cozy city: May 2012

Nendo is just the kind of design firm that I imagine must be loads of fun to work in. A combination of high productivity, creativity, simplicity, curiosity, and humor - all things that should be on any good designer's checklist.

Their mission statement speaks for itself:

     Giving people a small " ! " moment.
    There are so many small " ! " moments hidden in our everyday.

    But we don’t recognize them.
    and even when we do recognize them,we tend to unconsciously reset our
    minds and forget what we’ve seen.

    But we believe these small " ! " moments are what make our days so
    interesting, so rich.

    That’s why we want to reconstitute the everyday by collecting and
    reshaping them into something that’s easy to understand.

    We’d like the people who’ve encountered nendo’s designs to feel these
    small " ! " moments intuitively.

    That’s nendo’s job.

And a well-done job it is turning out to be. Besides capturing those amusing " ! " moments, Nendo is also taking advantage of modern technologies and materials in interesting ways. Honestly, I had too much fun sifting through their various works, and it's hard to choose just a few favorites. Commencing hodgepodge of furniture, housewares, gadgets, interiors and exhibitions (really, there's quite a lot to choose from):