Bright Ideas

Philadelphia product designer Josh Owen proves that big ideas come in small packages

What do a change bank, bottle opener and jewel case have in common? They're all everyday items revamped by product designer Josh Owen. A piggy bank becomes user-friendly when the plug is in the swine's snout so every last cent pours out from the pig's roly-poly body--no tapping required. A magnetic bottle opener provides storage for the ever elusive cigarette lighter, and a pile of CD cases evolves into a pendant light that's useful long after Appetite for Destruction is added to your iPod play list.

In Owen's monograph, Big Ideas/Small Packages (Woodsphere, $17.95), he shares the inspiration behind 26 of his thoughtful creations and, at the back of the book, offers a glimpse of sketches related to each item, which include a bowling pin-shaped lamp that lights up when standing and turns off when it topples over. Currently an assistant professor of industrial design at Philadelphia University, Owen trained as a sculptor, and his understanding of form is evident in his work. A sculpturesque ice block-shaped faucet lamp--homage to Dada artist Marcel Duchamp, he notes--lights up when a chain that "drips" from the spout is pulled. Such simple things inspire other works such as the tuning knob on a guitar, which became the basis for a dial-shaped lamp. As the knob is turned up, the light gets brighter.

One of Owen's biggest influences is his archeologist father. From age 8, he accompanied his father on digs in the Middle East and was fascinated with the objects they found and how they were used by ancient cultures. "That sense of wonder I discovered as a young boy is what I try to cultivate in the objects I now create," Owen writes. His 2 Part Chair is a reinvention of seating that evolved in sub-Saharan Africa, but instead of relying on slabs of wood, he applied modern materials to the archetypal design.

As a product designer, Owen re-imagines common objects to bring artistic intent to the everyday. It's a "big idea" and, as he shows in Big Ideas/Small Packages, it's the little things--made beautifully and with a purpose--that make all the difference.

--Rebecca Harper

Reprinted with permission from Philadelphia Style, and Washington, D.C. Style magazines, November / December 2005.

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