The critical spirit in everyday object design: A study of Maywa Denki's creative method by Tingyun Yin B.A. Achitecture (2013) Tsinghua University Submitted to the Integrated Design and Management Program in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Engineering and Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology June 2018 2018 Tingyun Yin All rights reserved The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. Signature redacted Signature of Author_ Tingyun Yin Integrated Design and Management Program May 11, 2018 Signature redacted Certified by Maria Yang Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Thesis Supervisor Signature redacted Accepted by MASSA TT INSTITUTE Matthew S. K OFTE-CHNOLOGY essy Dir ctor JMAUSNc2 0 ?0 1 Executive Integrated Design and Management Program ARARIES 1 ARCHIVES 2 The critical spirit in everyday object design: A study of Maywa Denki's creative method by Tingyun Yin Thesis Submitted to the Integrated Design & Management Program on May 25, 2018, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Engineering and Management Abstract Maywa Denki is a Japanese crossover creative company. It is an art studio as well as a toy design company. Maywa Denki saw the value of the meaning expressed in art works, and managed to turn such expression into the attractiveness of products. The possible connection of art and product design is to provide meaning for the public with skillful expression. Such expression has its own techniques, one of which used by Maywa Denki could be traced back to the technique used in ritual objects in traditional culture. Maywa Denki is a successful crossover company because it manages to promote individual expression. Inspired by Maywa Denki products, I proposed my own work "the Floating World". It is based on the observation of individual living condition and it includes graphic design, story-telling, object design and short videos. This thesis analyzed that technique of Maywa Denki, Maywa Denki's crossover product development path and described my own design work. Thesis Supervisor: Maria Yang Title: Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering 3 4 Acknowledgement Sincerely thanks to Tosa Nobuminchi, the Shacho of Maywa Denki, without the one month internship with you, it is impossible for me to write down this thesis. The friendship and kindness you gave to me was tremendous that I was deeply touched and acquired a faith in my heart on something. Thanks to Jino, You and Yu, thanks for your help and friendship, and how I miss you guys! The talent and kindness of your guys makes me feel that the power of creation and the care for people are the treasures cherished universally. Sincerely thanks to Maria Yang, my supervisor. I can feel your recognition on me on the first sight. For my insistence on writing an essay individually, the support for you is consistently my drive to write. Hug and sincere thanks for Matthew Kressy, my advisor. There are so many things that I should say thank to you. Thanks for professor Steven Eppinger, your book and lecture on product design built the starting point of my essay. Sincerely thanks to Pushpa, Anna and Prerna! Without your help in grammars I will not be able to finish this thesis. I feel so grateful for your patience. Thanks for Andy and Pushpa, it is relying on your help that I managed to make actual toy prototypes. Sincerely thanks to professor Zhou Rong, I deeply knows in my heart that it is you that empowered me on the path of thinking. And I would like you to know that I am comfortable and good at it, and I feel I would bring no regret to both you and me in the future. Hug for my dear friends, Tianjun Wang and Hao Han, it is through discussion with you that I was able to articulate my thoughts into meaningful ideas. Thanks for my classmates Lei and Johnathon! At the end of the edit of the thesis, you helped me a lot! 5 6 Contents List of Figures 9 List of Tables 11 1 Introduction 13 2 Case study of Maywa Denki's product design approach 15 2.1 M aywa Denki product example ............................................. .... 15 2.2 Nonsense: Maywa Denki's core concept ...................................... ..... 16 2.3 Exploration of Maywa Denki's philosophy and expression technique............... ..... 20 2.3.1 A brief introduction of Japanese mythology .............................. ..... 20 2.3.2 The philosophy of treating objects as Kami ............................... ..... 22 2.3.3 Sacred objects and archetypes of Maywa Denki's product................... ..... 26 2.3.4 Ritual theory and the technique of ritual objects .......................... ..... 