Muji Award 04: A little happiness in a shape
& collect
The theme of the MUJI AWARD 04 was “Long Lasting Design for Living”. The jury included Naoto Fukasawa, Kenya Hara, Chang Yung Ho, Wang Shu, Liu Zhizhi, Alan Chan, Ray Chen, Jasper Morrison, Hartmut Esslinger and Wenhsin Wang. Naoto Fukasawa (MUJI Advisor, Product Designer): The judges were split on which idea should be selected for the gold award, "Storage book" or "Pebble chalk." The two divided groups energetically discussed for a long time but never came to a conclusion. While both understood each other´s opinion, each side tried to convince the other. The group for "Storage book"argued that everyone has the problem as where to store small items and liked the idea that they can be stored in a book-shaped box which can be placed upright in the bookshelf. Meanwhile, the group for "Stone chalk" argued for a playful stationery solution, a chalk shaped like a stone, derived from the behavior of drawing and writing on the road using a stone. We couldn´t decide which is more MUJI-like, resulting in the ruling that the gold award goes to both. It was a heated discussion but a peaceful one. There is no difference between both works in the sense that they turn a little happiness found in our lives into a shape. In that sense, all the judges felt happy with the final judgment.
share Muji Award 04: A little happiness in a shape
penccil.com/gallery.php?show=8616
Pebble Chalk by Kohei Odaka (JAPAN) Chalk shaped like a pebble. When we were kids, we would use pebbles to draw pictures on the ground. This product brings us forward in design, yet back to a time when drawing was fun and the instrument you used provided a sense of peace and security.
Storage Book by Ip Chi Chuen (HONG KONG) "Sorting things" is a part of our lives, but you may often have trouble finding a place to store things after sorting them. As a solution to this problem, I made a storage case shaped like a book to make it easier to decide where to place. This MUJI PP case is designed to have the same shape and size as a normal book and the spine on which an identification sticker can be attached. It is an idea where a book on a bookshelf has an ability to store things.
Quick-Cut Adhesive Tape by Cui Jing (CHINA) This tape provides a non-tacky section along its length with perforations to allow for ease when opening boxes or packages. No more need for scissors or knives to open that box.
Now , anyone can open the cap on this water bottle by Luo Yuying (CHINA) No need for help with that hard-to-open water bottle. Round caps are hard to turn, but a square cap makes it easy to get leverage and twist. Easy to open, no matter what kind of fingers you have.
LEAN ON ME by no frame [Cheol Woong Seo/Jae Hee Park] (KOREA) We often do not know where to place a wet umbrella. "LEAN ON ME" is a useful umbrella which can be easily leaned against any wall. The tip of the umbrella contains a grippy silicon pad and is cut at the best angle to keep the umbrella stable while being leaned against the wall. This is an offer to make an umbrella easier to use by making some changes to small parts.
Ru Chair by Lotta Tu (TAIWAN) I made this work with an idea of how wonderful it would be if a chair can grow up together with children. The idea came from a nursing chair used back in the earliest days of Taiwan. When both parents worked, they put their children in the chair. When the mother was on a break, she sat on the chair rolled over to 90 degrees and took care of the children. In this offer, I redesigned for more safety by using softer edges than a chair used at the time so that the chair will not be tipped over.
Snap and Roll Toy Series by Mariko Higaki Iwai (USA) "Snap and Roll Toy Series" is a toy system with which children can play for years on three phases. The first phase is learning colors, shapes, and sounds using each ball. The second phase is playing by connecting balls with the bridge. The third phase is enjoying a puppet play using an animal set and a vehicle set. Children can play with this toy for years only by adding items instead of replacing with a new toy every year.
