Architect and designer Katerina Kamprani created The Uncomfortable, a collection of infuriatingly designed everyday objects, from difficult-to-sip mugs to chairs you need to worm yourself into, as “a twisted sadistic design project”…and boy, oh boy, has she succeeded!
Each of the objects in the collection is intentionally designed to be as annoying as possible.
For example, look at this impossible-to-lift mug!
AAAH THIS WINE GLASS. Terrible to pour into, terrible to sip from.
This fork with the useless nightmare handle.
An impossible-to-lift, impossible-to-sip trough mug.
This water bucket’s “annoying” element is more obvious and less perfectly, subtly frustrating, but I still like the “screw you” element.
If you love being hair-pullingly frustrated, or you just want a more amusing target for your rage than our rapidly degenerating political and ecological surroundings, I recommend that you look at her entire collection.
Of course, the project has a larger aim than irritating the crap out of me. “My goal is to deconstruct the invisible design language of simple everyday objects,” Kamprani wrote on her site, “and tweak their fundamental properties in order to surprise you and make you laugh. But also to help you appreciate the complexity and depth of interactions with the simplest of objects around us.”
And I have to admit: after I recovered from my rage fit looking at these, I did start to notice all the small ways that the objects I use – from my keyboard to my water bottle to my doorknobs – incorporate plenty of unspoken design principles that make my life a little more effortless.
(Featured image via Shutterstock)
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