Urban Vinyl Project
Abstract
In this project, I propose to design a range of designer toys, which investigate a fascinating designer toys culture – Urban Vinyl.
The intension of this project is not only personal – to deliver sensation experience with an emphasis on aesthetic aspect of designer toys, but also inform and challenge the modern living attitude and lifestyles of people in the Hong Kong society, the place where I am from.
I believe people who are living in the modern urban life like Hong Kong, including myself, has been deeply affected by the metropolis consumerism. Lives have been all about earning money and buying products or services without understanding or even having a reasonable reason. Through this project I aim to influence the public to ‘re-think’ about how are we living and why we do things.
Proposal
Designer Toys
Urban Vinyl is a type of designer toys or action-toy figures that are often made up of vinyl. They are work of self-governing toy designers and artists who usually have street art, graffiti or illustration background. They create exceptionally designed original toys that are sold in limited runs, often as low as 400 to 1,500 with a few color and material variants. Vinyl toys are often in graffiti style mixed with low and high art culture, Asian Street culture and American hip-hop culture. As these toys are highly aesthetically appealing in terms of color, form, quality materials and even packaging design, they are popular among youth as well as adults.
The vital characteristic and the differentiating features of Urban Vinyl toys is their originality. Unlike most of the conventional toys, Urban Vinyl is original from the start to the end, from its outside to its core. It is a blend of art, design and toys. “A designer toy is an abstraction distilled into concrete form. A drawing that becomes real, which enters our three-dimensional world and leaves the two-dimensional surface behind. Our response to this solid expression of hypothetical concept is a powerful one: at a deep instinctual level our imagination recognize a dream made corporeal-a magical translation of idea into object.” (2000)
Design Intention
I propose this project because I am disappointed by the Asian consumerism culture. People’s mind has always been dominated by economical and financial concern, which buying and spending become the main part of life.
Because of the buying habit that people have nowadays, individuals’ happiness have been rely heavily on purchasing product and services all the time, and life satisfaction is being achieved mainly through consuming. For the reason that people desire to buy so much, people become so concern about earning cash to purchase brand names products and perceived status-symbolism appeal. It becomes an endless cycle of earning and spending. And people forget the original reason of buying was to improve quality of life, but not to push oneself harder to earn money.
The reason for living becomes unclear. For that I am motivated and to challenge this purchasing lifestyles and attitude through this project.
Although Urban Vinyl is a culture that has the necessary consuming element of modern life, there is something positive that worth people to look up to. It is a culture of making and collecting toys; people purchase the toys, collect them and cherish them. Not consume them and dispose them. As designer toys have the aesthetic quality to offer as well as the attitude and spirit, I believe people may follow or find this project influential and inspirational.
Design Approach
This project has evolved several frameworks. They are experience design, slow design and good design collaboratively. Experience design would be the driving force being considered from an aesthetic approach.
Designer toys are all about detail with intensive consideration on aesthetic quality and materials.
So a slow design apporoaches on the design process is needed. Every aspect of authenticity of designer toys has to be taken in to account. For example, details from packaging, materials, form, colors to graphics design and the appeal of the toy to users. It will be a small batch production because originally is so important that designer has to take part and control every phases of the whole designe process from the start till the end. Good design would be a philosopical aid to the project which brings out the core argument of this project.
Project Concept
In this project, I aim to design and produce a series of collaborative designer toys products that base on street art culture and use Hong Kong as a background. There is a reason for this combination of multi-cultural reference. Hong Kong is a place where people have been having very basic and simple life. However, because of the economic growth and the appearance of consumerism, there is so much about rich and luxurious life in Hong Kong in recent years.
Street art is about low budget, using basic tools to create art in urban areas to deliver a message that one wants to say. There are passion and courage to adventure in the street culture. This attitude is influential for Hong Kong people to reflect their purchasing lifestyles. Do we really need to buy so much? What about be passionate on something for a longer time?
As an industrial design, I always wanted to express my attitude through products, and in this project, the product would be a toy.
“The power of toys is not about regression or infantilism. It is the recognition of possibility. Toys are symbols that have a figurative power to embody thoughts and emotions that may have their origins in childhood, but are not childish. We recognize part of ourselves, our secret, wishing selves-in toys. The part of us is out unexpressed, dreaming self.” (2000)
No one should forget about their dream, otherwise there will be no point to live.
People should value their dream and imagination more and to use them as personal goals rather than purchasing goods to achieve life satisfaction.
In reality it is impossible to be happy or having pleasurable time in every seconds of your life. There are things that one might not be able to do, but what could be done is to work hard to achieve the “pleasurable time”. It is the attitude that matters.
Artefact form and outcome
The outcome of this project would be a set of collaborative designer toy figures, which shows a strong sense of art. This artifact would be propositional, demonstrational, and potentially entrepreneurial. These toys suggest a vision for people changing status quo – to think, dream, imagine and possibly react by the simulation of the aesthetic experience gained from this project. And it would be a small batch production as the hands-on approach and limited numbers to designer toys are vital.
The dynamic of this project is hybrid with open and closed product. It will be a closed product in terms of what the toys deliver physically. However, it remains an open product in terms of delivering experience. There are different possible outcomes as how people use these sets of vinyl toys are up to the users.
Anderson, J 2008, Urban Vinyl Toys – A Step towards Modernization!
Phoenix, W 2006, Plastic culture: How Japanese Toys Conquered the World Politics, Culture and Society, Kodansha International Ltd, Tokyo
Vartanian, I 2006, Full Vinyl: The Subversive Art of Designer Toys, Collins Design in Harper Collins Publishers, New York
