#062 ✰ Childish x colorful x soulful design

SoaO: Estelle's bedside table • creative brain • own a Swatch?

Hey there 👋 I’m Mathilde. We are Objet. We explore the intersection of consumerism, myth, satisfaction, desire, taste, joy, meaning and pride. Not specifically in that order. To brag at your next dinner, Objet is the french word for 'object' and should be pronounced 'OB-JEH'.

Hello hello! If you’re new here, welcome 👋
In today’s Objet journal:

• Our mission 👉 Wait, what are they onto again?

• Soul of an Objet 👉 Estelle’s bedside table

• What’s up on the app 👉 Bounties? Yes, and way more visual!

• Cool reads 👉 Cause you know, it’s always cool to read cool stuff

Our mission

The relationship we, humans, have with shopping - and our objects as a whole - is broken: we want to bring back joy and pride.

Objet is a safe space to explore your desires and know yourself better.

Soul of an Objet | Estelle Imbert

Sublime possessions have soul and meaning. Meet Estelle’s ‘designed-by-herself’ bedside table.

Estelle’s Objet profile | her own upcycling brand for men

Hi Estelle! So what's the backstory of this object?

This bedside table is the best I could ever dream of : it’s so cute ! I must say I ‘m quite attached to it as it is made to measure and designed by myself. It is a co-creation that I made with my brother who is a carpenter and ebenist. I wanted something that would give a round and childish feel; I almost imagined that the legs could be coming from an old part of a wooden outside swing. That’s how I described it to him and tried to design it. My brother called me on a very regular basis to update me on the project. I received video calls of him during the entire process : the selection and buying of the wood, him turning it, sawing it and starting assembling the piece of furniture. I didn’ t miss any part of the making for 4 weeks including the final touch of painting after I chose the color. Then I saw it in reality and I found it so unique and special in this color, crafty, just perfect.

What object’s been your best investment?

A pair of Acne boots with a hiking look I still have after 5 years wearing them 5 days a week.

Is there any other type of things you truly like to dig into?

I love vintage furniture (spending lots of time on le bon coin and selency to find the GOOD piece that i won t see somewhere else).

What's the next purchase you're currently contemplating?

A video projector and a design or vintage lamp for my living room.

Thank you!

👀 Did you know? Once you onboard on the app, you can respond to and engage with cool people like Estelle in one click.

What’s up in the app

🌸🛼 Bounties are built to help you hunt your next purchase and get reco from the community. Last version is way more visual, and bounties are now shareable!

[NEW bounties] 👇

• sari is looking for a chic gift for a lady who loves to cook

• nico is looking for a durable raclette machine for 4-6 people

• disco_mvisco is looking for nontoxic, fragrance-free home diffuser/candles

• marie is looking for a 40L packpack for a 7-day expedition

Think you can help?
Could use advice in your next hunt?

Try us:

… and if you're not on iOS - it happens to cool people - feel free to reply in the comments!

Cool reads

🎹 Inside a creative brain

Talking about Acne, here is a beautiful interview of “serial creative” Jesper Kouthoofd, one of the original founders of Acne Studios, now head of design, founder & CEO of teenage engineering - he launched products such as the legendary synthesizer OP-1

Narrowing down

With any kind of creative work you start disabling as much as possible and narrow it down only to the necessary tools you need, and from there start making the work. That’s what I believe makes you super creative.

Feeding the brain

I always tell my designers that you can’t control your output, you can only control the input. That’s why it’s so important to gather inspiration, read interesting books and explore subjects outside your profession, that’s what makes you able to create interesting things in your profession.

Learning at all cost

I don’t want to be connected to any material stuff. I like things because it’s an experience; I can be materialistic in that way, for instance, I can buy an expensive car just to explore how it is to drive it but then for me it’s more the learning process that I like and so I don’t fear. I think that’s my only strength, I am not afraid of failing and of being poor but of course, it’s not fun. I feel like money is just a tool to do the things I like. I actually have this goal to do my best work when I’m 75.

Projecting the future

It’s super interesting for me to see how many successful companies had this kind of setup, where products got created from a place of passion and as soon as they start to speculate on what the market wants in order to make more money, they inevitably start to fail because all you’re looking at is the present situation, not how it’s going to be in ten years from now.

Triggering waves

What’s so beautiful about creating products is that saying it in a poetic way, if you have that passion it naturally starts waves and those waves connect people. Then you don’t know where it’s going to end up, anything can happen, but if you don’t do anything, if you don’t write that text, if you don’t draw that picture or design that object, you can’t expect anything to happen. You need to start that chain reaction in life.

🌈 Where did colors go?

Paul Graham @paulg

Changes in the colors of objects since 1800, from pictures of 7000 objects in the collections of UK science museums.

⏱🎂 Swatch watches are 40 years old

After the quartz crisis hit hard on the Swiss watch manufacturors, here is one hell of a kind Phoenix of the industry: from a survival-led innovation to their first ‘Special’ -the Jelly Fish- ; from the launch of the Swatch & Art watches -created in collaboration with artists and designers- to a worldwide brand “bring[ing] art into everyday life”, here is the story of Swatch. An inspiring read about re-inventing a luxury, codified object.

A fierce competition

Hayek gave the engineers a new brief. They were to design a watch that was cheap enough to compete with the Far East; had fewer components, but didn’t compromise Swiss quality; could be adapted to a range of products; was tough and waterproof, and was profitable.

An innovation - the case

“The case is the real innovation Swatch was built on,” says Giordanetti. “It changed the whole paradigm of watchmaking, because with conventional watches, you begin by assembling the movement. With this, you began with the case. It was the opposite of what anyone had ever done before. That and the plastic meant it could have a low price and the low price helped drive the sales.”

A disruptive positioning - the second watch

a watch that would not be the heirloom piece of Swiss tradition, but “a new, fascinating way to say who you are and how you feel”

A cool name

abbreviating “Swiss Watch” to “Swatch” (some sources claim it was intended as a portmanteau of “Second” and “Watch”)

A fine strategy - regular collections x universal affordable price

marketing the watch as if it were a fashion item, with two new collections of watches a year, to be supplemented by occasional “specials”. (…) selling them all at a universal CHF50 (£50 in the UK) would enhance their appeal. “The price was very important,” says Giordanetti, being “psychological, not rational. They have always offered more value per Franc than many luxury watches whose brands don’t actually make the movements.”

A popular mission - bring art into everyday life

make it democratic and fun, taking the language of luxury and applying it to plastic. It was a part of how we created ‘fashion watches’ as a new category in the market. Until then, no one had found the courage to say that watches could be about fast consumption, trends and fashion.” (…)

“This is the beauty of this project, that we were able to bring soul to the product at that low price through the stories it tells and through design.”

Who owns a Swatch here? If you do -or did!- reply in comments with a quick story - I’ll lead with mine 💋✨ We might feature the best ones in next week’s newsletter 😎

If you got all the way here and have been seeking a better way to experience shopping & enjoy your possessions, alongside enthusiastic, not-so-serious souls, try Objet:

… share Objet journal with a soulmate 👯

… subscribe to Objet journal to receive new posts 🛼

Til next time,

Mathilde