weblog August 03, 2006   Salone 2006 tales (a slight reprise). A few months ago I wrote a quite caustic commentary on an object I had seen during the Salone del Mobile di Milano, a multi-purpuse wooden box called the Crate, produced by British firm Established & Sons and designed by Jasper Morrison. To my surprise Jasper recently got in touch, and we exchanged a few emails, trying to clarify our differing points of view. I have to say upfront that my original post was not typical of freegorifero, as I personally don't believe that to prove the sharpness of one's arguments those critiqued should be left cut and bleeding. In this case though, as I tried to explain to Jasper himself, the edginess of my words was probably caused by the passion I've always had for his work and overall approach to design, with similarly strong feelings elicited by a product which I felt did little justice to the respect and admiration I have for him. Our conversation did not really change my initial ideas, but it did pleasantly confirm that Morrison's beautifully simple, elegant objects actually reflect the values of their creator. I don't know many people who would have tackled some unknown guy's critical words with his openness and egolessness. I thus thought it would only be fair to let you know his point of view in addition to mine, so that you can form your own opinion. With Jasper's permission I've thus posted below excerpts from our email exchange. Enjoy. FS "While I share your interest and enthusiasm for 'super-normal' objects, I also think that anything brought into the world should make a 'just noticeable difference', it should have a 'soul'... both aspects I still fail to perceive, I am sorry to say, in the Crate. What I see instead is a branding exercise that almost seems to be mocking the 'affordable design for the masses' ethos, and uses a faithful copy of a 'found object' as its conduit. Hence the irritation, first and foremost at the marketing hoopla surrounding the product. I also very well know that it can be deceiving to judge a designer's real involvement with a product from the product itself, and that sometimes the industry-at-large has its curious ways of twisting good intentions, but you being who you are, one of the world's best-known product designers, brought me to assume that the control you have had over the product has been substantial. Thus the (harsh) criticism, which I hope hasn't overly offended you, honestly. Needless to say this is also simply my opinion, not an absolute truth, and I would love to hear your point of view." JM "Thanks for your explanation, it's very interesting to have this direct opinion from someone who cares about 'how things are'. I see you are upset by what you percieve as a cynical marketing exercise, but let me explain. First of all no one in a hundred years is going to get rich making wooden boxes and selling them as bedside tables. It was never the goal to exploit consumers, but there was more than one reason for doing it, and I hope I can convince you that it's a worthwhile project, even if you don't like it. Reason 1 I think that design has become a serious source of visual pollution. Designers are being fooled into 'expressing themselves' visually by an image hungry media, and have forgotten their responsibilities as guardians of the everyday man made environment. Conclusion: too much personal expressive ego going on, find other ways to arrive at solutions. Reason 2 Apart from copying someone else's work, I don't think there are any limits on how a designer achieves a design, so long as it is a useful offering and represents good value/quality and doesn't pollute. I did have the original crate (and still do) beside my bed for 3 years, and it took me those three years to reach the conclusion that offering it as a design was a good thing to do, because it works so well, and because I couldn't get any more boxes from the wine shop. I don't claim any ownership of the use of wooden boxes beside beds, it's just an act of trying to be helpful, so if anyone can find a wine shop giving away boxes then go ahead and use it. If not and you can afford £95, and want one, it's available. Conclusion: If a designer comes across something useful, it's part of his job to make it available. Finally if there is a cynical side to the project, it's aimed at manufacturers who would produce anything with a name attached to it. There's no debate in our profession and almost no questioning of the worth of producing so much stuff. I am annoyed about what my profession is becoming: a cheap-trick supplier to the media, and this project and others, including the Super Normal exhibition which will be shown in Milan next April, are attempts to balance the situation." FS "May I also ask you why you decided to be quite literal in the translation of the box from 'found object' to product? I appreciate your reasons, but I have to admit struggling with the idea of the designer as a 'facilitator' of sorts, and always preferred to think in terms of a 'catalyst', someone who can act as the 'secret ingredient' to accelerate processes and make them go the next step (this not at all implying for the designer to be THE ingredient, just one of them). In this case did you consider at all ways to improve the original wooden box, and if you decided not to, may I ask why?" JM "I suppose it seemed wrong for me to 'correct' something which worked well already. In fact for production reason we did upgrade the joints a bit and changed the wood from ordinary pine wood (which wasn't possible to find in the same form as on the original crate) to douglas fir. A very long time ago (1988 or so) I bought some forged steel coat hooks and screwed them on to a piece of wood, replicating a home made solution to hanging up coats. The argument then was the same as now, it's a charming solution to a problem which works well and can't be found in shops. I like these kind of eveyday solutions which anyone could invent. For me doing things which are obvious is more interesting than trying to do things which are obscure and overly personal in expression. That's all I can say on the subject, but of course you reserve your right to think it's a bad project, no problem, you are not the only one!" Well, I may still think it's a project I am not particularly keen on, but what I've seen of the man definitely matches, if not overshadows, the outstanding quality of the designer. Not a small feat, at least in my book. Posted by fabio sergio | 8:57 AM | permalink ............ Not bored yet? Visit freegorifero's weblog archives for more useless words.

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