Muji Award 02
Between 15 May - 31 July 2007, the second Muji Award attracted 3,422 entries from 47 countries based on the theme "RE"; intentionally left ambiguous so that the designers may offer their own interpretation.
The panel of judges included 'Super Normal' creators Jasper Morrison
and Naoto Fukasawa, together with Kenya Hara, Kazuko Koike and Takashi
Sugimoto, all of whom, except Morrison, act as advisers to Muji
(notably Fukasawa, who has designed products such as the wall-mounted
CD player for Muji).
Fukasawa noted that the Muji award was unusual amongst design competitions in that it honours 'natural living products and simple works', rather than 'novel and unprecedented ideas'. Even more unusual was the fact that although a Gold Prize winner was found, no Silver Prize was awarded, with three special Judge's Prizes being awarded instead.
Gold Prize
Towel with further options - NIIMI [Takuya Niimi/Yuki Niimi]
As towels gradually become damaged through use, the idea behind NIIMI's design is to encourage the user to look beyond the product's designation as simply a towel and to reuse it in other ways; thus the lines that make up its 'pattern' also act as guides to downsize the towel to a bath mat, floor cloth and dust cloth. Koike loved the simplicity of the idea, which reminded her of when people in Japan used to reuse old yukata in similar ways, a thought echoed by Hara, who found the towel to be a 'beautiful...response to the award theme.'
Special Prizes:
Stackable Hanger - Satoshi Yoshiizumi (Japan)
Fukasawa called the space-saving Stackable Hanger 'marvellous', while Morrison described them as a 'very intelligent and useful piece of design thinking', adding that they were one of his two favourite entries.
Chronotebook - Wong Kok Keong [Orcadesign] (Singapore) + SFTE Favourite +
Wong Kok Keong's take on the diary literally rewrites the book, placing a circle in the centre of each page indicating AM or PM to represent a clock face, so that users can simply draw lines to the appropriate time on the dial in order to give a much more user-friendly and easy to read approach to scheduling. We will be buying one of these soon.
Kakujio - De Meyboom Lab [Yasuhito Hirose/Ryohei Yoshiyuki] (Netherlands)
The undoubted winners if there were a 'Why Hasn't Anybody Thought of This Before?' category, De Meyboom Lab's entry addresses health concerns surrounding adding too much salt to food by creating salt cubes, each of which contains 2.5cc. These were Morrison's other favourite entry and all of the judges seemed to like the concept, with Koike adding that they made her 'smile'.
One observer - not a judge - seemed to lament that the entries were 'simple' which, of course, is the point. Muji is not about ostentatious displays and design for design's sake and we applaud that approach. In the words of Masaaki Kanai, Managing Director of Ryohin Keikaku Co., Ltd., 'obtrusive and far-fetched products are taboo with Muji', and long may it be so.
See also: Muji Award 02 Exhibition
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