My roommate, who is in Graphic Design, recently commented that Industrial Design seems like the major that is the furthest away from fine arts. The reason she explained was that the main focuses of industrial design are usually the function and the users, not the designers themselves, and even the drawings are so technical and dry. Art usually involves the philosophy of the artist. However, to her, she said, nothing seems to be about the designer when it comes to Industrial Design.
Could this be true?
Can Industrial Design be artistic? Can it be considered to be fine arts? I had never considered industrial design as “fine arts,” but I had never thought of it to be on the other end of the spectrum, far, far away from “art” either. This is why I find this week’s topic in ID History very intriguing, and today, I am going to explore the boundaries between design and fine arts through the work of Tokujin Yoshioka.
Tokujin Yoshioka is a Japanese designer, born in 1967, and he is the founder of Tokujin Yoshioka Design. He has worked extensively with Issey Miyake, and also with Nissan, Peugeot, BMW, Shiseido, and so on. He usually does the shop design or exhibit design for these companies. As for his product design, he has several series such as the Pane Chair, Tokyo-Pop Design, and Honey-Pop Chair, and so forth.
Tokujin Yoshioka seems to focus on delivering experiences – dramatic, subtle and poetic – to the users or the audience, both through his exhibit design and product design. His approach to work is not so much design-like, at least in a conventional sense, but rather artistic. He maximizes the characteristics of an object and creates an emotional space.
His work seems to embrace the characteristics of fine arts. However, at the same time, his work, especially his product design lines, seem modular and almost practical that they remind me of industrial design. He plays with geometry, structure, simplicity, and honesty. The interesting part about his work is that these characteristics of his work remind me a lot of William Morris’s Arts and Crafts Movement, which was about linking arts, crafts, design, and production all together. Tokujin Yoshioka’s work is beautiful, artistic, well-crafted, delicate, and manufacturable.
Salone Del Mobile 2004
Pane Chair 2006 by Tokujin Yoshioka
A lot of Tokujin Yoshioka’s works are not really all about him. He channels his point of view through the work, but the products are not really about his life or experience. Rather, it seems like he is in a position where he has stepped back a step, and is introducing a new idea about experience, while thinking about the user, the nature, the product, and his self. He is detached and attached to the work at the same time. I do not think that his exhibits and chairs tell much about Tokujin Yoshioka or his life. We, as users or audience, are to view and experience the space that he has created and think of whatever it means to us.
I find Tokujin Yoshioka’s work very difficult to categorize. It falls under the gray-area. At first, when we were introduced to his body or work in History of ID class, my primary reaction was that his work was definitely fine arts, according to my definition of art and design. However, the more I look into them, the more I realize that his work is not simply fine arts, but something in between art and design.
Now, this raises a few questions. What is industrial design? Does it always have to be about functionality, users, and manufacturing? There is definitely a “style” and a “point of view” of the designer in each product he or she may design, but does that include the designer’s “emotion?”
To me, design, especially industrial design, means solving problems and inventing experiences through the problem-solving. On the other hand, art is about the artist and his/her emotional world. Tokujin Yoshioka’s work reflects that industrial design could be both. Perhaps, it has the potential to be both at the same time.
Now, there is the question of practicality. In general, industrial design is heavily focused on efficiency and functionality. A lot of Tokujin Yoshioka’s work is very interesting, but does not seem too practical or functional. Does industrial design have to be functional and practical?
My answer is, “no.” I probably would have said “yes” before going through this exploration, but now, my view has changed. Many of Tokujin Yoshioka’s chairs were not truly practical. However, they were extremely inspiring and presented many opportunities that could be applied and developed into a new, more useful design. The “artistic” design pushes the boundaries and presents an idea. Then, the conventional design will take the idea and go through another level of innovation. Art and design are interrelated, and cannot be separated.
Going back to my roommate’s comment, industrial design may seem rather dry and direct usually, but it does not always have to be that way. An industrial designer could always take a slightly different path and go through an artistic exploration to achieve a new idea, which could be in turn applied to something beyond that. Everything is related to each other, in a very, very complicated manner, and at this point, I would say that industrial design is really about everything.I find this funny. The more I try to define “industrial design,” the wider the definition becomes.
