“The common design” as well as the meaning of common place.
Commonplace means affirming a concept or statement in the public domain, both true and false, since it is shared by the mass. Likewise, the “common design” can identify an object which, due to its diffusion, becomes what identifies its type of product to most people.
The case of the packaging Panno Spugna by Despar and the Onda sink by Franke.
I recently found the package of terry cloth at the Despar supermarket, a product mainly linked to use in the kitchen and in particular in the sink area. The package shows an image of a sink that I recognized as the Franke Wave model, designed by BCF design in 1997.
In my opinion, this is a case of “common design”: the name of the product is not mentioned in the image, but the reference to the product type of the Onda sink is evident, a model that is now out of production but which over the years has known a diffusion very wide. The creative who designed the packaging of the terry cloth identified it as an object that goes beyond its specificity, because it is known by many.
BCF design and the challenge of large numbers.
BCF design, in its long career, has always dealt with the realization of projects that are then produced in many thousands of pieces, if not millions. The case of Franke’s Onda sink is emblematic. The sink, created 25 years ago, has been produced for over 15 years in millions of pieces.
In developing popular products, BCF design adopts a calm and sincere design approach. Serene in the sense that design must perform a positive action in the relationship with the user, who sees him as a friend who improves life, and sincere as an object that responds to the values and promises that the manufacturer promotes.
Serenity and sincerity are the ingredients that make product design destined to have a long life and a positive relationship with its market and, at best, to become a common reference.
Marcello Cutino
