Living in the past is not exactly a positive trait, but living in the present while keeping the experiences of the past in mind opens up a wealth of possibilities that can give great solutions to our everyday problems.
When designing the objects we use, the goal is usually to achieve the most modern look possible, but at the same time, we have tools that require us to take into account the solutions of the past, or some that can be used the same way they were before. The notion of retro has become part of our daily lives over the years, so it’s not unusual if, let’s say, a headphone sports twisting or textile-coated cables in our wireless world, even though these stylistic features evoke a particularly retro effect. The right feel doesn’t just depend on the material used, be it plastic, metal, leather or textile. A design based on past experiences should have a unique texture, pattern, and formal design, or it should provide a sense of manual handling through simple features, just as you need to push a dedicated little switch on your smartphone to mute it. These subtle solutions take the user back into a world before total digitization, and suggest that we still have power over the machines we create, even if they are equipped with enough technology to land on the Moon.
In our current selection, we are featuring everyday objects from South Korea to the UK that refuse to leave the past behind but also carry the freshness of the future in their functions.
Wireless keyboard | Seoul, South Korea
250 Design
Nintendo flex | San Francisco, USA
YJ Yoon
Minolta XL-400N video camera | Seoul, South Korea
PDF HAUS
Jaewon Choi
Braun fan concept | Valencia, Spain
Jorge Ros
Marshall Major II – CGI headphones | London, United Kingdom
Giuseppe Alaimo
Favorite interiors of the week_48
Visual storytelling through the eyes of Daniela Olejniková
