THE GREAT INDOORS: Q&A with local design blogger Caroline Tiger

Caroline Tiger writes about the design of everyday objects. We spoke to her about her newly launched blog, The Objectoralist, and what it means to study "object design."

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THE GREAT INDOORS: Q&A with local design blogger Caroline Tiger

POSTED: Monday, February 6, 2012, 4:00 PM

Reporter Meg Augustin takes you inside some of Philly's most fab dwellings to showcase our city's unique grasp on design and architecture.

Caroline Tiger, design journalist extraordinaire, has been writing about the ubiquitous nature of design for some time. Only recently, however, has she narrowed her approach to the design of everyday objects. We spoke to her about her newly launched blog, The Objectoralist, and what it means to study “object design.”

City Paper: What made you decide to start a new blog on object design?

Caroline Tiger: I’ve always been intrigued by design but I’ve only recently begun to comprehend that design is trulyeverywhere. Every object — from the plastic picture frame at Target to the Marc Newsom bentwood chair at the Philly Museum of Art — was designed by someone. I’m interested in most design disciplines but at some point the enormity of it becomes overwhelming. I felt the need to narrow in on a specific aspect of design and to give myself a structure for exploring it. The result is my new blog. My friend and colleague Hilary Jay, ED of DesignPhiladelphia says, “Without design we’d all be standing naked in a field.” I totally agree.

CP: You seem to have a running theme of object-obsessed design with your work. There’s Marginalia, your look at everyday objects, and then there’s Consumed, articles on objects other designers are ‘consumed’ by. What will set The Objectoralist apart?

CT: You’re right! I’m totally obsessed. I find objects fascinating — they’re incredibly ripe for analysis. Who designed them? How and where were they manufactured? What was the process? How do they reflect their era? Who was the intended user? Who was the actual user? I could go on …

Marginalia was actually a workshop for The Objectorialist — I was working out how I wanted to write and organize the new blog. So The Objectorialist will be similar to those posts. Consumed is about someone else’s obsession, not mine, so there’s the difference.

CP: Where did the name come from? Are you an objectorialist? What does that mean?

CT: Yes, I am. An objectorialist is someone who connects the dots between objects and their meanings. It’s a word I made up. It’s inspired by the blog, The Sartorialist, which is, of course, an actual word. I made a list of about 40 potential names, and kept coming back to this one. I like that it suggests other relevant words, like editorial, objectify, list and sartorialist.

CP: Why focus on Philly-based objects only?

CT: Like Designphan, the blog I started in 2006 about design in Philadelphia, The Objectorialist will rarely wander outside of Philly. I’m really interested in how design shapes a place and vice versa. Milan, Copenhagen, London and Barcelona have well-defined design sensibilities that are as much about their output and the kinds of designed objects you’ll find there as they are about their built environment. I’ve always believed that the fastest way to get to know a new place is by visiting its flea markets to look at its collected stuff. There you’ll find the objects people use and the objects they make. And I believe that even when a place’s design sensibility is not obvious it still exists. I want to uncover Philadelphia’s.

Staying local allows me to address the question “what is Philly’s design character?” In The Objectorialist I’ll look at design that is native to this place and also at the objects that are considered mundane and background distraction. This latter category, like solar-powered trash cans or remnants of silly string on the sidewalk on New Year’s Day, are significant, too. They all contribute to Philadelphia’s unique design sensibility.

CP: What kind of content can we expect to see on the blog?

CT: You can expect to see pictures of all types of objects, from everyday to precious stuff. The commonalities they share are (1) they are designed objects (i.e. they were created with a function in mind), and (2) I spotted them in Philly. The posts will vary from a few sentences to a few paragraphs.

CP: What do you hope this project will accomplish?

CT: In 1983, designer Massimo Vignelli wrote a Call for Criticism that argued for more thoughtful writing about design (i.e. the kind of dialogue that had already evolved around architecture). Since reading this article, I frequently go back to it and particularly to the following quote as a guide for what I’m trying to accomplish with my design writing: “The main function of criticism is not that of providing flattering or denigrating reviews but that of providing creative interpretations of the work, period or theory being analyzed. Out of those creative interpretations a new light is cast on the objects, and new nuances and reflections are brought to our notice.”

So that’s what I’m trying to do — I’m casting a new light on these objects and maybe getting people to see their surroundings differently. Maybe someone will be walking around the city and stop to think a second longer than usual about an unusual bike basket that just rolled by or about the chandelier in the restaurant where [they’re] eating dinner.

Once there’s a critical mass of posts, I envision the blog as a kind of digital collage of Philadelphia — a picture in words and images of the city through the filter of objects that are both found and made here.

Also, it’s fun.

CP: How do you see The Objectorialist fitting in with Philly’s design scene?

CT: Philly benefits from smart, comprehensive coverage of specific design sectors, including architecture, urban planning, interior design, green design and fashion design. There is less of a focus on product design, past and present, and on Philly’s design character. I think there is a national push toward more of this type of design coverage — look at Objectified, the documentary by Gary Hustwit, and the new Who Made That? column in the New York Times Sunday magazine. Philly has an incredible design heritage and there’s so much going on here right now that deserves attention. I’m hoping The Objectorialist helps people, both locals and non-locals, realize that.

If you'd like to see your home featured in an upcoming The Great Indoors, email the author at megan.augustin@citypaper.net.

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