A Brush With Mediocrity - electric toothbrush offers

Alice Ramshorn.
2010 London-
Is there any better reason than a friend telling me to buy something great?
That's why, when one of my most critical friends is raving about her new friend (ish)
I bought an electric toothbrush.
Oral English-
B. Sonic Complete, works so well for my friend that in her last dental examination she was told there was no need to scale and polish the teeth as they were clean enough. Perfect.
A quick web search found similar stories,
Different from most online reviews)
It seems sincere, the real people are very happy with their purchase, not as the PR team of the manufacturer imagined.
Will Sound have a miraculous effect on my own fangs at all?
I haven't used it for long enough, but it's good so far.
Of course, doing the job well is an important part of a good design.
I'm not worried about Sonic Complete at this point, but I have some concerns that unfortunately apply to many other products, not just this electric toothbrush.
One is sustainability.
Sonic Complete is packed in a carton, much larger than it needs.
Although it seems trivial in itself, think about the cumulative effect.
You don't need a PhD in pure mathematics to know the bigger these boxes, the less boxes you can put into a container, the more planes you have, and the ships and trucks you need to transport them.
Results: more gas will be consumed and fossil fuels will be burned.
Also worrying is that the box is filled with one of the polystyrene molded blocks that are often used to protect electronics.
The bigger the box, the bigger the polystyrene block.
It doesn't matter if polystyrene is biodegradable or easily recycled.
But that's not the case, and that's why you see so much rubbish piling up on the roadside and on the beach and refusing to rot in the landfill.
Advertising this raises the question of what happens at the end of the working life of Sonic Complete, which is usually a tricky problem for plastic products, especially electrical products like this.
Although oral
B's brochure is about the merits of criss-crossing™Power end bristles™Brush and so on, everything it says about disposal is that sound completion should not be thrown away by domestic garbage, but should be taken to oral
B. Braun Service Center or "appropriate collection points provided in your country" wherever they are.
There is also a problem with energy efficiency: If "efficiency" is the word for a product, it takes 16 hours of charging and cleans the teeth twice a day for two minutes for two weeks.
It takes about 17 minutes to charge every minute of use.
AdvertisementI is not saying that Sonic Complete should be at the top of Greenpeace's hot list, especially in oral advertising --
B may solve its environmental shortcomings in the future.
But it is infuriating that something so high is scored in a key component of "good design (functionality)
Should be in another (sustainability)
For seemingly insignificant mistakes
Ups that can be easily repaired.
There is another reason why I feel uncomfortable with the sound integrity --
Not very good looking.
A) now I know.
Flaky, especially compared to the ecosystem
The crime of wasting fossil fuels and blocking landfill sites; b)
As others may like, subjective; and c)
People like me are hypocritical and she spends a lot of time promoting design more than just style. But look at it.
Clumsy silhouette
Colors are unfortunately selected on the base, especially since their shades conflict with the colors on the brush.
The tacky glitter of metal silver and the cunning font are irritating to pick up the details. Yuk.
What might you say?
Isn't the prospect of Pearly white gnashers worth the occasional flinch in front of a clumsy but thankfully small household appliance? Maybe.
However, Sonic Complete was made by the Magic brand Braun of design enthusiasts, which used to be synonymous not only with excellent design, but also with truly great design.
Braun was an Apple aged 60 and 70 in the 1950 s.
It was a family before that.
German electronics manufacturers with engineering talent.
Braun was changed in the design studio by the arrival of a talented young architect, Dieter lamms.
He and his colleagues struggled with the laws of physics to produce more stylish, lighter and inviting record players and radios than their competitors.
The color is kept to a minimum, as are the dial and buttons.
The result is clever, subtle, perfect detail.
British artist Richard Hamilton once said
Ram's design is as inspiring to him as Mount St.
Victor, Cezanne.
Recently, the Apple design team paid tribute to the retro Braun by simulating the iPhone's touch screen calculator on the 1978 Control ET44 calculator.
The new book "less and less: the design spirit of Dieter Ram", edited by Keiko Ueki-
Paulette and Klaus Kemp show how extraordinary his work at Braun is.
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Will anyone compare Sonic to Sezanne's favorite mountain in its entirety? Not likely.
But why did Braun waste the design certificate?
The explanation is the same for every company that loses them.
Once these companies are at the forefront of dazzling new technologies translated by crack engineers and talented designers --
With the support of the brave management
It's also a dazzling product that enables the rest of us to do something new or do something better.
They are gone now.
Maybe the technology has improved, or they have lost something special: their engineering advantages, like Mr.
The Rams, the management.
That's what happened to Braun and others.
Popular brands like Sony and Bang & Olufsen may end up with Apple.
That's why the stylistic flaws of Sonic Complete look very, very sad.
A version of the article was published in the International Herald Tribune on February 22, 2010.
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