The theme of this year's Muji Award International Design Competition 03: "Found Muji." What does that mean? It's a philosophy borne of their recent line of products:
...We currently offer "Found MUJI" products, which were developed by discovering the good points about merchandise that has been used over long periods of time, were created by humans, and were born out of daily needs.
[For example] we "found" that socks hand-knitted by Czech grandmothers were characterized by a 90-degree shape, which perfectly fits your feet. We tried them on and felt that they fit comfortably on our heels. We then discovered that the shape of the machine-produced socks we usually wear doesn't fit our feet owing to manufacturing reasons. So then we realized that we could provide many people with comfortable 90 degree socks produced by machine. In this way, a factor found in Czech tradition, culture, and wisdom was converted to a new MUJI product befitting our modern age.
Also, this ain't your run-of-the-mill design competition--the judges take it so seriously that last year, Competition 02, there was no Silver Prize awarded! Click here to see those results, and click here for the results of Competition 01.
Entry period is from July 1st to July 31st.
via jean snow
Create a Core77 Account
Already have an account? Sign In
By creating a Core77 account you confirm that you accept the Terms of Use
Please enter your email and we will send an email to reset your password.
Comments
I wonder how Fukasawa and Morrison feel about Muji's no-royalty mandate, and if they would have appreciated the same type of arrangement for one of their early brilliant ideas..
Oh wait..Muji is paying their celebrity judges a boatload more than they pay the winning young designers..