The Good Design Thread

[psrivats]

I love reading about industrial design and have come to really appreciate items with good, thoughtful, purposeful design. The originality of the design (ie the IP aspect of things) also really matters to me in a very deep way. Over the years, I have come to the point where I am not willing to compromise on either of the two things that I just mentioned, irrespective of cost - to the extent that I would rather not have a cheap imitation, even if it means that I will never own the original that I want due to cost or availability reasons. It's a very deliberate choice that not many people make due to reasons of practicality or budget or how their personal philosophies align with these kind of things.

I am starting this thread to foster discussions on what constitutes good design, and to showcase example of things that fall in that category. I welcome a good discussion and sharing of ideas/ideals and if you post an item, please try and explain WHY you think it belongs in this thread. I don't want this to turn into a discussion focusing mostly about cost.

I will be posting a few items that I have in my home that I have the pleasure of owning - the only way I would describe these as expensive is in terms of the time it took to buy crap, understand why it is crap, think about what is important, and eventually buy the right thing with good design.

To start things off, here is one of the better descriptions of what good design is, written down by one of the best industrial designers of any era, Dieter Rams. Notice that there is no numbers on this list, because each item is as important than the other. Each item can also be it's own discussion topic too!

 

[psrivats]

One of the things that @mrblaine often explains when it comes to how he does things is "What you need, and nothing more". Note that this philosophy is nicely captured above in "Good design is as little design as possible". As simple as that sounds, it is not all that easy to find.

Case in point - I was looking to set up a simple home gym set up since my new work schedule is just bonkers in the past couple months and looks like it will stay that way for the near future. I wanted the setup to be space efficient to fit in my garage, wanted it to non-permanent but easily put together and knocked down, and wanted be strong and stable to hold heavy weights. Sounds easy to find, right? Not the case.

It took me a LOT of searching to find what I wanted, and it was well worth the effort. Below is what I ended up with.

Most everything is 2" steel tubing. Made in the USA. The two uprights on the main squat stand are separate. The black insert for the barbell just drops in and height is adjustable with a locking mechanism. The uprights are tied together with the bottom blue cross bar and heavy duty threaded wingnuts are used to set the width (so width is very adjustable). It takes a couple minutes to set it up and once setup, it is just entirely solid front to back and side to side. Same design for the safety arms on the side of the main rack. I don't have the blue crossbar attached on the safety arms, it is good enough even without one. The bench is steel with a very dense rubber on top that is not upholstered. I have an attachment for the main stand to do dips with, just drops in instead the barbell support. The entire thing knocks down to a very space efficient footprint in minutes. It might not look like it, but this is a serious weight training setup that will last multiple lifetimes. Every bit of what you see has been thought out by someone that really knew what they were doing. That is the essence of good design.

When someone takes the time to design things well, more often than not, it also ends up being highly aesthetic that is very appealing to the senses. There is a simplistic beauty that comes from the form following function.

 

[Zorba]

“Things that are complex are not useful, Things that are useful are simple.”
— Mikhail Kalashnikov

 

[B00mb00m]

“Things that are complex are not useful, Things that are useful are simple.”
— Mikhail Kalashnikov

You’ll have to mention that to the Ukrainians and their use of Javelin anti-tank weapons, so they can trade them in for more useful AK-47s.

 

[KingCarGuyZ]

When I get a product and immediately stop talking about it, it's for one of 2 reasons.

1: it sucks, I stopped using it and moved on.

2: It has integrated so seamlessly into my life, that I don't even notice it anymore.

It's the second category that I find impressive. It is very rare to find a commercially available product that fits all of my needs and nothing extra. An honest work rig that doesn't pretend to be feature packed or do 1,000 things. It just does the one thing I need, and it does a damn fine job of it. It's pleasant to use and it doesn't need maintenance or work. it accepts abuse and neglect and keeps on trucking. The best example that comes to mind is my family's 2000 Toyota 4 runner. The thing has over 200,000 miles of daily use - little to no reoccurring maintenance (don't blame me - I need a day where it can be down to change the oil) and it refuses to die, it still does an excellent job on the daily dutys and will hold its own offroad.

 

[psrivats]

“Things that are complex are not useful, Things that are useful are simple.”
— Mikhail Kalashnikov

That statement makes sense in the context of the his famous invention, but I am not sure that I understand it as a general rule.

 

[psrivats]

Here is another item that I have had for nearly 18 years. I picked it up for next to nothing from a surplus sale from my school in my first semester and who knows how long it was used before that? I cleaned and touched up the grey paint a little bit, but now wish I had left it as is.

Reasons why it is great - the seconds hand does not audibly tick when you are trying to relax or read a book in the living room. Instead it just smoothly sweeps across the face. The font used is classic and highly legible, the domed glass does not show bad reflections (note that there is a bright light in the entry way as you can tell by the shadow and not too far above the clock). It takes a single D-cell battery and keeps excellent time. I can't even remember when I changed the battery last time. You can see the "Made in USA" printed in the bottom if you zoom in.

It's a simple item, but one that is remarkably good. I never think about it until I travel and hear the incessant ticking of a quartz clock in some hotel room or airbnb etc. Like @KingCarGuyZ said above, it is a seamless part of my life but in a way that I think adds to it.