For assignment 1, I choose “The everyday” theme for research. The source I choose for this research theme is a book called, “Humble Masterpieces: 100 Everyday Marvels of design” written by “Paola Antonelli”. I have chosen this book my source for research theme because it contains the examples of inventions of objects that we use in our day to day life. Most objects like paper clips and bubble wrap we use every day without realizing their importance until they are not available plus we use these objects without bothering about the effort and time put on that object by the designer. Some of the examples I choose to analyze from this book are Lead Pencil, Paper cups and Potato peeler. I choose these examples because these out of all are the important everyday things in our lives.
The lead pencil can be considered an important invention. The pencil is used for day to day purposes like it can be used to draw something or to write erasable and it is really good for temporarily marking down. The lead was found in Cumberland Hills in United Kingdom in 1565. People begin to use it for writing by introducing it into wooden vessel. Kasper Faber in 1761 opened his first pencil shop in Germany.
A paper cup invention was so great in terms of hygiene. In 1907 Lawrence Luellen felt the need for creating individual cups because before that people use to share each other’s metal cups and he thought it really unhygienic. He invented a water cooling dispenser with disposable cups. Later on that developed into Dixie paper Company in U.S.A. Today almost everyone prefers using paper cups if they are outside their houses. It is used to drink water, tea or coffee. Everyone is so busy and health conscious today that no one actually wants to share the cups and even they don’t have that much time for sharing the cups.
The Rex Potato peeler was designed in 1947 by Alfred Neweczeral, keeping in mind both the left and right handed users. The peeler was made strong enough to scoop out potato eyes with a movable stainless steel head. The head of the peeler doesn’t allow the blade to cut too deep into the potato. The potato peeler was first made for Arthritis patients, to help them peel the potato easily, later everyone started using it as it was easier, quick (time consuming) and convenient.
The whole book contains great examples of everyday objects used by us, objects that we don’t even think about normally. I think it would have been better if the book would have followed some serial order, for example: the objects could be in a serial order like what objects average human beings use from beginning to the end of the day. Overall this book gives clear information about the objects history and its uses, with their photographs.
References:-
Antonelli, P. (2005). Humble Masterpieces: 100 Everyday Marvels of design. London, Thames & Hudson Ltd.
