Taha Caner Leblebici
T.C.L
Nendo / Oki Sato
It was such a smart name, or so it must have seemed at the time. When the Japanese design group Nendo decided to make small objects, such as vases and chairs, in series of 100 a few years ago, it called the collection “1%” because each individual item represented one percent of the whole. But since the activists in the Occupy movement unfurled banners proclaiming “We are the 99%” last autumn, “1%” has been synonymous with capitalist excess.
“I suppose the name does seem negative now,” said Oki Sato, the 34-year-old cofounder and chief designer of Nendo, with a rueful laugh. “We are planning to release a new product for the collection soon, and, yes, we will still call it 1%.”
It is typical of Nendo to stick to a unfashionable name since it has not
embraced any of the defining themes of contemporary design while emerging as one of the most dynamic design groups of the last decade. During that time, design has been dominated by complex challenges: addressing environmental and social problems, grappling with advances in science and technology, and exploring the neuroses of modern life. Yet Nendo has favored the old-fashioned approach of producing wittily elegant objects that have intriguing stories. Take its best-known product, the cabbage chair, which consists of a roll of pleated paper that is usually a byproduct in the production of Issey Miyake’s clothes. It unravels to create a comfortable and beautiful chair.
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