Space-Age Design

Life Magazine, February 9, 1962, when my wife was just 6 days old, ran this story about the Seattle World's Fair. There was a lot of excitement back then about the space race, which spilled over into everything from auto makers to home decor. Cars started to look like rocket ships, and hanging lamps like Sputnik satellites. The Seattle Spaceneedle even looked as if a flying saucer had landed high above the city.

During this period there was a certain styles that emerged, similar to mid-century modern, but with some fun unexpected twists. Googie, was what they called it, and we can recall restaurants with that added flair, with extravagant cantilevers and color, lots of color. The LAX Theme Building is a classic example, and has since become a Los Angeles historical cultural landmark, and looking like it came right out of a Jetson's cartoon. The restaurant operating out of the building closed permanently in 2013, but we hope to see it open someday. Perhaps some famous chefs can get together and make that happen.

Futuristic Designers

Arthur Radebaugh was a futuristic industrial designer, and ran a cartoon column called "Closer Than We Think". He envisioned flying cars, which we've yet to see, but his designs are sometimes referred to as "Diesel Punk", which is also known as "Steam Punk's" little brother. He died in 1974, but you can read more at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Radebaugh- for more on Radebaugh.

Calling All Creators

My goal in writing this, is to hope to inspire young creators, and to persuade them that ANYTHING they can imagine, can be created. They can print 3d models, or CAD images, then there's the final step of having it made. I believe the days of having to find a factory overseas, who demands huge quantities with multi-container commitments, are over. I believe small runs of presold custom orders, will be what thrives in the future. Gone are the days of racks and racks full of products, based on pure speculation, and the 300 to 400% markups over what the true production costs were. With Web3 and blockchain technology, we're going to know the sources, and this can spell bad news for the layer upon layer of middlemen, all taking a cut, and with the biggest middleman of them all, the the government, taking a sales tax of almost 10% of the highest retail prices imaginable. Example, would you rather pay 10% of $100, or 10% of $30?. This spells very good news for consumers, or end-users, as I prefer to call them.

GPO's

Group Purchasing Organizations will also be a way of offering special discounts when a commitment is made for a factory to schedule a custom production run. It will require some patience, but factories simply cannot sustain themselves with the uncertainty of whether orders will come in or not. We've recently seen the "whiplash effect", where factory lead times exploded, and they had to scramble to produce. Unfortunately, those days may be over, and some have added workers, raw materials, and added capacity, which may all come to a grinding halt. These factories will soon experience plenty of 'idle time', and will be very eager to hear about large runs, which can utilize their expertise.

The tables will turn, and these factories will commit to producing AFTER they receive commitments, and not before. Logistics will be a challenge, but regional distribution centers which handle like products will make sense. In our case, small shops that can assemble, finish, and upholster chairs and stools, which are made in much larger quantities, can employ regional craftsmen (and women).

Feel Free

To write or call. I'm hoping appliance and decor industries differentiate with some 'space-age' looks. Will it last, will it make money? No matter, it's be a fun ride.

Paul Darafeev 12/12/2022

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