Japanese Product Design Principles

[Pauly]

Hello there.

I am studying product / industrial design here in the UK and I am writing a dissertation on Japanese Product Design Principles. I would like to know your thoughts.

What are the principles? What is Wabi Sabi? What place do the principles hold in the modern world? Whjy has Japanese design been so successful

Any contribution would be excellent.

Thank you for your time!

 

[MeAndroo]

Well, as far as I know, wabi sabi is respect and admiration of things that aren't perfect, because they aren't perfect. It's about modesty and humility, and that even though things aren't perfect, they can still be appreciated. Irregular earthen cups and bowls are an example of wabi sabi. There's an aesthetic quality to it.

 

[dadako]

yeah in wabi sabi principles the chipped cup is worth more than the perfect one.

that about says it all.

my advice: spend your grant money on books @ amazon on this subject, as they can hold a million times more information than the internet.

 

[Jean-Francois]

I am not in the field of marketing... and I don't know how much this paper from University of Michigan can help because I didn't read it. It is LONG!!!

http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=busadwp;idno=B1425171.0001.001

After you click on that link, it takes a long time to get to this old paper - International product development of Japanese firms : product coherence and internal isomorphism matrix / Kiyonori Sakakibara and Masaru Kosaka.