Page 169 - The Design Thinking Playbook

2.4 How to design a good story

Good stories have accompanied humanity for thousands of years. In
olden times, the profession of storyteller used to exist. Today, books
and new digital media have replaced this profession. But we still like
good stories. Pretty late it was discovered—and accordingly used—
that products and objects can tell great stories as well. Architects
such as Gaetano Pesce, one of the icons of Pop Art design, once
remarked that we are separated from objects as long as consuming
them is the only primary reason for their existence. Why do we take
Pesce as an example? Peter has told us about his enthusiastic admira-
tion of Pesce. He was particularly taken with the “La Mamma” chair,
UP 5, from 1960. We’ll leave the question open whether the chair has
any resemblance to Priya at this point; it’s up to your imagination.
We will discuss later why imagination is important and what all this
has to do with storytelling. First, some information on the UP 5 chair:
It has the shape of a woman—hence the name “La Mamma”—and
was inspired by prehistoric fertility goddesses. To implement his idea,
Pesce used an innovative technology that allows the creation of large
foam-molded parts without a load-bearing inner structure. Thanks to
a vacuum chamber, the piece of furniture could be reduced to 10% of
its volume and thus shrink-wrapped in air-tight film. This made it easy
for the buyer to get the piece of furniture home. Only once the film
was removed did “La Mamma” unfold to its original and final size and
shape.

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