Design is in

magno-design.com

Products are extensions of the human body in some way, and not just inanimate objects to use and throw without a thought. A product that lives this philosophy better than any other is the Magno, a beautiful handcrafted wooden radio born in Indonesia.

Magno is the brainchild of product designer Singgih S. Kartono. He was concerned about the slowing down and deterioration of his hometown — Kandangan's village life, and after graduating set up his own business in the village. Agriculture, the backbone of the village, had been badly hit, forcing people to take up other professions or migrate to cities. Kartono felt that craft is an alternative activity that can help improve village economy and sustain the community. As explained on the site, “These characteristics [of craft] are that it is labor intensive, requires low technology and investment and abundance of local material input.”

Kartono also talks about the beautiful quality of wood as a material, “I consider wood as a balance material. In wood I can find strength, but yet weakness, advantages but also limits, and roughness as well as softness. Compare to synthetic material, I can feel that wood is a material with soul inside. Wood is a kind of material that its beauty comes from its history. How it grows is amazing process, it recorded to be age lines. It record good & bad time. The beautiful texture and grain actually a story of its life. Wood is a kind of perfect material, perfect cause of its imperfectness. Its characters teach us about  life, balance, limits.”

Kartono believes in the New Craft Method, “New Craft is a manufacturing process that uses traditional craftsmanship as its main means of production and uses modern management techniques in organizing its activities. The basic system of the New Craft is to ensure that every step of the production process contains standard procedures of manufacture, quality standards as well as output and material usage standards.” The New Craft ideology is almost the opposite of mass production and assembly line, as importance is given to each piece, and each worker. “In craft, the most important factor is the human resources behind the craft activities. It uses human skills as its main production resources - it is important to have correctly managed worker attitudes towards crafts.” In this way craft can become the alternative, sustainable source of income.

He designs to minimize the features on the products, and uses dark and light wood to create a warm contrast. The products require maintenance, which Kartono feels, “give a chance to its owner to feel the wood and also to care for the wood, as the care of its owner is the only real protection of the products.” He doesn’t believe in maintenance-free products. We have an obligation to look after the products we have.

Besides three varieties of wooden radios here, here, and here, Magno also has stationery, toys, and some small functional items. The radios can be connected to ipods, and are made only of wood, and in some cases fabric.
 
With his concern for the environment, Kartano ensures that every tree used is re-planted as he feels morally responsible for the environment. He also believes that we share a special relationship with products we use, “Products are living beings that send us messages and spiritual meanings in a passive way. Our society has begun to loose these meanings and products are becoming our robot servants. I strongly believe that the relationship between a user and a product is not merely a relationship between a subject and an object. It is a relationship where a product is an integral part of our life.”

He believes that the imperfect-ness of products is what makes them more human, and sustainable. "Design for us is more than just creating a well designed product that is produced and consumed in colossal amount. Design must be a way to solve and minimize problems."

By Armeen Kapadia