Eyes for Everyone
Earlier this week we featured young Croatian designers who won second place at the “International Eyewear Design Competition 2010“. The authors behind the idea for “Half Half“ glasses, Vedran Gospodarić and Marko Vilipić, put forth a slightly different concept of both buying and the very perception of glasses, as a product whose price if often set way too high despite it being something that should serve one’s health needs, i.e. improving one’s eyesight. Read further to find out more about the concept of the awarded work.
Eyeglasses have become, in the past 200 years or so, a conventional product, but the fashion industry turned them into an exclusive and expensive fashion accessory thus shrinking their availability factor for the majority of people. The basic idea behind the Half-Half project is the main goal of eyeglasses being able to aid one’s vision. Hence such a product should be simple and affordable.
The construction of these glasses is set up in such a way that the glasses can be very simply separated into two pieces, thus making it possible to mix and match various frames. This concept stems from the fact that it’s mostly the case that people don’t have matching diopter, and this way the user can quickly and efficiently assemble his or her optimum combination.
The shape itself is round, the archetype of all glasses. The way glasses were shaped and used in times past, when people were more concerned about functionality than the esthetics of any given product. Furthermore, a circle represents a universal shape and symbol by which the designers wanted to emphasize the irrelevance of the shape per se.
Through the project’s realization process the very need for new products was challenged along with the general phenomenon of hyper-production, which caused the authors to reassess the design itself as a mode of functionality. As the authors themselves point out, design is a powerful tool by which an individual shapes their environment, both society as a whole and themselves as an individual. In what way can a designer, confronted with the task of shaping the way of life and functioning within society, actually provide an answer to the real needs of that same society?
