Time Is On Our Side
/I can’t recall when was it that I first saw a picture of Philippe Starck’s Juicy Salif Lemon Squeezer. But I do remember the person who showed it to me told me it was a spider. A freakishly alien looking spider, but a spider nonetheless.
Turns out, it wasn’t. It’s a squid.
Now, here’s the part of the story everyone knows or, at least, has heard about: legend has it that Starck was on holiday with his family on the island of Capraia, and while eating a squid in a restaurant – and squeezing some lemon juice over it –, he began to draw some sketches on a napkin. Or was it a placemat? Well, honestly, it doesn’t matter.
The fact is that, it was right there and then, that the concept for the best-known citrus squeezer in the world was born.
And that’s the funny thing about concepts: sometimes, it takes ages to come up with a great one; other times, all it takes is a few seconds squeezing a bit of lemon over a plate of squids.
Which brings us to the million-dollar question: does time play any role at all when it comes to creating concepts?
Since I’m far from being any smarter than any of you guys, please, feel free to disagree with me (and if you do, I’d love to hear your takes on it), but my answer would be: yes, it does.
However, by no means I’m referring to the time spent actually creating the concept.
Nope. That’s not I’m talking about.
I’m talking about the time spent acquiring the life experiences and enriching the repertoire necessary to create any great and timeless concept.
That time – THAT one – matters.
After all, it was Starck’s life experiences that went into the concept of the Juicy Salif, making it one of the most widely discussed and controversial design objects ever conceived. It was his vast and incredible repertoire that allowed him to look at a squid and see a lemon squeezer. And if there’s one reason that explains why, to this day, we still engage in conversations to talk about Mr. Starck’s iconic creation, it isn’t because of the few seconds it took him to draw those sketches.
It’s because of the lifetime he spent investing in his craft.
Speaking of conversations, here’s part of the story not everyone is familiar with: on page 9 of the 1999 book “Starck”, written by the late Conway Lloyd Morgan (an internationally published writer on architecture and design), Starck himself said that the Juicy Salif’s raison d’être was to stimulate conversation. In his own words:
“It’s not that it’s an excellent citrus squeezer, this isn’t its only function.
I thought that when a couple marries, it is the type of thing they might receive as a wedding present. So when the parents of the groom go to see him, he and his father sit in the living room having a beer in front of the TV while the new mother-in-law and the bride sit in the kitchen and try and get to know each other better.
“Look at this present we were given”, says the new bride.
And so they start chatting away.”
If that’s the case, then mission accomplished, Mr. Starck: for here we are, 30 years later, still chatting about it.
Bravo Monsieur.
