CANDY DESIGN & WORKS

Candy Design & Works

A brand drawing inspiration from American-style antique accessories

從小就是金魚記憶症患者,出門忘東忘西是常態,而為了不讓生活一團糟,近年對生活工具這領域愈加挑剔。選物時不求華麗的設計,但求工具基本和耐用,而其實我認為以功能為導向的產品,本身不太可能是醜,反而在生活與歲月的洗禮後,更能淬煉出一分「使用之美」。

Candy design & Works這個生活雜貨品牌,由川本治朗於2010年成立,以「重新使用舊工業產品,並帶它們回到現代生活」為理念,積極開發以20、30年代美式古董小物為靈感的工具,堅持手工製作與本國生產,當中又以鑰匙圈等小物商品最廣為人熟悉。

插畫裡,從最左邊開始的是The Great Northern Hotel,顧名思義參考了老歐洲飯店的鑰匙牌,上面刻有不同的房號;Roman Key Ring,極致俐落的造型,參考自30年代末時,流行於美國工人之間的鑰匙圈造型;接下來的KENDRIC Spring Snap Hook Key Ring同樣簡潔,類似於現代爬山扣的形狀,實際上是來自50年代汽車零件的發想;來到最後的Blood Type Key Plate,參考自30年代美軍的身份牌,除了名字還銘刻上血型資訊,在槍林彈雨的戰場上有重要的保命作用。而明明看上去都是尋常的小物設計,每一樣卻都能喚發出歷史的情景。

From a very young age, I have been plagued by a short memory span rivaling that of a goldfish, and I chronically forget to bring this and that when I go out. In recent years, in order to prevent my life from descending into chaos, I have been very picky when it comes to selecting lifestyle tools. When I make purchases, I do not go after beautiful designs; rather, I care solely about the tool’s basic features and its durability. In fact, I believe that there is no way function-driven products are unflattering in appearance in the first place; quite the opposite, they are more apt to acquire a sense of usage beauty after being put to test in life over time.

Established in 2010 by Jiro Kawamoto, Candy design & Works is a brand of lifestyle products embracing the concept of “reusing old industrial products and reintroducing them to modern life”. The brand is devoted to developing tools inspired by American-style antique accessories in the 1920s and 30s. It insisted on handcrafting all their products domestically, and among the most commonly known are such accessories as key rings.

In the illustration, the leftmost item is The Great Northern Hotel – a key tag, as its name suggests, drawing references to old European hotels; different room numbers are engraved on its surface. Roman Key Ring boasts an extremely neat and simple design, based on the appearance of key rings popular among blue collars in the US in the late 1930s. Up next is KENDRIC Spring Snap Hook Key Ring, whose design is equally simple and clean; its shape resembles hiking carabiners in the modern days, but in fact the idea comes from car parts in the 1950s. The final one is Blood Type Key Plate, a design based on name tags used by the American army in the 1930s; engraved on it are not only names, but also blood type, which serves an important life-saving purpose in the battlefield amid hails of bullets. At first glance, they look no more than ordinary accessories, but each one of them, without exception, evokes scenes in history.

w