Dying For Good Design

If the toothbrush is the epitome of lazy design then the coffin is the epitome of greedy design. It is an over indulgent purchase that never provides anything for the user and then simply rots away. However, everyone buys one and companies manage to make mi££ions from them. Everyone wants a coffin made from mahogany or oak - a nice expensive vessel to ride into the afterlife. It is a status symbol like owning a Bentley or a Mercedes. It appears that our strange fixation with our image doesn't end with death.

The cardboard coffin is the alternative. A fraction of the price, friendlier to the environment and customisable, either personally before death or by the funeral goers (a nice activity to take the mind off of the grieving process). All in all an innovative, well thought out, product. But it cannot be the funeral director's that take all of the blame for being greedy, they are only making some cash off of the consumers greed.

So why do we continue to invest in these expensive coffins?

Religion?

-I bet Jesus would have chosen the cardboard coffin!

Superstition or fear of the unknown?

-We all want to be prepared for the worst, so why not buy the nicest box possible to spend the rest of eternity in?

Preconceptions?

-Everyone else does it so why not me...

Status?

-I'll look so cool in this... pity I wont be around to see everyone's reactions.

Watch This Space

Watches watches watches. Always relevant within design due to their essentially invariable style, perceived value and necessity. The above picture provides one of the many current designs of a wristwatch - it manages to cater to most of the modern preconceptions. The mobile timepiece has gone through few real progressions bar the wrist-strap and conversion to digital. Why is this? Is this through laziness or because it is good design?

This Japanese flash watch has its own way of telling time through different colours and sequences. I like this watch, it manages to differentiate itself from the other million models already on sale. It cannot really be classed as lazy design as it has pioneered its own interface. I do like the blue sky thinking behind the product, however, it is regressive - it is much harder to tell the time as opposed to existing watches. It shows no progression, like the jump from analogue to digital.

This LED Watch from Phillipe Starck shows good innovation. It challenges preconceptions and shows progression. It challenges the architecture of a common watch and does away with the screen completely. I like this from-the-ground-up-design and I believe it should be implemented much more frequently. Although it is not a huge leap it is indeed a step in the right direction. It is definitely not lazy and it is not being greedy by stealing other designs.

It seems everyone and their dog wants an all-in-one gadget, this is the reason for the market being flooded by camera/MP3 phones and MP4 players. Some companies have taken it to the next level and made a camera/phone/watch. This is an example of a model from a company called Telson. This is lazy AND greedy; they made it big and ugly, they obviously rushed it to production before technology had reached a reasonable level as to be 'pioneers' and, believe it or not, they stole from another design...

...this is The Lancashire Ladies Watch Camera, and being invented in the 19th-century, it must take the roll of the original multi disciplined gadget.

The Forbidden Fruit

For some reason I could not uload the video directly but you can find it through this link:

http://movies.apple.com/movies/us/apple/mac/macbook/2008/designvideo/apple_new_macbook_video_20081014_r848-9cie.mov

Is Apple the only electronics company that still even cares about anything? It seems all of the others have fallen asleep in their big beds made of money.

Disposable Society

This new advert from Nokia manages to convey how dependent we (especially the youth of today) have become on technology. It shows how large companies can easily use our blind reliance for their own greedy ends.

Don't Forget to Brush

In my eyes the toothbrush is the epitome of lazy design. The bristles have a limited lifespan which means that it is a product which will have to be replaced regularly. Fifty million pounds of toothbrushes are tossed into U.S. landfills every year. However, nearly all toothbrushes are made from plastic rather than a bio-degradable material. I only found one true exception from the hundreds of designs available on the market -

http://radiustoothbrush.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=16.

It seems that this design alone manages to break the plastic preconception.

Mr. Toothbrush then adds insult to injury by being incredibly greedy too. The most expensive toothbrushes can cost up to £200 with audacious claims of "precision sonic waves" to shine up your enamel. However, it has been scientifically proven that it is technique over technology that keeps teeth clean - only a bad workman blames his tools. For the last year or so i have been using 21p Asda own brand toothbrushes as opposed to £5 professional models and there has been no difference, still no fillings or criticism from the dentist.


Toothbrush manufacturers use fear to sell toothbrushes. People, quite rightly, value their teeth especially because they only ever get one set. Companies play on the fear of losing teeth and then increase prices and produce countless upgraded models. This could also be attributed to the laziness and impressionability of the consumer, who should really just learn how to brush properly. Companie's greed preys on our laziness.