4 December 2010

Droog, Reinventing design

After spending a few weeks choosing what I wanted to do with my life, I settled on product design, for one good reason. I love design function. During my enquires I found various artists designers which inspired me in ways I can't begin to explain, one of which made me think of a quirky one liner which fits perfectly;


"perfection is a necessity" 




Droog; Senz Umbrella 
A simple umbrella design, think of the classic. A bar straight down the middle, central to the canvas cover. Thinking in terms of ergonomics its not the brightest idea, don't get me wrong it does work but its not perfect. Now think about human posture and how we hold an umbrella, we do not hold the bar in front of us, its always to to side, well in a relaxed holding position. Since we do have arms either side of our body, yet the classic umbrella will sit only half over your body, while the other half is basically useless, unless you have a very close friend who you don't mind sharing body heat with. 
  Now, take a look at Droogs version of a classic. The canvas extends over one side more than the other to ensure complete cover of a person. Its a simple idea, but it works so well. By making one side extend further it leaves a person hold it in a more relaxed way, so your not to close to the bar yet still be completely covered. Just to put the icing on the cake, they also fitted a design which stops the umbrella turning inside out and caps on the ends to stop injury from sharp pointy spikes. A simple design remastered by true designer thinkers. 
So why do we settle for the imperfections?   


As the consumer we have a voice, and we can say change is a good thing. The classics don't have to be lost, just improve. We wouldn't settle for an unreliable car which drinks petrol, luckily cars have improved and undergone serious development. So why can't we improve everyday objects to make them more useful to us? We shouldn't settle for ordinary, and we definitely shouldn't say to our selves, "It kinder works, or its O.K". You should be saying, wow this is just what I needed, its perfect for me. Of course everything has flaws, some which can not be helped, but the flaws that can be changed, I say lets change them. I say, Perfection is a Necessity.