Tag Archives: nendo

The Japanese powerhouse Nendo modernizes the way we memorialize our loved ones

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There is a finality in death – the tragic loss of a loved one makes it difficult for the living to move on. For years, we have always had ways to memorialize the way we mourn our loved ones, as the quote often goes, funerals are for the living. The declining birthrate, aging population, and economic reasons make it difficult to build and maintain graves. Modern times changing as they are, our rituals and ways to stay in touch with those departed are also changing, with Nendo taking a spin at modernizing it.

The Japanese culture follows Buddhism, where a traditional altar is created in the memory of the departed. With the traditional Buddhist temple and altars reducing in importance, a new technique called “hand memorial service” is gaining momentum. Hand memorial service includes interior vessels and accessories that can be worn or held at home, making it easier to keep the loneliness and loss at bay. The entire idea bolsters the spiritual relationship between people, and also allowing the modern version of returning a person to the earth – be it by spreading their ashes, going for a tree burial, or scattering them into the sea.

The Buddhist way consists of a four-piece set – the urn, incense burner, flower stand, and rin that stands on the table which acts as “Earth”. Using a minimal design, the different forms mimic the parts used to commemorate. The urn is placed on a small hill while the depression represents the lake, that holds the flower upright. The other two pieces are an incense burner that allows you to hold the incense upright or lying down with a dent that holds the ashes and a rin. The rin holds a bell inside in the shape of a small mound that can be ringed by touching it. An independent pendant holder can be detached and holds ashes that can be worn around your neck to hold your loved one even closer. As Nendo explains, “The pendant holder has the same “hill” shape as the urn, and is a pendant that looks like a part of it has been cut off. By doing this, I thought it would be possible to create the feeling of wearing a part of the earth where the deceased sleeps.”

J.K. Rowling adds a sense of mystique with her quote “To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” I would add to the quote by saying that life without a loved one needs to be an adventure, to cherish the ones who are no more.

Designer: Nendo

Nendo’s latest pill dispenser saves your pills from falling with this minimal doughnut design

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Advertising jingles have formed a solid foundation of my childhood, so much so that the moment we say Polo, the automatic response is – the mint with the hole! This solution is aesthetically more doughnut inspired than Polo. Nendo, our favorite Japanese design studio has come up with a quintessentially Nendo design, as I would like to call it. What does it include? It is a set of designs that solve a problem with a modern, minimal approach that makes it a joy to interact with these designs. I find these solutions akin to the ninjas who are quietly yet surely solving the problems of our time – in this case the problem of effectively handing our medicines.

Meet the Ring Pillcase, a visually self-explanatory design that streamlines the process of removing a pill from the bottle. It is often that we find ourselves juggling with a pill bottle and in our hurry to take our meds end with some of the pills on the floor, or even touching our dirty hands. COVID-19 has amplified my hate-hate relationship with germs. Before this, yes we would wash my hands as a hygiene practice, but can you imagine returning this pill back into the bottle, or god-forbid if any happen to fall on the floor. The 5-second rule has surely taken a beating post COVID. Ring Pillcase allows you to open up and allow only one or two pills to escape from the casing. “The user first places the case upon their palm and then turns the upper component 60 degrees counter-clockwise to reveal a slot. The slot was designed to face the user so the latter might easily see pills before dispensing. Then, gently tilted toward the user, the pill case releases one to two pills onto the user’s palm, from which the pills may be taken after the case is lifted.” explains Nendo.

Simple, smart, and effective, this well-thought-out pillcase is an experience of ease of use. Twist the case and the pill drops out. Best of all, the hollow center of the pill allows you to hang labels, tags, or even fun thread patterns. Given the while canvas offered, there is a ton of customisation we can do and it ensures we don’t mix up our pills. Attach a thread through the doughnut and no more searching your bag for our pills in the dark!

Designer: Nendo

Nendo unveils a paper carton soap holder +reusable soap pump to reduce plastic waste!

