Today's designboom daily email highlighted a lamp that caused me some irritation. The lamp was said to focus on simplicity and honesty in design.
I agree with the observation of honesty. Its construction is transparent. It is straightforward, direct.
Simply said, it did focus on simplicity. It consists of three elements: a clothes pin, a hanging bare bulb and a lamp shade. But I like my simplicity to be a little neater, a little cleaner, a little subtler, a little quieter. By using an object (the clothes pin) for an unintended purpose (as a base for a bulb AND to clip the shade), this lamp is speaking rather loudly and it is saying: "Look at me, aren't I clever? Bet you wouldn't have thought to do this." And so on. It is quite proud of itself. It is anything but simple.
Commenter Charles wrote: " I made the very same lamp 40 years ago as a student because i had no money to buy a proper lamp. Mine used a thin plastic sheet and a heavy spring clamp like you see in a woodworking shop. I also made a light table just as simply and never considered these to be good design, just acts of desperation in poverty."
He continued: "The lamp is in fact not great design."
Commenter J Jones wrote: "What constitutes great design, if not simplicity and novelty in the use of every-day materials? It doesn't depend on "it's been done before;" it depends on its current attractiveness and the appreciation it generates."
Charles is right. Simplicity and honestly in design is obviously a worthy goal but if we are going to praise something and hold it above other things, we need better standards than just those two criteria.
J Jones is wrong. If simplicity and novelty constitutes great design then my use of used chewing gum as a rest for chopsticks during dinner would be a good idea. And oh so clever.
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