Touch Puzzle by Kohsuke Toda (JAPAN) This is a puzzle where pieces can be put together by using not a picture but the sense of fingertips. The puzzle is made of five pieces with different surface quality depending on concentrations (0, 25, 50, 75, and 100%), such as "smooth" and "rough." I wanted to make an educational toy that not only contributes to development of sense of fingertips but also delivers its sensitivity to be shared as human knowledge.
stick of light by 36℃ [Kazuhiro Ueda/Takahiro Ueda/Tomomi Ueda] (JAPAN) A stick used for light. As our population ages, products must be safer to use, for personal safety and crime prevention. Our environment is constantly changing, and not always in ways that make us safer. This stick light offers safety, peace of mind, and emotional relief.
STACK PIN by Huang Shihao (TAIWAN) I designed a pin with not a traditional round shape but a shape where pins can be stacked on top of each other. My pins can be neatly kept together in one place without being scattered and also be easily pulled out of the wall.
Understand your shoulder by Zhou Tuo (CHINA) A person always has a different shoulder height depending on the situation, such as when relaxing, moving, or carrying luggage. Therefore, I thought I could apply an ancient Chinese design, where the rope length can be changed using the structure of a pulley, to a bag. You can adjust the length of two straps attached to the bottom of the bag to match the height of your shoulders.
Paper Sink Tidy by Kentaro Ito/Rumie Ito (JAPAN) A sink-corner basket for kitchen refuse can be unsanitary by getting moldy. Having a triangle-shaped garbage bag made of draining paper allows you to just throw it away when finishing kitchen work. You can place this sink-corner basket only when you use it, so your kitchen is always kept simple and clean. This item is also environmentally friendly because it is made of kenaf, which grows fast and has a high absorption of carbon dioxide, and bamboo pulp.
Round Sketch by Ayako Aratani (JAPAN) This is a round drawing paper set for children. With rounded, instead of square, edges, we offer more freedom in expression and drawing. Proud parents can save their child's art in the thick paper frame provided. Our core concept behind this product was to allow children a future with freedom of direction and expression.
Door-in-Door by DYUID22 [Lu Jiajheng/Cheng Yating] (TAIWAN) Falling birth rates and higher prices have resulted in smaller homes with fewer rooms selling very quickly. Tiny homes with tiny footprints are becoming the mainstream in Asian real estate. This means storage is at a premium. We redesigned the concept of a door to allow for efficient storage—a door within a door offering extra storage space.
Iris Weave Curtain by Taiwan Yuan-Li Handiwork Association [Sun Mengxian] (TAIWAN) I applied traditional techniques of ornamentally weaving juncus effusus to the design of a curtain. With being hung over the window, this item can give off a rich scent by receiving the heat from the sun. When being exposed to the light, it creates various types of shadows in the room, bringing you surprises and joy. Its removable construction allows you to have your own design by replacing parts.
iceland mitten by fisherman [Ryotaro Fujiyama/Shuhei Sugita] (JAPAN) Mittens that Icelandic fishermen use have a wisdom for their fishing in cold winter. When they paddle, mittens often break and get wet. On this occasion, they don’t use new one, but turn over the mitten and use it again immediately.Thick wool as material is warm fabric, if it gets wet, so it shrink and become steady enough to stand itself.
hakimono by Muneo Ariga (JAPAN) It is comfortable footwear made by cutting a formed rubber sheet, the same material used in wet suits, and then putting the pieces together with hook & loop tape. With its elasticity, this footwear can fit anyone. Having a heel part, it is also suitable for elderly and disabled people, who have weak foot muscles. In addition, it is handy for nursing care as putting them on feet is easy. Since the footwear can be opened to be like a flat sheet, you can take it with you on a plane or during travel.
  Inspirations.  
Generative Botany
An early app for generative graphics, realized in 2000 in the (now deprecated) Adobe Flash. To use t...
Cognition
This experiment looks at the process of human cognition. Letters get progressively filled with color...
Creative Changemakers & Future City
Promotional sites for the initiative Creative Changemakers and the event Future City. (C) 2018 MGD M...
The Persona Project
Social media are powerful because humans use the same parts of the brain to interact with machines a...
Blacker Box
Blacker Box is a design expression for an Intelligent Speaker. (C) Mario Gagliardi Design 2017
Stories of the Future
A generator for news headlines of the future. Every 9 seconds, a new story is generated: http://mar...
