About eight years ago I was working in a studio with one of the more energetic designers I’ve ever met, Patrick Douglas (currently a design manager for Target). Patrick was the kind of guy who, when he wasn’t slaving tirelessly on some in-house effort, was busy working on one of his own projects; usually something furniture-related (unless he was re-tiling his bathroom). When his personal interest in flat-packed, ready-to-assembly (RTA) furniture found synergy with some internal projects, I not only got a first hand look at an interesting niche segment but a chance to both puzzle over and contribute a little to one of these projects.
Back then of course this sort of product was still very much the domain of large established companies. When someone said something was a flat-packed item, it generally meant the thing was a cheap piece of RTA furniture made from particle board and covered in cheap veneer. The exceptions were on the other end of the spectrum – usually intricately laser-cut and pricey; laser-cutting – as a service available to small design boutiques – was still relatively new at the time.
The cool thing about laser-cutting was it’s ability to accurately and cleanly cut complex shapes, and it didn’t take long for clever designers to set about the task of creating objects intended for assembly without fasteners. While I don’t know if it’s a good correlation, I suspect the growth of Ikea has something to do with throwing into their basic recipe a large helping of clever design along with a dash of laser-cutting technology (among other things).
Anyway, that was then and it seems as if we’re now seeing a second (maybe even third or fourth) wave of new, creative products that begin their lives flat. Not all are beholden to laser-cutting machines, but many may be indebted to the earlier solutions that the technology enabled. Let’s look at some samples:
Notice anything here? These aren’t the products of large manufacturers (Muji is by far the largest; and is an easy exception to make). These are coming from increasing numbers of small outfits working beautifully within their business constraints. They also don’t limit their solutions to laser-cutting flat stock – note the injection-molded Emulation Kits.
More than anything, the goal of these upstarts seems to be efficient packaging to take advantage of e-commerce and ubiquitous shipping services. But wouldn’t that be the goal of every manufacturer? No one likes to “ship air”. How is it that these small, relatively inexperienced businesses can come up with these fabulous products when large multinationals can’t? or… won’t?
The product I mentioned earlier – the one on which I contributed – was designed to ship flat, but instead was shipped assembled out of fear the consumer would have trouble figuring it out… all five pieces. Makes you wonder why they bothered proceeding with the design in the first place, doesn’t it? Makes me wonder what companies are going to do when the world goes flat.