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Home Depot + Arnell Group, or the end of closets.

By Don Lehman - December 11, 2006

in Object Culture

Home Depot has partnered with the Arnell Group to develop a new range of innovative products under the label "Orange Works" The first one you see above is a fire extinguisher meant to be more ergonomic and stylish than your traditional extinguisher.

Two thoughts on this product: 1) Is it just me or is every product that you see getting a ton of press lately meant to be proudly displayed on your counter or coffee table instead of being relegated to the closet? This trend is single-handedly turning our homes into department stores and decimating the closet industry.

2) In their PR statement Home Depot brags that this breaks away from the traditional red fire extinguisher... That seems like a kind of a bad thing right? Kudos for wanting to improve the design of a fire extinguisher and make it more ergonomic and cool looking, but the traditional red fire extinguisher is a design icon in its own right and a recognizable one at that. I hope in an emergency that someone who isn't familiar with this new version will know that it is in fact, a fire extinguisher and will think to look on the counter for it instead of in the closet.

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KnowGood

17 years ago

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The HomeHero isn't designed for people with no taste or rednecks. It's for black turtleneck types that are into Karim Rashid and Phillipe Starck (to name the more popular) type design. Clearly this isn't any of you.
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Deb

17 years ago

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very stylish..but, what is the cost and how many oz. does it hold ?
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davidk

17 years ago

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i just bought one from my local home depot store on long island. the design is more updated than this post and looks great! only cost $24, not bad for a stylish extinguisher that's easy to use!
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- yes i bite you
  
  8 years ago
  
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  hey, any chance you still have this laying around? I'm a design student that has been looking for one, it doesn't have to work. There are none on ebay or amazon. Thanks
  
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Mauro

17 years ago

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Adam, I am curious to see what your friend designed. Can you post or send me a reference to his name and thesis (title, school, dept, etc)? Thanks.

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Adam Paquette

17 years ago

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2 cents, true there maybe a lot of white extinguishers on the market already, but if anyone is asking why isn't it red maybe that's a problem. Simply because you work at home depot doesn't mean every one else is a moron...it just means u know there's an abundance of white extinguishers. I didn't trash the design because it was brushed aluminum, I simply asked why it wasn't red. Seriously just google fire extinguisher, 99.9% are red. Stick this sleek design next to an red extinguisher and I'm sure consumers will pick the new one 75% of the time. Now if you asked them to identify the two without what do you think the answers will be?
Now I'm not arguing, I'm just asking.
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Shane

17 years ago

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Point made. I didn't know that. Still to have safety universally identifiable should be the primary focus. Nothing about the form of the object (from whats visible in photos) says what it is for or how to use it.
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my2cents

17 years ago

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Almost every kitchen extinguisher on the market is white, you geniuses. Clearly there is already a market for non-red extinguishers. And many of them come in shrouds without gauges. There are also silver ones. If any of you instant experts went to a hardware store before spouting your opinions, you'd know that.
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Shane

17 years ago

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Aren't fire extinguishers red so that they can be seen through smoke or located quickly. Its nice that you could leave it on the counter but I would rather not have my house burn down because I'm trying to figure out which appliance is for making smoothies and which one is putting out my burning spaghetti oh's. This would look nice next to the Rashid Cone that I keep hidden in the pantry.
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akbar

17 years ago

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I agree it looks like a Thermos. However, something definitely needed to be done in this category.
We have white fire extinguishers all over the house. Believe me, no one has ever asked me "Hey, what's that white thing with a guage mounted on your wall???"
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pred

17 years ago

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I agree with Adam. I also feel the automobile industry should have never shifted away from selling all there cars in black!
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Adam Paquette

17 years ago

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This is a riot, Dan if you read this or have seen this I know you are about to punch the monitor. Coming across this lame attempt to redesign the fire extinguisher I thought to myself what's to even stop the owner from using this as a Thermos. Now I know you are saying that's impossible it does not have a container on it that holds delicious chicken noodle soup, but honestly it looks like one, with a nice handle on top. Now recently a friend of mine redesigned the fire extinguisher for his thesis project, yet he didn't neglect the fact that the f.e. has looked the same since it's birth. His design is a bit bubbly and it's aesthetics are similiar to that of a product made for the japanese, but for the most part resembles the original and is clearly not for the kitchen counter. Now the big question, HOW MUCH CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH WAS PERFORMED FOR HOME DEPOT'S EXTINGUISHER, and why isn't it red?
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jr

17 years ago

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it doesn't look that cool....it's still going in the closet
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Don Lehman

17 years ago

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I guess that's part of my point .k. Yes, it's out on the counter but only the person who knows what it actually is, is the one who bought it. The design does not reference any part of the red fire extinguisher icon and therefore will be much harder to identify in an emergency.
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.k

17 years ago

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your two thought seem to be conflicting. if a crappy extinguisher looks that good, i'm pretty likely to keep it out somewhere, which would be a lot easier to get to in an emergency. anyway, i've had a white extinguisher in my kitchen for years now... which reminds me, i should check on it.
sorry to complain, awesome find though!
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stick

17 years ago

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i think despite every designers wishful thinking that their products will be proudly displayed, we still just shove it in our drawers cabinets and closets for the most part
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