The Big Boda is their lowest cost design, and it was developed in partnership with Kickstart International to assist the bike-taxi drivers in East Africa (mainly Kisumu, Kenya.) It is a bicycle with a longer wheelbase and higher durability. It has a cargo space or a space for passengers that won’t interfere with the performance of the driver. It is also lighter and more stable to haul on. The Big Boda, the extended, improved version of Boda Boda, definitely confronts and solves the problems.
The great part about this design is that its application is not restricted to the developing countries only. Instead, it has a wide range of applicability. Ross Evans is also a co-founder of a company called Xtracycle. This company produces bicycles that are more targeted towards the users in the first world countries, but the main concept is essentially the same. The Xtracycle bicycles have extended storage capacity, so that people can use their bicycles for everyday use, such as grocery shopping or picking up a child. Plus, they can be used for recreational purposes, such as family camping. This encourages people to think about and contribute to sustainability. 
Solar cookers are not just solar cookers. They can be implemented anywhere, and depending on the context they are put into, they can transform into various other useful things. First of all, the benefit of using solar cookers is that they save tremendous amount of energy. There is no need for gas, wood or electricity, but the sun light (all you need is 20 minutes of sunlight every hour.) Virginio Mendonça explained that solar cookers can be adapted to producing charcoal as well, to save wood. To make charcoal, you need to burn a lot of wood in order to heat up the wood that becomes charcoal. This process requires a lot of wood to be wasted, and solar cookers can help to better this situation. Plus, he also pointed out that solar cookers can solve a lot of health problems that women and children in the third world countries face. In those places, they mostly burn wood to cook, and the kitchen is oftentimes located in the corner of the house, without any chimney or proper ventilation systems. So, the women and the children’s health are often affected by the smoke produced during cooking. This problem can be easily helped with solar cookers, as they do not require any wood-burning, and therefore no smoke! I was struck by these ideas, as I had never thought about this kind of potentials of solar cookers.
Eric Fedus also introduced the Scheffler Reflectors, invented by a German inventor, Wolfgang Scheffler. What is different about Scheffler Reflectors is that they transfer the energy/heat to the indoor kitchen so that people do not have to go outside to cook. (One of the questions he raised about solar cookers was that nobody is really used to cooking outside these days.) His parabolic reflectors have been distributed worldwide, serving in community kitchens, bakeries, etc. A number of these reflectors can be installed on the roof of a building, and boil water using solar power. The boiled water produces steam, and that steam gets transferred to indoors and provides energy for cooking. According to Eric Fedus, the current largest working system in the world is in India, where there are 104 of Scheffler Reflectors on the roof of a temple, providing 30,000 meals a day.
Later in the history, the razor technology saw a rapid advancement, but a lot of these improvements were developed around men, rather than women. The first straight steel razor was developed in Sheffield, England in the early 19th century. These straight razors, also known as “cut-throat” razors, were used by barbers, who were specially trained to groom men, and most men around this time would go to the barbers to have their beards shaved. These straight razors remained popular until late 19th century, and in 1901, King Camp Gillette invented the concept of the safe, “disposable” razor blades. However, even this revolutionary invention was marketed towards men.
Electric razors were created by a Canadian inventor, Jacob Schick, in the 1920s. However, it was not until 1947 when the first electric razor for women started being marketed by Remington. These razors for ladies had more feminine shapes and colors (such as pink) and this started the trend of differentiating men’s and women’s razors by color and form. 
Nowadays, razors of masculine and feminine designs and colors are produced in order to appeal to both genders. Various shaving methods, such as waxing and hair removal cream, have been introduced to promote shaving. The interesting point is that oftentimes, these products, especially leg hair removing products, would not specify if they are meant for women or men, but they would have a feminine look with a female model on the package or advertisement. It seems as if the society is encouraging women to shave more than men. Plus, men’s beards and moustaches have become a fashion statement. Traditionally, it has been more of a men’s task to shave. However, nowadays, it is a bigger deal if a woman does not shave.
Ever since the one image in Harper’s Bazaar magazine, the social significance of shaving has switched from men to women. The trend and demand in the society stimulated the development of special razors for “ladies,” and this in turn aided the consolidation of the stereotype. The society and culture influences the design decisions, and the designs bestow themselves a meaning and a socio-cultural function.