Design for the Dispassionate
I am not a gear geek. I don’t obsess over design or follow brands on Instagram. I just want my belongings to function so well that they become an afterthought. Invisible.
It wasn’t until I started at Db that I learned this simple truth: To make people like me happy, people the opposite of me need to exist. People like Truls Brataas, Db’s co-founder and CEO.
I recently Slacked Truls three quick questions about the history of The Strøm for an upcoming project. All I needed were a few sentences. No biggie. Instead, he sent me back a voice memo that contained a 15 minute soliloquy on how one of Db’s bestsellers came to be. Here are a few excerpts:
I got inspired by Boeing’s Dreamliner, and the plane’s wing arch largely influenced the belly of The Strøm… I was fascinated by the Golden Ratio, and designing the silhouette of the bag to have the ratio 1.61803, which you’ll find in Leonardo Da Vinci’s Virtruvian Man, and throughout nature...the top of The Strøm perfectly fits a Moleskin, which is where I have always taken my notes...
What poetry! What passion! On behalf of detached consumers everywhere, thank you Truls. For caring. For bringing your visions to life. For creating products that work so well that they merge with our day-to-day and become invisible in the best possible way.
taylor