30 2.4 The path of Maywa Denki's product development .............................. ..... 34 2.4.1 Starting point of Maywa Denki's creative path ............................ ..... 34 2.4.2 Otamotone: example of Maywa Denki's complex product development path ... ..... 34 2.4.3 The overlooking plot of Maywa Denki's product development................ ..... 38 2.4.4 Maywa Denki's business promotion: how expression reaches the public....... ..... 39 3 My work: the Floating World 41 3.1 Learning from M aywa Denki.....................................................41 3.2 M y concern as starting point of design...................................................41 3.3 The w ays of expression..........................................................43 3.4 Description of the w orks.........................................................44 3.4.1 Diagram : Kaleidoscope.....................................................44 3.4.2 360 panorama picture (future plan)..........................................45 3.4.3 Story book: the Floating W orld...............................................45 3.4.4 Object design ............................................................. 50 3.4.5 Video: floating in Charles River...............................................54 4 Conclusion 58 Bibliographic References 59 Appendix A: Images for the Floating world 60 Appendix B: Sketches for object design 64 7 8 List of Figures Figure 1 "Otamatone" ... .15 Figure 2 "Otamatone" ... .15 Figure 3 Toy trumpet .... .16 Figure 4 "Hai-Gyo" ...... .17 Figure 5 "Ray-Ray-Ken" . .18 Figure 6 "Ray-Ray-Ken" . .18 Figure 7 "Ring-Ring"...... .18 Figure 8 "Ring-Ring"..... .18 Figure 9 "Sei-Gyo....... .19 Figure 10 "Sei-Gyo"...... .19 Figure 11 Voice Vibrator. .19 Figure 12 Voice Vibrator. .19 Figure 13 O nbashira Festival .......................................................... 26 Figure 14 O nbashira Festival..........................................................26 Figure 15 Hi-kiri-usu and hi-kiri-gine....................................................27 Figure 16 Ise shirine Naiku architecture.................................................28 Figure 17 M aywa Denki sketches.................................. ... ..... ....... .. 30 Figure 18 Pum p drills................. .......... .............. ................. 32 Figure 19 Pum p d rills............................................ .................. 32 Figure 20 Sava-0 .............................. ................. .................. 36 Figure 21 Sava-0 ............................................... .................. 3 6 Figure 22 Sava-O ............................................... ................. 36 Figure 23 Seam oons .............................................. ................... 37 Figure 24 D ingo ...................... ......... ...... .......... ................... 3 7 Figure 25 Chihuahua W histle .......................................... ..................... 37 Figure 26 Flow er Sava-0 ........................................... .................... 3 8 Figure 27 Puddle's Head ........................................... .................... 38 Figure 28 Kaileidoscope ........................................... .................... 44 Figure 29 Storytelling 1: Shelter on the water........................... ..................... 4 6 Figure 30 Storytelling 2: Drilling fire and distilling fresh water ............ .............. ....... 47 Figure 31 Storytelling 3: Rest on floating wood boards ................ .. 48 Figure 32 Storytelling 4: Marinating cached fish ...................... .. 49 Figure 33 Storytelling 5: Food storage while floating ................ ......... .. 50 Figure 34 Floating N est ................................................... .. 51 Figure 35 A x 1 .. ...... ..... .. ........... ........... .......... .. 52 Figure 36 A x 2 . .. .. .... .. .. ... ...... .. ... .. .. .. .. .. 53 Figure 37 Fire-drilling M achine .................................................. .. 54 Figure 38 Floating on Charles river............................................... .. 55 Figure 39 Floating on Charles river and playing with Ax 2 ...................... .. 56 Figure 40 Floating on Charles river and playing with Fire-drilling Machine ........... .. 57 9 10 List of Tables Table 1 Comparison between Maywa Denki products and ritual objects ...................... 28 Table 2 Comparison between Ray-ray-ken and common tool objects ........................ 33 11 12 Chapter 1 Introduction The process of product design is an opposite process of a business model, which means it begins with the question of what product could be sold to the customers, and ends with a reasonable manufacturing plan. What is expected to be created is not