A Study on the Characteristics of Japanese Household Goods Design through the Idea of a Japanese Humor, “Golgye(滑稽,こっけい)”: Focusing on Nendo Products

Abstract

Household goods have taken up a large part in daily life, including food, clothing, and shelter in modern society, and in Japan, in particular, there are more comical design household items than in Korea. Therefore, this study divided the ‘Golgye(滑稽, Japanese Humor)’ into three types through a literature search on the Japanese humorous expression 'Golgye', and selected Nendo, a Japanese design company that best reveals the characteristics. First, tried to select the range of household goods corresponding to four groups, including stationery, kitchen, home, and miscellaneous goods, excluding home appliances, furniture, space, and visual objects, and conducted prior research on Nendo Design's design philosophy and design method. The purpose was to analyze how each of the three characteristics of Japan's ‘Golgye’ was actually revealed by analyzing a total of 156 cases of their daily product designs. Through the Google Form questionnaire, an online survey was conducted on a total of seven design professors and design practitioners, and the average of the survey responses was organized into tables by year and by three characteristics of the ‘Golgye’ system. As a result of statistics on the collected response data, it was found that Nendo Design applied Japan's ‘Golgye’ characteristics in the order of simplicity, humor, and reversal. This study has significance in that it evenly revealed the three characteristics of Japan's humor ‘Golgye’ in the design of Japanese household goods.