Oilspill, Carpet, Camouflage
Pattern generators for interesting surface patterns and backgrounds. Click "Start" to start, "Change...
Alessandro Mendini 1931-2019
For Alchimia, design is a cyle: everything that will have to happen has already happened, and the im...
VAW
In late 2018, we proposed a strategic repositioning of Vienna Art Week. We suggested a fundamental...
Kunio Makaewa
Kunio Maekawa was a master of Japanese modernist architecture. He learned under Le Corbusier and was...
Typography
Collection of beautiful typography and graphic design.
Digital Biology
Interior studies for public indoor spaces merging digital and biological environments. Wall modules ...
Podchain
Podchain is an integrated design concept for on-demand autonomous transport. To optimize kinetic ene...
Fashion, Food, Transport
FUTURE CITY premiered at Vienna Art Week 2018 on November 20, 2018, at MAK Museum of Applied Arts in...
WRECK--Regeneration Experiment of Wasted Daily-use Ceramics from Chaozhou, China
WRECK, the destruction of decorum, the ruin of culture. BENTU went deep into daily-use ceramics indu...
Time
How do you express time without numbers or watch hands? Clocks abstract time into a measurable, un...
Low cost urban transport
Combining contemporary technology with a focus on low cost and reliability, this neighborhood transp...
AI assistant
With the advance of digitalisation, items which once had a central position in households have disap...
Hybrid urban scooter
A low-cost hybrid urban scooter for developing countries running either on electric battery or on bi...
Omnidirectional Speaker
Sculptural ominidirectional speakers, projecting sound recorded from an omnidirectional microphone i...
Multifunctional tableware
Inspired by the culture, cuisine and hospitality of the ancient silk road, this ceramics series cons...
An organic structure for bikes
A sports bike for urban and mountain environments. The aluminium frame provides for increased stabil...
S tables
modul for table
One Hundred Thousand Games
One Hundred Thousand Games is an online game with unlimited levels. It takes the genre of first-per...
Emotibots
Emotibots are shape-shifting social home robots interacting with humans. Robots will in the future i...
Black Box. A Cabinet of Robotic Curiosities
The Vitra Campus has a new exhibition space: in one of the houses at the southern entrance, a Black ...
Flow
Flow simulations on car designs. Surfaces in red show the highest resistance. (C) MGD 2010.
Breathe
The determined breaths of a glassblower are seldom included in the finished product of their labour,...
City Garden II ´Spaces´
Family garden for 5: spacy rooms
Charles Tassin
Interior designer Charles Tassin has developed a very personal approach to decoration. Merging the s...
penccil: This was 2017
The penccil year in review is a project selection for 2017, this year curated by Mario Gagliardi. Se...
Cutting the edges
Arctic Paper launches new swatch books for the brands Arctic, Amber and G-Print, as well as the two ...
Mugs
Intentionally on the very edge of usability, this project takes ubiquitous objects - in this case co...
Functional Pasta
Pasta based on the geometry of a Möbius strip, a geometric surface with the distinction of having o...
We Ar
University of Sunderland MA Glass and Ceramics Show
Coffee maker
Visualization of the process of coffee making. The aim was not to use words.
Mapping Reality
During a walk through Berlin Moabit I sketched my perception of the surrounding streets. The result ...
TYPOGRAPHY
RESEARCH
Green Architecture…. Is it blessing or curse!!
GREEN ARCHITECTURE….IT IS GOOD FOR THE NATURAL WORLD OR MAYBE IT WILL BE A MESS OF THE TREES AND P...
Vico Magistretti
Vico Magistretti (1920 - 2006) studied in Lausanne and Milano. He was one of the main protagonists o...
Glowscape
Study for a LED light installation. LED diodes are installed on a net of wires and placed over the l...
Structured Reflection
These 3D-printed vases feature finely faceted surface structures which create intriguing light refle...
Watch UX
A UX study for a smart watch with a digital interface from 2004. (C) Mario Gagliardi
Gaetano Pesce: Abstraction is boring
"Abstraction is boring and limited as a mode of expression. Reducing and reducing designs means that...
Jeff Zimmerman
Jeff Zimmermann is a Chicago based artist. Born in Kentucky, Zimmerman spent his childhood among nat...
Kenzo Tange
Kenzo Tange was born September 4, 1913 in Osaka, Japan. After graduating from the University of Toky...
Home Patterns
“Home Patterns” is a new series of patterns by Longstory, designed for printing on textiles, wal...
Organic Public
Contemporary cities are in need of public spaces which work better for their citizens. This proposal...
Michael Schoner
Michael Schoner develops 3D and 2D designs in different scales varying from architecture and interio...
Design for Disaster
"A disaster zone where everything is lost offers the perfect opportunity for us to take a fresh look...
Memphis Posters
4 posters by the legendary Italian design collective Memphis Milano.
A Flat Named Desire
An inspirational collection of interior objects.
Akiko Masunaga
マスナガデザイン部/Art director/Designer/O型/乙女座
A Summer For The Modernists
"Today every city, town, or village is affected by it. We have entered the Neon Civilization and bec...
Joe Colombo: Total Furnishing Unit
The Total furnishing unit: Bathroom by Joe Colombo, Milano 1971.
Pillars
Consisting of connected bricks whose relative position can be altered by changing underlying paramet...
Scum Pixel
'Scum' refers to a foamy layer or mass that forms on the surface of liquid when it is boiled or ferm...
Inspiration
Things which inspire me https://soundcloud.com/myrne/architect https://vimeo.com/173541384
Carlo Scarpa: Sketch and Work
There is hardly another architect of the 20th century in whose work the progression from sketch to c...
The Bauhaus Revolution
The Bauhaus was the most influential design school of the 20th century. See more in the new magazin...
In Infinity
Yayoi Kusama’s unique imagery spring from the recurring hallucinations that have haunted her since...
Spatial Clusters
"Refined nature consists of evolved technology such as robotics, artificial intelligence, cybernetic...
This City
This City is an audio-visual piece performed as musical alter-ego Mark Eats. It explores what happen...
ЯРОСЛАВ МИСОНЖНИКОВ: ODNOSVECHNIK
ODNOSVECHNIK is a candle holder in marble and wood. Designer Yaroslav Misonzhnikov, born 1988 in ...
HOKUSAI X MANGA
Courtesans, Heroes, Stars and Phantoms - In the early seventeenth century, Edo, which was the bigges...
Francois Morellet 1926 - 2016
Since he first began making work in the 1950s, Morellet has been engaged in creating work which has ...
Low Classic Korea 16 SS
클래식과 위트가 공존하는 모던 미니멀리즘의 LOW CLASSIC은 클래식을 기본 개...
20th Century Italian Tables
A collection of 20th century Italian table designs.
Xavier Antin: Printing at Home
A printer manual to disturb and disrupt the printing process. Xavier Antin, born in 1981, lives and ...
Porcelain Monobloc
This work consists of nine unique, porcelain reproductions of different styles of mono-block resin c...
also:
Whiskey Bay Press Merc
Merch
Bookcover mockup
book cover design idea
Mario Casa dining chairs
Dining chairs by Mario casa are 100% handcrafted in natural materials. https://mariocasa.it
Mario Casa Pillows
Mario Casa pillows are handstitched and embroidered on fine Raw Silk sourced from a family handloom ...
Mario Casa Carpets
Mario Casa carpets are handcrafted in 100% New Zealand Merino wool. https://mariocasa.it
Mario Casa Tables
Mario Casa coffee tables, side tables and dining tables are 100% handcrafted by our cabinetmakers in...
Mario Casa Lounge Chairs
Lounge chairs by Mario Casa, designed by Mario Gagliardi, are 100% hand-crafted in natural materials...
Printed textures
3D printing has become a viable production method enabling the rapid production of small and medium-...
