Product rebirth

Idea

The concept of product rebirth was born out of my recent emotionally durable design project. Product rebirth is the act of taking a no longer loved object and allowing it to be loved again. What follows is a complete explantion of product rebirth, it is written in the style of an article in the design press, this is the most visible way I could add myself, “the designer”, to the end product, a cup and saucer set.

Article

“Its such a shame… these were so loved once… I wish I could save them all,” says product designer Joseph Stebbing, as he careful looks over a stall of bric-a-brac in Deptford market. The 22 year old designer, ceramist and sculptor, has caused much controversy in the design community since the release of his hjem range of table and home ware. We met him to find out why.

Stebbing is a self proclaimed “rebirther of things”. By taking an unloved, discarded object he claims he can produce a new product through a process of product rebirth, an act he compares with evangelical Christian total immersion baptism.

Stebbing admits that people are right to be nervous about this approach to so called product design. “People don’t want to be conned, but its time to start thinking differently they were nervous about recycling in the 80’s, but opened their hearts to sustainability in the 90’s. Neither has really been effective in halting the damage caused by our constant need to renew…” Stebbing pauses sensing he’s making a scene in this very crowed public place and offers to take us back to his studio for a cup of Earl Grey. “Sorry I’ve got no milk” he apologises but then spends ten minutes explaining how only in England could we add milk to a wholly perfect concoction of hot water and dried leaf.

Continuing his monologue Stebbing moves to explain that, in his eyes, “product rebirth” is the recycling of the nougties. For him the differences between recycling, breaking an object down into its component materials to be used in the manufacture of something new, and rebirth are clear. “Product rebirth is a spiritual act and in a time when we lack personal spirtualism it only makes sense that we should gain product spirtualism.”

The Hjem range is Stebbing’s most successful example of “rebirth” so far. Its components are salvaged or, as he puts it, “rescued” from the flea markets and car boot sales of southeast London. Odd cups, saucers, milk jugs, and tea pots are bought wholesale, at wholesale prices, from market traders early in the morning then taken back to the studio to be washed, bleached, and rinsed (product baptism). “I aim to provide a product which, when first taken out of the box, is as easy to use as a newly manufactured product would be”. He’s careful around the subject of whether Hjem is a range of ‘new’ products. “Its easy to be confused between whether I’m producing new objects or collections. I...…, he pauses as he quickly glances over crates of used mugs which litter the floor back at the studio, “I really do think I produce new products”.

We are shown the ‘font’ where the intricate product baptism ritual takes place and from there taken to the packing room. Stebbing is in no doubt that the quality and style of packaging he uses is the Hjem ranges most immediate selling point (the consumer has no idea of the contents in the box until after purchase). “I’m encouraging the consumer to take a risk, a leap into a designed unknown. They are building a relationship with me and with the product… exhibiting blind unfaltering trust and I respect that”.

Blind trust seems an important step in adding value to something that is an expensive pre owned product, but Hjem doesn’t see it self as a second hand. Hjem offers the consumer the opportunity to add another chapter to a previously finished book, to stretch product life.

Stebbing sees Hjem as kick starting a trend for the free flow of objects/products; “an ebay with no bidding, a library of products accessible by all, where nothing is left to rot by the side lines, where fashion no longer dictates what we should and should not own.” Utopia?

However when you see these products in exclusive design outlets from London to Tokyo his free flowing product ideas quickly fall apart, there is nothing “free” about the Hjem range. Priced at up to two hundred pounds per set only the most buoyant, design savvy consumer will be prepared to take this blind risk. It is, however, important to consider that when you buy into a product like Hjem it has a very real human element. Oh, and take it from us, don’t bother with Earl Grey sans milk even if it does spring forth from a reborn tea pot.

The Future for product rebirth

I will be contining to look into product rebirth in my next self lead project 3Dmcp5. In this project i intend to explore the idea of product rebirth by asking:

• what does product rebirth mean?
• what is the importance of product stories?
• are there other ways of rebirthing objects?
• why do we fall in and out of love with objects?
• is product rebirth sustainable - economically and environmentally?

I expect 3Dmcp5 to go some way to answering these questions, but in the process to ask even more. i have no idea what the physical out come will be although I do know there will be one.