Is beautiful design always good?
When I first saw the above piece of furniture by Takeshi Miyakawa, my first thoughts were: wow, what a brilliant design! Then I did some more practical thinking and realized that it wouldn’t fit in most standard appartments, as well as I wouldn’t know what to put in it.
A question that I never could answer is: should beautiful design be considered good just for looking nice?
I am not an industrial designer, so it’ll be hard for me to answer it. From my experience with graphic design, I’d say that a beautiful logo isn’t always good graphic design. It can be good sometimes only for its beauty, for example for some artistic projects, but in general it will have to be functionnal, brandable and right on target.
I love that you asked the question of whether the design was actually worth more than just a visually appealing design. When I first looked over the article I focused on the pictures and did the same thing that you described in your post. My immediate reaction was “Oh, how creative and cool.” That later turned into me questioning what in the world one would do with a piece like this.
Industrial designer or not, I think that we should all keep in the back of our minds the conflict between beauty and functionality.
Of course, perhaps the purpose of the furniture designer was to make more of a statement or showcase his/her skill instead of make something that’s overly functional or reasonable. Either way, it’s still an interesting piece! Thanks for showcasing it.
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Function over Form? - The great debate!
I think that you are not right - this is a cupboard that can be used in any corner of the house or as an endcupboard from a row of kitchen cupboards. And by using diferent size of drawers you are easily defining where to look for what. A great design!
About the debate: perception of beauty can be very subjective as it can be of good design - the proof is this conversation.