objects of art. The following designers have offered unique new designs for a bookshelf, a clock, and a calendar, that all transcend the pure functionality that usually dominates our impressions of products.

I actually provided a link to Juxtaposed: Religion, designed by Mike and Maaike for blankblank, in my previous article on the Autonomobile. The project takes the world's holy books - the bible, the torah, the koran, the baghavadghita, the analects, the discourses on budha, and the tao te ching - and places them all on a single bookshelf in a series of grooves that render them flush and even on all sides.

"For the first time, the world's most influential religious texts are brought together and presented on the same level, their coexistance acknowledged and celebrated." While this is not a terribly functional bookshelf, unless you happen to be a religious scholar, it has a deeper purpose which it achieves beautifully. Mike and Maaike have managed to convey the equality of religions in a way that is far more profound and appealing than any brief text or dialogue could. That ability to provoke thought should be one of the aspirations of all great design.

In a different vein entirely, Sander Mulder, a dutch designer, has created "Continue Time," a clock that defies conventional form. The clock has a single, articulated arm that manages to display hours, minutes, and seconds simultaneously, instead of using the typical three arms around a central axis model.

One of the things that's so neat about this design is that in addition to telling time, it acts as a moving sculpture, seeking out new and varied positions over the course of the day. In the words of the designer: "The resulting kinetic artwork is continuously changing its shape during a full rotation of twelve hours. While creating mesmerizing patterns on your wall the pointers are still read as with any traditional clock."

This next design has the same appeal, and also deals with altered form as a way of representing time. "Ink Calendar," by Oscar Diaz, is a calendar of paper and ink that keeps track of the day over the course of a month. The ink slowly spreads through a sheet of paper embossed with numbers, coloring each new day as it occurs. Each month features a different color of ink, corresponding to the seasonal weather.

While this design is certainly the most beautiful calendar I have ever seen, it is also something more. By allowing form to change over time, this design, as well as Continue Time, appeal far more to our senses and the innate way we percieve the world than conventional devices for the measurement of time. Oscar Diaz designed with this notion in mind: "The calendar enhances the perception of time passing and not only signaling it. The aim of the project is to address our senses, rather than the logical and conscious brain."

Because of the variance of function, it is no doubt easier to create innovative and unique new designs for products, than to do the same when designing buildings. Nonetheless, what these designs offer is the value of approaching a project free from conventional conceptions of what a product, or a building, "is." Starting from a blank slate is more work, but it provides infinitely more room for creativity and for the creation of truly brilliant design.

For source photos or more information on these products, see Mike and Maaike's website, Dezeen, or again, Dezeen, respectively.