It is all about LOVE.
It was easy to pick "LOVE" for my first project simply because it should be the most important purpose of our lives, and yet is one of the most difficult feelings to truly express through an object.
Love means many different things to different people and is a complicated emotion. It is not possible to define love by one particular standard. So in order to capture the true meaning of love, I needed to understand it’s underlying nature. My thought process led me to two key facts:
It is a pure emotion that inspired me to create an object that would help people to express their feelings of love.
How could I truly and accurately embody this invisible but ever-present feeling?
I wanted an object that could draw a parallel to nature of love: always there, but not always seen. (it makes it more precious.)
Then I realized the similarities in the appearance of a shadow - an image cast on a surface, following the shape of an object intercepting light.
Then couple that with the more obvious heart symbol that is used as a universal representation of love, perhaps because it is an emotion that comes from your heart.
Now my mission was trying to create a shape that did not outwardly appear as an actual heart, but would cast a shadow of it.
This, I feel, is the embodiment of love not always being seen, but always being present.
After several attempts and different prototypes, I successfully created the perfect model of a “Shadow Heart”, that I could easily fashion into pendants for necklaces.
Welcome to the design story at OBJECTOUS, where I will post notes about my designs, adventures and thoughts behind the product.
Let me start with an overview of "What the OBJECTOUS is”.
OBJECTOUS is a neologistic term which is a combination of the word ‘OBJECT’ + the suffix ‘-OUS’. It is meant to represent the meaning behind the object (i.e. the product) that I have carefully designed.
It refers to a physical adjectival object that evokes strong feelings and draws attention to its true underlying meaning.
All products/objects were created for some reason. OBJECTOUS aims to specifically create products that have strong purposes or reasons.
I spent most of my childhood between Japan and South Korea, and in the year 2000 I travelled to London for the first time. It was here that I originally came up with the concept for OBJECTOUS. Unfortunately, as a young and inexperienced industrial design student at the time, I was unable to fully execute on the idea. Since then I have dreamt about creating a product that is more than just being something disposable, but that portrays emotions and meanings.
After completing my degree, I moved to the United States to begin my career. It has been a long journey, but now with almost ten years of a variety of experiences - including (but not limited to) design, engineering, project management, production handling - I am finally confident to express my idea to the world.
OBJECTOUS is my window to the world where I am able to create and share.
I hope you will stay tuned to learn more about my ongoing adventure.
Because I have so much more to show you.