id design award 2009 International competition

entry name : PAPER-PIPE SHREDDER
Creator introduction page >>

"More than someone just liking a product because it was designed by myself or a particular person, I want to create products that are coated in the user's fingerprints, and loved so much by them", says prize winner Takashi, who we asked about the motivation behind his design and how he created his prize winning entry.

___First, tell us how you felt about winning.

First, I was truly happy and honored.

I was partially compelled to apply for the contest because the "id Design Award" includes a concept of attempting to commercialize the products, making it different from other design competitions and because you could really get a sense of the sponsors' spirit.

I think I was able to propose a product which incorporates my honest feelings more from a consumer view point then from a designer because of this interest which the contest provided. The product hasn't been commercialized as yet, but I think it will start to feel more real to me once it is commercialized as an actual product.

『PAPER-PIPE SHREDDER』gathered appraisal as of “The reality of commercialization felt from the proposal of beautiful form, practicality, and the variation of design."

___Next, tell us why you chose todesign a shredder for the unrestricted free theme section.

From the past, I had reservations about currently existing shredders in the market, and whereas there are plenty of impressive looking shredders, there weren't any of the size or specifications that I wanted.

Even in my rather plain private life, new account statements, postcards and similar arrive every month and I normally deal with them by tearing them up by hand every time.

However, it was large amount to have to be shredded by hand, plus I wanted to shred them completely, so I had begun thinking about purchasing a shredder.

However, for someone like me who lives in a not-so spacious home, there's no space for a garbage can in addition with a similar sized shredder, and there isn't a significant enough volume of paper generated to require a large shredder for everyday use either, all of which made me not wish to buy one.

There are already desktop shredders, however even if they are small in size for shredders, they are still large for an item that's going to be sitting on top of a desk. There are also plenty of shredders which are appealing design-wise, but I wasn't interested only in a cool appearance, but I also wanted a "tool that offered an alternative to shredding by hand".

___The judges also commented favorably saying it was a "unique design", was there anything in particular behind the idea?

At first, as to propose an idea for the contest, I had a viewpoint as a consumer.

I would take my own ideas and had hearings from people around me when out eating and such.

While doing so there were a large number of people who had the same sentiments as me, such as "shredders are kind of cool, but I can't buy one" and "it seems like a waste".

These days even university students use credit cards for shopping and high school students pay their mobile phone credit by themselves, so I wanted to do something simple that even students without a lot of money could buy.

In addition, I think for them the coolness of the product and a low price would intuitively be the basic standards for determining its worth, so I wanted to design something that would fulfill those standards.

So I started thinking of things so each person would have at least one in handy, and a price range that could be found by the store counter at the front of a store.

There are a variety of existing shredder types, including combination garbage can/shredders, tabletop shredders and scissor type manual shredders, however I thought of things so many people can choose from the variation of designs and that would be worthy in price.

It is an image of a piece of stationary for dealing with account statements and such.

___Your entry was also praised for its environmental consideration, practicality and proposals for design variations, however what sort of process did you use for planning the product?

More than someone just liking a product because it was designed by myself or a particular person, I want to create products that are coated in the user's fingerprints, and loved so much by them.

For this product I thought of things from the viewpoint of the individual consumer by honestly turning the creator's thoughts into a tangible shape. Because I thought of it from the consumer's point of view, I started off from practicality of the item, but I thought having design variations would be more fun and interesting and that helped me formulate the entry.

___Were there any particularcontrivance points used for size or usage methods?

My conditions were that the product would not take up space in size on the desktop and that it could fit inside of a drawer.

It has an image of sort of being put aside in the corner of the desk or lay away in a drawer, and waiting for its moment.

It will spend most of its time being shut away anyway, so I thought it should look good enough that it wouldn't be disagreeable in appearance sitting on the desk.

Not only that, there isn't a great amount of materials needed to be shredded, or anything on the level of an office. I thought it should be something of a size that would allow an account statement folded in three or a postcard to be shredded.

___How did you create the secondary screening product?

I wanted to use a paper tube design for this contest.

First I started by searching for a company that would make a paper tube of the size that I wanted.

I used break times during work and other opportunities to search on the net and found the Japan Paper Tube Association.

Their office is in Osaka, however they introduced me to a factory in the Kanto region and I found the type of tube I wanted and made an order with a company which produced the tube called Kaoru Kogyo.

I then made a mock-up using a friend's studio and help from other friends.

The production time took up most of the application period at about 1 and half months. I wanted to create some variations as well, so it took some time.

The trophy was given by the sponsor, IDEA INTERNATIONAL CO. LTD President and Representative Director, Masaharu Hashimoto.

___Were there any points that proveddifficult because the design was intended to become a commercial product?

Since I had no engineering skills or anything of the sort, I had trouble balancing with reality. I bought the existing shredder and I used a screwdriver to disassemble the shredder and studied the size of the blades and internal workings in my own way. I compensated for the rest with imagination as a designer.

If I could have one thing, I'd like for the main body to be smaller, but there wasn't time.

There's still a lot I'd like to do. For example redesigning the blade shapes so that the cut paper came out in attractive shapes and such and other methods to make the shredding process more interesting.

___What is your regular job?

I work as a business designer on weekdays. I do my own design work on weekends and evenings.

I enjoy making flyers for friend's weddings and introduction cards for friend's beauty salons and such.

___What was the motivation behind your design work?

At present this would mostly be my own thoughts and feelings, however the motivation is a little different for different design targets. For example, being asked by a friend to design a flyer is mostly carefree but I do have a sense of responsibility for work, and no matter what, issues and problems I have in my daily life tend to play as large part as motivation.

I think this means taking a sense of inconvenience felt in an activity or a sense of something being wrong with the way something look, and then changing it positively so that the average consumer sees it as fun, attractive and something they'd want to buy.

The design of the logo mark and the trophy is produced by satou taku, who participated as a judge.

Trophy is made of glass

Exclusive wooden box
Logo mark branded on the
cover

Logo mark is carved on the bottom of the trophy

I do not believe that a trophy which serves no other purpose and has no other meaning than to act as proof of the receipt of an award is appropriate for use as a design award for a new era, and so this led me to think of a water drop motif trophy, which also serves as a paper weight, and which needs to be looked at to be understood. I hope that recipients will not just simply shut it away in a box somewhere, but keep it on their desks and actually put it to use.

Taku Sato