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12 December 2005

The iPod of Toilets

LovegrovetoiletThe Swiss newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung (NZZ) is among the world's best, and perhaps the least prone to hyperbole. Yet this Sunday's edition raved about British designer Ross Lovegrove (TED2005) and his latest project, "Liquid Space," a line of bathroom furniture and fixtures for Istanbul-based VitrA. Lovegrove fascinated us last February in Monterey, with his organic forms and high-tech materials; this new line fits right in. NZZ described Lovegrove's commode as "The iPod of toilets: so elegant, so chic, so smooth that it could easily make the list of must-have lifestyle products. Could it be a lounge toilet?" (Tip and German translation from Bruno Giussani)

Posted by June Cohen |

Comments

Now that explains this Frog inspired connection!
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/portable/frog-design-mind-124912.php

Posted by: Jim Rait | 12 December 2005 at 04:10 PM

Great link, Jim. Thanks! I found this bit intriguing:

The iPod has become—in the minds of most of our clients—the example of great product design. We found ourselves constantly trying to figure out why everybody we asked perceived the iPod as being “clean.” More...

And also his conclusion that people perceive the iPod as clean because it references the sleek whiteness of a porcelain bathroom. That also makes this an amusing feedback loop of influences: Toilet inspires iPod. iPod inspires toilet.

Posted by: June Cohen | 12 December 2005 at 06:20 PM

Thanks June for the link. After I sent you that Swiss-German newspaper article I actually started thinking about the marketing phrase "the iPod of", and I googled it, and what I found is that the desire to appropriate the iPod's perceived values of modernity and hipness, and its status as an object of desire, has vastly spilled over into the whole landscape of technology, and well beyond. Check out the write-up of those who want to be "the iPod of" something at
http://giussani.typepad.com/loip/2005/12/the_ipod_of_spi.html

Posted by: Bruno Giussani | 13 December 2005 at 01:48 PM

a good example of utilitarian design...

Posted by: paul | 08 January 2006 at 10:36 PM

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