Headline, May13, 2013

'''SALUTIN​G THE JAPANESE - 

FINALLY AND TRULY'''

Allow me the singular honor to introduce you to one of the most creative, the most innovative, and the most 'endearing'  companies of the world. So impressed was I, that I almost turned Japanese myself!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, give Muji a great ovation and a great hand!

The hundreds by thousands of square foot of  -the gem-of-floors- that display their creations the world over, is some aesthetics. This genius of a Master company is worshiped for  bringing an ultraclean aesthetics to everyday objects   -from CD players, to pencils to couches.

When they opened their first store in Manhattan, their first in North America, their design philosophy emerged as a design emporium of the most restrained and subversive kind. At Muji, a pen looks like a pen, and a chair looks like a chair. Not only that: The chair probably looks like chair, you've seen somewhere else.

A typical Muji product seems to already exist, but when you want to find something like it, you discover how rare it actually is. It won't knock your socks off, it will, however, provide a clean campus of your life without getting to much in the way.

Take, for example the Markable Umbrella, one of the over 2000 Muji products available in Europe and States. Other design-oriented companies may have created something fancier. A Remarkable Umbrella. perhaps. Because isn't that what design is all about  -making the design remarkable?

But what differentiates Muji's umbrella from others is the dime sized hole at the tip of the handle, which allows you to make the umbrella your own by attaching a trinket of your own choosing. This detail perfectly captures the spirit of the Muji's approach. Where other might add a flourish, Muji adds a hole  -an empty space that simply gives you space and room to express yourself.

In a landscape littered with one gratuitously novel shape after another, Muji's minimalism is more than just a beautiful aesthetic: it's a wholesale return to mine and yours and our senses.

Muji's Master Creator, Naoto Fukasawa sums up best: ''A product is not my product. It's already something that existed in your mind but that you weren't aware of until you saw it.  Like !WOW! and Sam Daily Times.

Another thing that you might not be aware of until you see it: just how satisfying a beautiful functional design can be. That is Fukasawa's approach!

Sometimes, the designers forget about the environment and just create shapes to express their own personalities. They are not really thinking about you; they are thinking about themselves. This is the real lesson  I learnt. This is the lesson you all should consider.

With respectful dedication to the Students and Professors of Japan! See you all on !WOW! We have many surprises for you!!

Let's see if OUR Mint is better than YOURS!

Watch your Stats!!?  Hahaha!

With respectful dedication to the great people of Japan.

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless