Failed Designs: A Virtual Tour of Creative Flops
Design Flops: When Innovation Goes Wrong
The Cité du Design in Saint-Etienne, France, is hosting a virtual exhibition dedicated to design flops. The exhibition, titled “When Design Flops,” showcases 40 impractical, unnecessary, and awkward objects from psychologist Samuel West’s Museum of Failure, which opened in Sweden in 2017.
The DeLorean: A Fast Car That Wasn’t
Among the featured objects is the iconic DeLorean car from the 1980s. Designed to be an extremely fast sports car, the DeLorean actually proved to be much slower than other models. Despite its lack of success as a vehicle, the DeLorean became an iconic cultural symbol as the time machine in the Back to the Future movies.
Google Glass and Other Real-Life Flops
Other real-life flops on display include Google Glass and roller skates designed to protect the arches of ballet dancers’ feet. Google Glass, a wearable computer with a heads-up display, failed due to privacy concerns and a lack of practical applications. The ballet roller skates, on the other hand, proved to be too bulky and impractical for dancers to use.
Little Miss No-Name: A Poor Counterpart to Barbie
The exhibition also features Little Miss No-Name, a huge-eyed 1965 doll created by Hasbro as a poor, bedraggled counterpart to the glamorous Barbie. Hasbro’s marketing campaign, which emphasized the doll’s lack of material possessions, failed to resonate with children, who preferred the more glamorous Barbie.
Artists’ Creations: Perfectly Unusable Objects
Some artifacts included in the show are artists’ creations that were never intended to be practical. These include works by Athens-based architect Katerina Kamprani, such as open-toed rain boots, a twin champagne glass, and a watering can with its spout twisted backwards. Entries from French artist Jacques Carelman’s 1969 Catalog of Impossible Objects, such as a wavy ping-pong table and a bicycle-powered road roller, also appear.
The Value of Failure
The exhibition’s curator, Sylvie Sauvignet, hopes that visitors will walk away with a more positive view of flops. “Failure is necessary, it allows us to learn,” she says. “Mistakes are priceless for creation or innovation, be it in design or other areas.”
Virtual Tour and Guided Tours
Those fluent in French can participate in guided tours of the show now through March 10. Tickets cost between €2 and €4.50. Individuals unfamiliar with the language can explore an English version of the Cité du Design’s “When Design Flops” exhibition page.
Additional Flops
In addition to the objects mentioned above, the exhibition also features a variety of other design flops, including:
- A plastic bike that was too heavy and difficult to ride
- A wavy ping-pong table that made it impossible to play the game properly
- A bicycle-powered road roller that was too slow and impractical to use
- A watering can with its spout twisted backwards, making it difficult to water plants
- A twin champagne glass that was designed to be “deliberately inconvenient”
Conclusion
The “When Design Flops” exhibition is a fascinating look at the creative process and the importance of learning from mistakes. The exhibition showcases a wide range of design flops, from the iconic DeLorean car to the more obscure and humorous creations of artists like Katerina Kamprani and Jacques Carelman.