I have been wanting to write about one of my passion of late - finding affordable items that tickle my sensibilities. Most of these items are food and drink related. Others are designed for the machine of habitat. To be clear, I am not a collector. Before my purchase, I usually convince myself I would find useful purpose with the article while it is true some may not get good daily use.
In recent years I am going through a un-design phase. Un-design is a play of word. It is my recent interest in finding note worthy everyday items locally and internationally. For years I have supported the design community. I have invested into my a fair share of well designed household products which would serve a lifetime and more from well respected designers, craftsmen, and architects the like of the Eames, Achille Castiglion, Citterio and countless others..
I do not want to blog about the well-covered object. There are plenty of blogs on the web that write about them. Instead I want to write about the common everyday objects that are not well appreciated. Often these objects can be ubiquitous in some regions of the world, but seldom seen or just not available in others.
I have particular liking for well designed or under-appreciated plastic objects. It may be the subliminal remembrance of the advice Mr. McGuire gave to Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate - "just one word, plastics".
It would be too easy to write about anything that tickles my wimps. To begin I want to set out some ground rules. To qualify, the object must score well in most of the following list of attributes:
- accessibility - affordable but may be difficult to find
- functionality - typically strong in utility, or with aesthetic merits that pleasure our senses
- aesthetics - typically unappreciated or unnoticed in the country I now reside; sometimes they are
- tacky - may be eyesore in some countries but are ubiquitous in others
- strong cultural significance - often strong archetype or archetype reference
- outstanding attributes - with merits deserve mention
- purpose made - often for a specially purpose specific to the region or culture
- under appreciate - often in the country of my residence
- cost to performance ratio - bang for the buck
- hard to find - often chance find from a trip
- merchandising accident - bargain in sales channels with wrong target customers; often found at a great bargain.
To kick start the series I pick these toilet paper-cum-napkin dispensers.
articles of delight - napkin dispenser
If you'd ever visited SE Asia countries you are likely to encounter them. Instead of giving you napkins the places where locals eat may have this on the tables. It dispense toilet paper which is much cheaper than napkins. With these the patrons tend to use much less - the small size of each sheet. People there generally are more frugal and use must less resources per capita than we in the West. I regretted I didn't bring back a few when I left Bangkok.
While in San Francisco and Oakland, CA I seeked them out in Chinatowns there. I was so happy to find them. $3.50 and $1.99 respectively (left to right).
you have to remove the cylindrical form in the center
this one is made in Hong Kong - very rarely one finds a product made there these days
used as a prop in a street side ramen party
I like the minimalistic astute design and form-follows-function trait of this one. The pink one however has cheap chic charms.
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