2000-2020: Humorous products from Alessi, Koziol & Co

If you are looking for the form that only follows the function, around the noughties you have experienced one of the most difficult moments in the history of design. Because at the beginning of the new millennium, the creative forges of manufacturers like Alessi or Koziol created all kinds of colorful things that waved, feixten, smelled like cookies, or that gave you something to do while you were using them.

by Tanja Pabelick, 10/16/2020

At the turn of the millennium, designers were concerned with the small, previously inconspicuous things of everyday life: they took on household objects. They questioned the shape of archetypal objects such as clothespins, soap dispensers or lunch boxes. Sannen pondered the form of such products, which are so far behind their function that there is uncertainty about their name. For example, what is the name of the roll holder for household tissues? Or the thing that can be used to peel off wet tiles? In 2000, they were given, if nameless, at least a face and thus distinctive features.

Brooms with mohawks
The consumer could choose: would he rather have a dishwashing brush with googly eyes, with little legs or a cheeky hedgehog cut? What was otherwise considered typological only in fashion and, in a second instance, perhaps in furniture, now spread to cutlery drawers and bathrooms, to pantries and glove compartments: the individualization of people through the character of their possessions. While consumers had previously sought their personal expression with the help of belts, shoes and sofas, their own philosophy of life now also influenced their choice of dishbrush or clothespin.

Happiness made of plastic
With all the cheerful products, the Italian "Dream Factory" Alessi or the "Happiness Factory" Koziol were mainly concerned with appealing to people on an emotional level. This works most directly when human facial expressions and gestures are used. The little arms stretch out, the hole punchers laugh, the bottle opener bares his teeth at the crown cap. Another level of address is that of a funny act. The way the products behave in this is typical of the times before YouTube, when people still laughed at home videos on "Pleiten, Pech und Pannen. The Magic Bunny, which Stefano Giovannoni designed for Alessi, also makes you giggle. If you pull the rabbit's ears long, it pulls a few toothpicks out of its hat. Salt and pepper shakers Lilliput, on the other hand, perform a pole dance. The stunt is made possible by small magnets that the eggheads have hidden in their moon boots. This design is also by Giovannoni. Just like Nutty, a nut-cracking squirrel, or Mary Biscuit, the vanilla-scented cookie jar.

From super-funny to super-normal
Brightly colored products with superficially original qualities, whose funniness curve drops after the first "Ha!", can hardly inspire us today. They represent the kind of humor that we grant to preschool-age household members. On the other hand, we might also wonder why we don't (want to) have anything to laugh about in 2020. Weren't the cheerful accessories of 2000 also an expression of a carefree basic mood? Just a few years after the pet and household chimeras, we turned to the icons of the supernormal, Post-its, BIC pens and industrial tableware. Also beautiful, but comparatively dull. They moved into a life that no longer celebrated the new economy, but had already checked it off as a dot-com bubble. In the end, is the mood of our things primarily a reflection of the zeitgeist?

The designer as humorist?
Designers always seek the perfect form for the function of a product and can only fail at it. A flawless designer is actually only nature. Or as Bruno Munari once put it: "L'uovo ha una forma perfetta, benché sia fatto col culo" - an egg has the perfect shape, even if it is laid by a butt. So to hide the small inconsistencies, flaws and defects of form and function, designers outshine them with the outer shell. Sometimes with decorative beauty - and sometimes with humor. And perhaps, in all seriousness, we should allow ourselves a wink here and there. As long as things don't wink back.

This article is part of the dossier: 2000-2020: 20 years of Interior & Design

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