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These days we’re pumping out handsoap like it’s tap water. Personal hygiene is a daily ritual that feels so natural and intrinsic to the human body, that we might not recognize the impact it has on the environment. Packaged soap relies heavily on non-renewable resources to create plastic containers which cannot be broken down after getting disposed of, polluting our waters and continuing a harmful cycle of toxic production and waste. Japanese design firm, Nendo designed a hand soap dispenser called Carton + Pump to combat that waste.

The Carton + Pump comprises a fixed pump and base and a disposable, paper body that can be switched out for one filled with soap once finished. The carton, which is made from paper and takes the shape of a classic milk carton, gets positioned upside down into the dispenser’s base so that the pump can be inserted. Carton + Pump’s final form sandwiches the carton between the pump and its separate base to appear as a typical handsoap dispenser. The carton’s shape allows users to use up the dispenser’s contents to its last drop as all the extra handsoap collects into the carton’s triangular roof. To avoid the carton collapsing with frequent pumping, the designers behind Carton + Pump designed it so that the dispenser’s top and bottom covers evenly disperse pressure.

Bathroom storage cabinets can quickly fill up with plastic containers, toilet paper, and cotton pads. Carton + Pump’s shape makes it so users can stack extra cartons directly on top of one another, without creating yet another disorganized pile of bathroom supplies. The creators at Nendo have so far designed two types of pumps, one for liquid soap and another for foam soap, and two sizes of replacement cartons are currently available: 250ml and 400ml.

Designer: Nendo

Carton + Pump comes in two sizes: 250ml and 400ml.

 

The carton is placed upside down and the pump then gets inserted into the bottom of the carton.

Following use, leftover handsoap collects in the carton’s triangular roof so users can finish up the soap to its last drop.

With a stackable shape, Carton + Pump won’t make a mess of your bathroom cabinets.

With minimal design elements, Carton + Pump fits anywhere.

Nendo designed an airless football that never deflates!

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Designed as a 54-part puzzle that can easily be assembled on-site, the My Football Kit by Nendo aims at creating a long-lasting football for low-income areas that doesn’t deflate or need re-inflating. The ball’s design is inspired by Japanese woven bamboo balls, with interlocking and interwoven elements that can easily be repaired or replaced on the fly.

Football is a sport that has universal appeal, with even countries in Africa, South America, and Asia being as (if not more) invested as their more affluent European counterparts. However, while footballs are easily and readily available, repairing or maintaining footballs can often be difficult for people from low-income neighborhoods, creating a class-disparity in being able to play the game long-term. Nendo’s answer to it is a ball that never needs inflating in the first place. Named the ‘My Football Kit’, Nendo’s solution is a 54-part puzzle that comes together to form a football. Made from recycled polypropylene and elastomeric synthetic resin components, the resulting ball is robust, soft, and bounces just as well as a regular football, but doesn’t need inflating. Instead, its interlocking pieces maintain the spherical shape of the ball thanks to their structural design.

The interlocking system designed into the football is so uniquely innovative, that even if a component breaks off or gets damaged, the ball will still continue to hold its shape and will not disassemble, ensuring the game goes on uninterrupted. To fix the ball, its missing component can be replaced, and if broken, can be easily repaired. This makes maintaining the football much simpler and provides a much more economically effective alternative to buying a new football or a pump.

All 54 pieces of the My Football Kit come disassembled in a flat-package (sort of like IKEA furniture) to reduce their carbon footprint while shipping. They can easily be assembled on-site (giving people a fun pre-game activity), and the possible inclusion of colored components allows players to customize their football too, helping build a bond between the user and product. A drawstring bag comes included in the kit too, so the owner of the ball can easily carry it back home – either intact or disassembled!

Designer: Nendo for Molten

OPPO’s credit card-sized triple-folding phone is the logical evolution to smartphone technology!

