CHOICE CRAZY

The cosmetics brand Breath Palette has recently introduced a range of fifty different tubes of toothpaste. Each tube has a number and a taste indicator. Number 13 tastes like vanilla, 8 like honey, and 24 like lemon This is a perfect example of excessive choice and the unrelenting efforts of manufacturers to incite spending. STOP! Who needs five hundred pairs of sneakers or, a mobile phone with all the options including an integrated vacuum cleaner? The new No-No's demand quality not quantity. Dutch design collective Droog Design (www.droogdesign.nl) presented its critique of excessive choice in Milan in spring 2003. The starting point was an assessment of the number of choices an individual wants and is able to handle, and what happens when there are so many possibilities and variations that it becomes literally impossible to make a choice. And so we have this 128-piece mug collection. Each mug is identical in shape and material, but is available in the entire range of shades from international color specialist Pantone. What's your favorite shade of red, blue, green?

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Onkar Singh / 128 Pantone mugs.