SUPER NORMAL

One of the purchases of today...

SUPER NORMAL | sensations of the ordinary
Naoto Fukasawa & Jasper Morrison

"Why do so many designs fail to pass the everyday test? Why is Normal disappearing, and when it's gone, how do we replace it? Is beauty just a question of looks, or could there be more to it than meets the eye? What makes a good object, and how come some objects get better with time?"

"The objects selected by Fukasawa and Morrison are, indeed, all oxymoronic and superlative: they push the norm to the boundaries of the possible and at the same time introject a sort of paradoxical coincidentia oppositorum. By making them so "normal" they aren't normal any more, they become both "normal" and "exceptional" at the same time. So exceptional they seem normal. In other words, they are not perceived or perceivable as exceptional. "
- Silvana Annicchiarico/design curator

"When people hear the word "design", they think "special"; creating "special" things is what everyone, designers and users alike, assume design is all about. When in fact, both sides are playing out a mutal fantasy far removed from real life.

I'd like us to explore whatever we might conceive as Super Normal. I take an interest in collecting such things. I want to share the fun, the pleasure of reconfirming an appeal in things we'd disregarded as "naff". Not that I propose sticking "Certified Super Normal" product design award labels on things. It's much more of a quietly seen unseen, a refreshing surprise that awakens the person who had thought of looking for something obviously special in design by instead reconfirming what we already hold important and so perhaps letting us break free of our current design paradigm straitjacket."
- Naoto Fukasawa
































































"This is a "fake" sandal formed from a single molded piece of rubber; the pattern has been taken from a standard, upscale leather women's sandal. Japanese people, who do not wear their shoes in the home and who don't want to go to the trouble of putting shoes on when they're stepping outside for just a short time, wear this kind of sandal. They are often used in public toilets, too. The most common color is a light brown, really an unappealing color, but these are green - perhaps an attempt to be a little more fashionable? These copies of fashionable sandals areas unfashionable as can be put there is no sandal more sandal-like than this. And they're water resistant and easy to wear. When I saw professional surfers in Okinawa and people working at the beach wearing the green ones, they strangely fit in with their deeply tanned bodies and looked really good - like local pros, rather than surfers wearing flip flops just to look good."
Quoted from the book


somehow, clothes is alike. It reminds me what it says in "encens, the shape of Raf Simons"...
"THE LESS FASHION SHE WEARS, THE MORE BEAUTIFUL SHE IS. IT IS LIKE A UNIFORM." GIORGIO ARMANI 1982

i say, fashion can be boring. still, i dun suggest pointing to the fashion trend, solely, and in either a conscious or unconscious sense.