TYPE: A Case Study in Emotionally Durable Design

TYPE: A Case Study in Emotionally Durable Design is a furniture project which explores Ezio Manzini’s and Jonathan Chapman’s strategies for designing emotional attachment for the purpose of product durability.

Chapman suggests that one way to elicit a more durable emotional connection is to design objects which have strong narratives which seduce consumers to hold onto their product for longer. The project takes an existing type-form, a bentwood café chair, and superimposes a vintage typewriter key onto the seat. Both the cafe chair and the type writer were designed in Austria. Both are considered design classics. The ability to connect with chairs through the selection of a single alphabetical letter, is a simple way to customise and bring long lasting currency to this simple disposable object

The work is on-going. I am working with the manufacturers of the bentwood café chair, Ton (via TLAB Shanghai), to create an installation to exhibit at Design Shanghai. The design of a full QWERTY keyboard composed of chairs, is designed to elicit a playful response from exhibition visitors and to stimulate a new market direction for the manufacturers of this universal chair type. The playful interaction of the audience will be recorded as part of the documentation of an emotional connection to the product.

Techniques to elicit emotional durability.
Proofing of published methods.
Non-physical strategies for sustainable
The importance of narrative in the design process