Ryan Durant of OVO looks at the names of iconic chairs and wonders: What’s in a name?
Published in Desert Living, September 2007, Issue 65.
Truly beautiful objects provide an experience that transcends functionality – they carefully reveal themselves at every level of interaction and, often, their deepest secrets lie in the details. We in the industry call it a ‘brand experience.’ But, does a brand experience come exclusively from its function and form, or its name as well?
Great names hint at promise. They define difference and experience. They reflect culture. They determine the vantage point from which buyers see and decide. In this way, names become co-creators of experience with the product itself and serve to provide the revelation that makes sense of the function, the form, and the marketing.
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A great name delivers an ‘ah-ha!’ moment of clarity, when all facets of the experience work in concert – for people like me and you, this is where we find pleasure in the brands we purchase, from a pair of Gucci loafers to a Louis Ghost chair. A name then, is much more than a ‘tag.’ When used intentionally, it is a method of insight into the feeling suggested by the product it serves.
To illustrate, we have chosen the following chairs as icons of industrial design, disparate in style and personality, but bearing weight as modern classics with names that reveal the designer’s intent, stylistic expression, process, and even personality.
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Designed by Karim Rashid
The ‘Oh Chair’ is as eccentric and self-absorbed as its designer, famed Karim Rashid who, amongst other things, spends his time aspiring ‘to change the world.’ He has even coined such phrases to describe his design as ‘Orgonomics,’ a term used to explain the integration of the minimal and the human. The ‘Oh Chair’ is perhaps his most compelling case for and of this integration. We can see this in the name, through the double-entendre of ‘Oh’ as an exclamation and ‘O’ as a letter. The form of the chair is clearly refined and rounded, with much attention to the human form.
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Ergonomically, this chair is a wild success. Additionally, the clear oval cut-outs mimic the form of the letter ‘O.’ These are the ‘orgonomics’ – the human and the minimal. But it is the ‘Oh’ that makes this chair special – the certain flamboyance, pop of peculiar color and stance that reflect so aptly its designer – making it, as the name suggests, assuredly self-aware and exciting.
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Other Chairs Reviewed:
Louis Ghost Chair,
Designed by Philippe Starck
Easy Chair,
Designed by Frank Gehry
Egg Chair,
Designed by Arne Jacobsen
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