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Looks Cool... But What Does It Actually Toast?

By Ray Hu - September 13, 2011

in Object Culture

Melbourne-based product designer Jon Liow showcases a handful of interesting, conscientious and mostly minimal design concepts in his portfolio, but his latest project, "Lean," comes out of left field nonetheless. See it in action after the jump.

Well, if the title didn't give it away, "Lean" is a plate informed by user behavior. Liow explains:As a child, I remember being taught how to lean freshly toasted slices of bread against each together, in order to aerate the hot slices and allow them to become crispy. This going against the common practice of throwing them flat onto a plate, resulting in cold, soggy slices of bread.

Anyone who has caught on to this practice knows how hard it can sometimes be to stand two slices of toast up on the slippery surface of a clean plate.

The 'lean' dish is designed with this simple function in mind. Two subtle ridges are raised just high enough, and spaced just far enough apart, to support a varying range of bread slice sizes. It also works as a fully functional and ergonomic plate. Here's to crispy toast.

Love the presentation, but I'm not sure where to go from there. Maybe it's gesture-based: swipe the toast on the toppings, no knife necessary.

Could also do without the "instructions" (if you have to ask...)

Perhaps Liow's concept is but a new frontier for what we'll call "post-toaster design": a survey of the first ten search results for "toaster" provides ample evidence (yes, each of those letters is a separate link to a separate toaster) that designers the world over have yet to perfect the art of heating sliced, leavened, wheat-based sources of carbohydrates.

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David

13 years ago

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I appreciate the design. It's thoughtful--even if that means no one else has the habit of toast-leaning. Now, if there were a toaster that automatically toasted AND sliced the edges off, we'd be onto something...

While we're on that: can someone design an automatic bagel slicer that can actually cut the bagel through the MIDDLE, regardless of thickness? Seriously, the toupee-look on my bagel does not a good breakfast make.
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Brennan

13 years ago

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Its a nice observation of the "ritual toast eating" ;) but i would have to say i would never invest in such an item. I see it more as a design observation than a useable object. Don't misunderstand me, I acknowledge the product works, I just don't see it as practical object.
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Ray

13 years ago

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Hi Fred,

Thanks for your comment. The title (the only "criticism" in the piece) is a bad joke, picking up on previous posts I've done (search for "Looks Cool... But What Does It Actually Do"); I actually intended for "coming out of left field" to be a good thing, so apologies to anyone who read that as a critique.

My observation about the presentation is also meant to be tongue-in-cheek. The more I think about it, the more I think swiping the toast would actually work.

The point of the post-- and this is a response to Matthew as well-- is that perhaps it's not enough to re-design the electronic appliance, that there's more to (a user's experience of) toast consumption than the toaster itself. Frankly, I'd never heard of the toast-leaning technique before I saw Liow's design, so naturally a bespoke plate for this purpose struck me as a little bit absurd.

So yes, the writing is more rhetoric than analysis, but to Rick's point, the design is a thought piece and I figured it was worth presenting it as such. (To have to explain myself here just means that I didn't do as good a job describing the piece as Liow did in designing it.)

Best,
Ray
Core77 Editorial Team
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Fred

13 years ago

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The purpose is not to actually toast the bread, but to assist in the leaning of the toast. This helps to keep the toast from getting soggy after toasting.

It is pretty clearly explained in his description. I think it's this writer's criticism that is out of left field.
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Rick

13 years ago

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Toast racks are a waste of space when not being used. And they also make for crumbs all over the table-top. This isn't the most inventive piece of design I've seen. But it's thoughtful, and the form can't be mocked. How can you mock this design but not mock 80% of what Muji puts out on the shelves?
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Steve Wilson

13 years ago

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Has this guy never heard of a toast rack?
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Matthew McClatchey

13 years ago

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Really, this is design? To have this on a website such as Core 77 is a joke. I don't care what aspect of design you are trying to prove in any case, but make it DO something. I want my 5 minutes back.
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