Candy Morandi
Giorgio Morandi's ceramic vessels have been the inspiration for this project. Morandi´s objects are...
SCARABOOK
SCARABOOK is the combination of Scarabottolo and the English word book (but perhaps we ought to say ...
Haribo Centennial
Haribo, the company behind the bear-shaped fruit-flavored jelly candy from Germany, is 100 years old...
No.5 Warehouse Museum of Fossil
A space in the headquarter of a stone manufacturer in China. With its monochromatic walls, oddly sla...
Ebb and Flow
This student design project smartly uses paper to give shape to the intertidal coastline of Taiwan, ...
Pulp architecture
The need to stand out in a hyper-commercialized market results in remarkable examples of contemporar...
Culinary Tradition
Four examples of contemporary food packaging designs inspired by traditional Chinese patterns and gr...
TRIAL
Old-school postal packaging usually gets little attention from graphic designers. Not so in this fun...
Kids House
For Inwayi Kids House in Ningbo City, China, designer Nono Xia of graphic design studio Ninemix cam...
Origami envelopes
Origami Envelopes have a special place in Japanese gift-giving culture. The four envelopes here rep...
Tatsuo Miyajima: Being Coming
Although this is for an exhibition of Japanese contemporary artist Tatsuo Miyajima at Shanghai Minsh...
Yokohama Museum of Art Calendar
Graphic designers Aizawa office from Yokohama designed this wall calendar. With its unassuming but a...
K11 Musea
Westworld meets Surrealism in the interior design of K11 Musea, a new shopping mall in Hong Kong, a ...
Lotus Zen House
The Lotus Zen House hotel is located in Mount Jiuhua, an important Buddhist site in China. Hong Kong...
House 33
House No 33 by Uemori Masaaki and Uemori Kokutou: A fantastic example on how contemporary architectu...
Spring 2020 - Project 2 - MassArt
A school project in which we had to redesign a small triangle shape park near Harvard Square in Camb...
Objects of Desire
»Surrealism and Design 1924 – Today« 28.09.2019 – 19.01.2020 at Vitra Design Museum Surrealis...
Chromaglass
Chromaglass is a cocktail glass displaying its ingredients through colors. An inner insulating conta...
Nature morte/Nature vivante
Until recently, artists, designers and architects were used to working with inert, non-living materi...
HYFY
HYFY is a project to rethink the functions, structures and formal expressions of audio hardware.
Upcycled
Furniture design from upcycled materials: Stools from old rubber tyres, oil barrels and washing mach...
Faces by 田中 一光 Ikko Tanaka
Inspired by the Bauhaus, by Jazz and by American graphic design, Ikko Tanaka (1930-2002) was one of ...
chair_ONE
chair_ONE is the best known design by Konstantin Grcic, a German furniture designer whose work is eq...
Cazal
Glasses by German manufacturer Cazal were considered a sought-after accessory in New York's hip-hop ...
Reactive Space
Inspired by Plato´s allegory of the cave, this is an architectural study for spaces reacting to its...
Omnidirectional microphone
Design for an omnidirectional microphone, recording sound from all spatial directions. Recorded soun...
Speaker
A sculptural speaker rendered with GLSL signed distance functions. (C) Mario Gagliardi 2018
Rudolf Belling
Rudolf Belling was sculptor, designer, architect and stage designer. In 1908, he founded a studio fo...
Streampal
Streampal is a lifestream robot for Youtubers, Instagrammers and others who want to record passages ...
The e-scooter Boom
The German Ministry of Transport announced that it will legalize e-scooters as road vehicles. All Ge...
Jonathan Ive leaves Apple
On June 28, Apple´s chief designer Jonathan Ive (born 1967) announced that he would leave Apple lat...
Street Life
Photographic impressions in the streets of Tokyo and Kyoto. (C) Mario Gagliardi
Abstract Form
Click 4 times on the canvas and watch how an abstract form is generated: https://www.mariogagliardi....
Essential Water
In many regions of the planet, water is increasingly becoming rare. Our understanding of water, refl...