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A smartphone is one thing that all of us rely on for most (if not all) tasks during the day, and the increasing screen size makes it a tad difficult to use in some situations. On those lines, having a phone that can change form depending on the occasion, sounds like a novelty. OPPO has teamed up with Japanese design studio nendo (founded by Oki Sato) to present a radical three-fold phone concept at the 4th China International Industrial Design Expo (CIIDE) that has this year’s theme as “New Designs, New Trends, New Momentum.”

Dubbed as the slide-phone, the motive of the design is to pursue “a comfortable relationship between people and their products through a human-centric approach to design.” Adapting a caterpillar-like moniker for the folding mechanism, the concept phone unfolds to a 7-inch screen with a slim profile, that’s wider screen real estate than most we’ve seen so far. When unfolded to the first fold it reveals the 1.5-inch screen area for basic notifications or functions like music player controls, call history, or more. The second fold reveals the 3.15-inch screen space for clicking photos, video calls, or playing games. Third and the final fold reveals the full widescreen for multitasking, taking panoramic photos, or playing games with an on-screen controller on each side. It even comes with a stylus for professionals, like the one on the Galaxy Note 20 series.

The positioning of buttons on the sides is such that they permit multiple actions depending on the positioning of the folded form. Putting the phone in mute, toggling volume up or down, and changing the filters while taking photos – all can be one with these buttons at your disposal. The interesting looking can be used in a partially open position when it is slightly bent – a new possibility for use, perhaps. The idea looks promising just like the Galaxy Z Fold 3 concept, and the conventional Apple foldable iPhone concept. One major advantage here is the slim form factor and the flexibility of use, just like that of the OPPO X 2021 rollable smartphone concept. Like all of these concept phones, the slide-phone is a desirable one, but will it see fruition anytime soon, is anybody’s guess!

Designer: nendo for OPPO

Nendo’s Tokyo house uses a giant stairway to keep the family and their 8 pets connected!

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When I saw Nendo’s latest project, there is just one song that started playing in my mind – Led Zepplin’s Stairway to Heaven because that is exactly the emotion this house radiates. The unusual-looking home was designed to be a part of one of Tokyo’s residential neighborhood where two families can live on different levels while being connected by the defining staircase that runs through the entire space. The house is called Kaidannoie which actually means house of stairs and it truly feels like it will lead up to heaven.

The stairway house has three floors in total, the ground floor was created keeping in mind that it would be used by the elderly members of the family and the remaining two floors are meant for the couple and their children. Of course, you can choose the living arrangement as per your needs but given how not-normal this house looks, it still has a very wholesome vibe which is showcased in every carefully thought out detail. What I love most about this house is that the stairway also acts as an indoor garden filled with abundant sunlight which becomes a large common area for the family to have some bonding time. Because of the staircase, there are no conventional floor boundaries which means the entire house has the luxury of a high ceiling. While most of the home is smartly concealed to keep the residents’ lives private, the south-facing side is made completely of glass allowing sunlight to fill the space and provide a zen view of the existing persimmon tree. A staircase is usually never the center of attention in any house, but Nendo’s home flips that concept on its head so fast that now you would only want a house where the staircase is the fundamental and spiritual pillar of the structure. The style in which this house is built invites a lot of warmth, light, and nature without feeling trapped like Harry Potter was in his room under the staircase.

The staircase starts right from the roof, the upper part is a semi-outdoor greenhouse and as you go down, it diagonally connects every level (and provides ample space for the owners 8 cats!) organically and then casually extends all the way out onto the street. This house makes me feel like even if I was quarantined in it, I wouldn’t feel like I am indoors all day because of how well it is designed. You’d think the oversized staircase would be jarring on your eyes but it surprisingly has a gentle demeanor that instantly resonates with you, maybe because staircases are a symbol of connection and moving upward…and also where many of us may have nostalgic moments that are sometimes the defining steps of our lives (just like 12-year-old Mr. Potter).

Designer: Nendo

The house encourages natural ventilation and balances the urban setting with peaceful greens.

The stairway not only makes the house stand out visually but it also conceals the functional parts of the home, offset to the north side, from the street.

The stairway house is a blend of traditional and modern Japanese aesthetic – the lush greens inside and outside harmonize well with the monochrome and concrete interior design.

