A few days I ago I wrote about making intelligent connections (between stuff), instead of creating more (wasteful) stuff. One of the comments was by Niko Herzog, who emailed me yesterday a pretty great article related to this topic. The article is called "Human/Object Relations", and it features a conversation between well-known Japanese designers Naoto Fukasawa and Kenya Hara (author of "Designing Design"). Here are the parts that I liked the most:
"I realized there was no need to create new forms; all I had to do was design the relationship between a human, an object, and what is around the two. That realization gave be a big relief.
People think that design is about making new things, creating new stimulations. But what about the good relationships that already exist? Why abandon all that and make things all over again?
If there is already a relationship with an object that is 95 percent good, then all that has to be done is to adjust the remaining 5 percent to suit the current needs. ... What I am trying to say is that the important thing is how much design you can do with the remaining 5 percent ... how you can make the best out of the design along with what's already there, instead of just throwing everything out and starting from scratch."