Method

I'm attracted to the mundane. I notice small things that don't mean much to the average person. Like hand soap. Most people buy hand soap based on scent or whether or not its antibacterial. Mostly, I focus on packaging. A while back, my roommate bought the most amazing dish soap with the greatest packaging ever. So what did I do? Looked up the story of how that brand, Method, designs their products.

In an interview with Ivan Navarro, the husband and wife design team of Josh handy and Sally Clarke
described how they came to work for Method, and how Method came to exist in the first place. I'll talk about the parts I found most interesting, and I will do so in a convenient bullet-point fashion.

    - The founders of Method came to Josh, who is a designer, and essentially told him that they wanted to revolutionize soap as the world knows it. So Josh was like "ok, we'll see" only to discover that it was a cool project that he ended up enjoying. He and his partner came up with an upside down soap bottle (which turned out to suck [leaked everywhere] so they went with something else). What I think is interesting about this story is just the fact that the skepticism he felt at the beginning ended up dissolving and soap became his career. Judge a book by its cover?
    - Both Sally and Josh say that one of the most important parts of their respective jobs is how their offices effect the flow of creativity within the company. Their office building doesn't have individual offices, rather everyone from every department kind of meanders happily and interacts with each other. Also, the actual interior design is playful and very conducive to design and creative production. This emphasizes the importance of play, as we have discussed in the past. It allows for creativity to flow freely and for designers to pull inspiration from their surroundings. It also helps designers stumble upon ideas while their minds are relaxed, rather than be under strick, regimented guidelines for what to produce and when to produce it. sounds like the perfect work environment.

When it comes down to it, I just really like the subtle design that is inherent in Method products. Their bottles are minimalistic with just the right amount of flourish in their labels. A perfect example of one way that design is integrated into our every day lives, whether we notice or not.