The Flower Sermon

“What can be said I have said to you,” smiled the Buddha while holding the lotus flower, “and what cannot be said, I have given to you » from the tale of The Flower Sermon - Gautama Buddha

If “good design is as little design as possible” (1), how good is barely no design at all ?
It is often said that designing an object is an act of creation, but most, if not the totality of what is produced is often a matter of transforming what already exists, turning it into what it could become. Ultimately, the only things we create are probably ideas. Everything else is just perpetually transformed.
So-called creativity is here reduced to its stripped bare minimum. A mere gesture of purpose. A different way to look at reality. A raw idea.
In this sense, the 9 vases presented are inherently simple. They try to escape their own creative contradiction by showing evidences of their anatomy and the process they belong to. They somehow question their own legitimacy to be designed.

These objetcs are intentionally cold and sober, therefore giving the flowers their rightful place, simply serving them by contrast. Despite their apparent austerity, each of them shows specific characteristics and a unique geometry that directly influence floral compositions. They have not much to tell, except to the flowers. And they just let us know.

(1) 10 Principles of Good Design – n°10 - Dieter Rams 1976

Photo Courtesy: damnmagazine.net