3D model of butterfly can opener


In response to Gary Hustwit's documentary, Objectified, I decided upon making a 3d model of a can opener. Specifically a butterfly can opener, rather than the popular manual or bunker can openers. One particular line near the beginning stuck out to me. Dieter Rams said, "in my experience, users react very positively when things are clear and understandable... that's what particularly bothers me today, the arbitrariness and thoughtlessness with which many things are produced and brought to market." (11:40) This immediately made me think of the can opener that my roommate had, which we couldn't figure out for the life of us how to use. Only with the assistance of a few google searches was I able to use it.


Furthermore, I found that the can opener wasn't very user friendly. Upon using it, my hands hurt and I was thinking they might cramp. Dan Formosa said, "what we really need to do to design is look at the extremes... if we can understand what the extremes are, the middle will take care of itself." (6:13) Similar to David Stowell's example of his friend's wife having a hard time with a potato peeler due to arthritis, the can opener wasn't very friendly to me, being the average person and it would do doubt be a struggle for the weaker side of the extremes. His idea of rubberizing the handle could easily be applied to other kitchen tools, but as Rams stated, many things are made with thoughtlessness.    


Last but not least, Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa made me think about how the best designs are ones that we don't think about. His example of how we best use a pen when we're not thinking about it applies to many other objects. With the butterfly can opener, the fact that I had to figure it out and concentrate on how to work with it took away from my experience of actually using it. Fukasawa stated, "design needs to be plugged into natural behavior." I couldn't help but think that it was needlessly difficult to use but when using a regular manual can opener I need to put no thought and little effort into the action because it was designed in such a way that felt natural to me. After watching the documentary, my biggest take away from it was the idea that design is meant to be constantly improving people's lives. 

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