Tuesday, July 21, 2009

From Thonet to Firefox

Today I start with a chair design, name Thonet no 14.

Thonet chair is a bendwood chair designed by Michael Thonet (1796-1871), who is a German-Austrian. Thonet chair has a very simple design, is cheap (because it can be mass produce), and you can comfortably sit on it.

chair no. 14
Chair no. 14.
Originally uploaded by khio.design

The Thonet No. 14 chair is the most famous and popular model among all the Thonet chair model. It was designed in 1860 (some says 1859) and I heard it is still in production. A design 150 years ago and still available now, it is a classic.

The Thonet chair also known as the coffee shop chair. Its simple design lead to its affordable (cheap) price. Not sure it looks familiar for you, but I saw this similar design very often in many of the coffee shops, during my childhood time.

Some people like complicated things, some people like simplicity, it is just a preference. A very important point, a simple but practical design lead to affordable price. That's is the philosophy and vision of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created the Apple II computer.

A netbook might not as powerful as your desktop or the high end notebook, but as long as it fulfill your needs, and you can comfortably bring it around, it is useful. Most important thing is affordable price.

You think this does not apply to software because software can be reproduced very easily? So you can put it more codes? So it doesn't matter it is a bloated software or not? What do you think that Firefox browser get its popularity which it was just a strip down from Mozilla/Netscape browser?

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