So the staircase is connecting each family member and each corner of the house among themselves but also with the outside world.

 

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Minimalistic and Adorable: Nendo’s Kakao Friends Homekit Is Giving Us Major Aesthetic Goals!

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The Japanese studio Nendo has achieved master-status in turning everyday objects into something extraordinary! Their constant reinventions have always left us wanting more. This time ‘a simple white bowl’ was their starting point, leading to the creation of the Kakao Friends Homekit, a collection of contemporary smart home appliances with a companion app. It’s a mobile app, making it easy to access your products anywhere, at any time! Inspired by Kakao Friends, the original characters of Korea’s largest messenger app “Kakao Talk”, these simple yet totally adorable objects include seven products: a body scale, a humidifier, a thermometer, an alarm, a sensor, and an air purifier. All the objects share a continuous aesthetic theme, even though they each possess a unique silicon ‘icon’ which symbolizes their different functions. Another element that groups them together as a family is their soft feel factor, the absence of any hard edges and the overall soothing texture they possess. Let’s dive a little deeper into them!

Designers: Nendo x Kakao Friends

The cloud-inspired Smart Scale records and tracks users’ weight changes. The scale’s icon a ‘cloud’ symbolizes the desire to be lightweight. Puffy and cotton candy-like, the body scale will literally give you the sensation of “walking on clouds”, while you enjoy managing your weight with a series of super friendly feedback animations.

The collection also includes an adorable little humidifier! The humidifier’s icon is ‘vapor’. With a simple white bowl as it’s base, Nendo chose a muted lilac for the ‘vapor’, enhancing the soft feel of the item. Humidifies a room, and looks cute? We’re all in for this product!

Not an early bird? Well, your mornings are going to be a little less gloomy with Nendo’s Kakao Friends alarm clock. Waking up on time won’t seem such a task with this little bird chirping out your daily alarm! The color accents on each piece, including the butter yellow on the alarm, are inspired by the characters of Kakao Friends.

Falling sick is the last thing any of us want to deal with in our busy lives! However, Nendo’s quirky little thermometer does manage to put a smile on our faces. Modeled after the ‘perspiration’ that is produced on catching a fever, the droplet-shaped thermometer is truly one of a kind.

Continuing to weave a playful story around each product, Nendo decided to shape their sensor after a periscope. Though it may look little, that does not affect its functionality nor its ability to look out for us!

Here, Nendo has diverted from their bowl on the bottom design, and instead placed the bowl on top for the Kakao Friends lamp. The lamp has a ‘ray of light’ extending from the bowl, illuminating any room it could be placed in.

For the baby pink air cleaner, a ‘flower’ that flutters in the wind was selected as the icon. The visual of a flower fluttering in the air instills the image of a fresh clean breeze in our heads, adding on to the lithe aura of the air cleaner.

Minimalistic, soft and highly functional, Nendo’s Kakao Friends Homekit is exactly the collection of accessories we need to add a touch of pastel color and mellow aesthetics to our homes!

Nendo made a minimal, no-nonsense pepper-mill

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With no complex rotating parts, tolerances, blades, burr grinders, handles, and assemblies, Nendo’s Pepper Pestle is a minimal, elegant storage unit for dried peppercorns that even doubles as a spice crusher. Designed to work as a mortar and a pestle, the Pepper Pestle comprises a hollow frosted glass bottle (which stores the corns) with finger dimples on either side for an easy grip, and gentle ridges on the bottom that hold and crush the peppercorns against a glass tray that also doubles up as a resting platform for the bottle.

The bottle comes with a corkstop that secures the peppercorns inside it with an airtight seal, retaining the spice’s freshness. Whenever you want some ground pepper, pour some out onto the tray and grind the spice till you reach the consistency you desire. The ground pepper collects in the concavity in the tray, and can directly be poured into your food to season it to perfection!

Designer: Nendo for Valerie Objects

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Image Credits: Akihiro Yoshida