Bad Design #6 — whatever
“Hey, we need a letterbox.”
“Ok.”
PLONK!
“There you go.”
Do I even need to explain anything here? I know juxtapose is a popular word in art and design, but I really don’t think that was the point here.
The most likely issues here were budget, lack of creativity, and just plain I don’t give a crap on behalf of the owners. But this is quite shocking. Whatever glimmer of design this property once had, has now been snuffed. There isn’t even an attempt to tone it down with a calming paint colour.
Perhaps there was some thought put into it though, perhaps the green was supposed to camouflage it, and fool us into thinking they were plants, hahaha. The council uses this “trick” on its wheelie bins. You can see one at the back in the photo, it is dark green. Interestingly though, the council also provides bright yellow bins for recyclables, so I’m not sure what they’re supposed to be, giant canaries? (another topic for another time)
This was another set of letterboxes a few metres down the same road. Same owner? Same letterbox fabricator? Who knows. Same lack of respect to the humans that need to live here though, that's for sure.
With so many complex problems in the world, you probably never thought letterboxes was one of them. Well, now you know.
But as I always say:
Every problem is an opportunity.
And here definitely lies opportunity. It can be as simple as using a more neutral paint colours. Or even easier, just place it a bit further back, in the garden bed even. These letterboxes open from the front, so no rear access is necessary.
Yes there are always constraints, and sometimes you just have to work with what you have. But sometimes you need to step back and look at the bigger picture. If you are too focused on the initial problem, “we need a letterbox”, then you’ll miss out on the real problem, “we need a letterbox that connects with our living space such that the welcoming feeling we have when coming home remains the same or is improved”.
Come on people, you can do better.
CitizenRod is an entrepreneur, industrial designer, artist, and thinker. Follow him on Steemit, Twitter, Insta, his artwork at rodrigoantoniomunoz, and his startup at Maate.it.
Note: This article was originally posted on Medium by CitizenRod.