What I noticed Immediately was that there was a large rift in the style of products offered. There seemed to be a comeback of the retro style design, reminiscent of American designed household appliances in the 50’s and 60’s, with metal body, solid looking designs painted in bright and cheerful pastel colours.
retro designed SMEG toasters. Why would anyone name their brand smeg?
On the other hand, products were designed to look high tech, complicated and futuristic, appearing to have advanced technologies incorporated into them. Angular construction, multiple components, and unconventional designs, clear parts to showcase the internal mechanisms and components.
Dyson handheld vacuum cleaner.
One type of product that caught my attention was Dyson’s range of handheld hairdryers. In line with their hollow, bladeless design, Their hairdryers kept to this aesthetic and principle, creating a frame that was completely hollow down the centre. This had me wondering how they did it, because it seemed special to me that hot air could seemingly come out of nowhere. Although perhaps a marketing gimmick, this definitely piqued my interest, as they used more modern technologies to achieve this effect. Combined with its sleek and minimalist design and magnetically attached, interchangeable heads that could serve different functions, it was a nice overall package. What I didn’t like so much was the 600 dollar pricetag. But with the Dyson name and a design so unique and unconventional as compared to most hairdryers, I’m sure more affluent people would be willing to fork out the money for this purely for the novelty appeal.
Another product or range of products was the SMEG range of household appliances. Be it the kettle, the toaster or the fridge, they all had this retro aesthetic and design to them, in pastel colours that we would otherwise never see in modern household appliances with their sleek white painted/stainless steel/glass construction. It is perhaps a welcome trend. They somehow convey a sense of robustness, reliability and quality, as well as a sense of simplicity harking back to the old days. One gripe though, was that on closer inspection, the quality of construction still contains hints of cheaper, modern manufacturing methods and materials. I guess we will never truly have the quality we found in the olden days, ironically. Another issue perhaps, was that this aesthetic would possibly be difficult to fit into the decor and style of most modern homes, and might be too great of a contrast or stick out like a sore thumb.
Alright! Thank you!