Posted by sabine7
Interview | 29 Nov 07 | Comments (4)
We featured Merrill Lyons’ Collectables Coat Rack not too long ago, a piece that got a fair bit of attention. Some of her other pieces also combine a primary function with lighting, like the mirrors and storage units we show today. Lyons explains for whom she designed these pieces and why.
Your Collectables Coat Rack draws on tying nostalgia to contemporary needs. Why do you think we are so receptive to delving back into the past? Is nostalgia a factor in your other designs?
I wanted to create a product that was not only useful but conjured up feelings of the familiar. It was helpful for me, in tailoring this product, to clearly define the needs and desires of the user. This group was then defined as the "young urban dweller" who, most likely lived in a home deficient of light and space. A common factor of renting their home also correlated with a lack of personality and sense of warmth in their living space. It was then clear to me that this product not only had to become sensitive to the space/light/efficiency factors of the home but the emotional desires of the user.
My first goal was to consolidate items in the home creating an efficient dual purpose object while creating an aesthetic which would bring a sense personality to the space. In this particular product I chose to go with aesthetic of the collectables because I wanted to bring the familiar away from their tawdry perception of being something you would only see at your grandmother's house. I wanted to keep sense of warmth one feels for these objects while translating the aesthetic into something a modern woman or man would want in their home and in keeping with the idea of efficiency, the product is useful rather than just decorative and in that sense both goals have been achieved.
Collectables Coat Rack
The world is already full of 'stuff' – as a designer, why do you choose to create more?
The world IS full of stuff, and a lot of it bad stuff, but as a designer I hope that my ideas as well as many of the products I deem as "good", to be well conceived and desirable. With this particular product I sought inspiration from products that I thought were good, but not great, and in taking them a step further and consolidating two products into one, I am hoping that I have not only created a better product but less product. I strongly feel we are in a period of crisis with the environment and resources; that designers have the key to making things better. The world needs to be redesigned and we are the ones trained to do it. I hope that in the future we strive to make "stuff" that is better all around.
I always find the answer to Question #2 to be interesting. Is there anything out there, aside from perhaps an incinerator, that could be designed to not only reduce the creation of "more stuff" but actually actively reduce the amount of current stuff in existence?
Hi Merrill,
I really loved your designs, specially the cloth hanging one. Fantastic!
Just keep doing what you do!
Good luck!
Raf.
Way to go Merrill,
living in a 1100 square foot 3 bedroom house, i understand what you are saying, i am in a battle with STUFF
good idea ;)i like ☻