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M+, Hong Kong, © Umeda Masanori
Umeda Masanori 梅田正德
Gemini 雙子座
1970
These ashtrays are an early product design by Umeda Masanori, and they illustrate the influence of his Italian mentors, prominent designers Achille Castiglioni and Ettore Sottsass, with whom he worked during his years in Milan. The trays’ bright colours, clever form, and playful use of plastics (in this case melamine, a resin-based, heat-resistant material) were signature features of domestic goods designed in the post-war decades. Their rims of rounded teeth allow them to interlock with each other for storage or visual effect—a feature subtly indicated by the name of the design, Gemini (‘the twins’), which refers to the constellation of the same name. Smoking accessories like these provided an easily accessible means for post-war consumers to participate in high-style design and the vogue for new materials.
Umeda’s work in the 1960s and 1970s can be seen against the backdrop of a post-war fluorescence of Italian design. Manufacturers and the government aimed to renovate Italy’s international reputation and the domestic economy through the production and export of high-quality design objects, particularly those that made creative use of plastics or other recently developed synthetic materials. While some designers entirely rejected the design principles of the pre-war modernist movement as cold or restrictive, others sought to retain its aspirations while lending new colour and dynamism to the precepts of functionalism.
Umeda’s work in the 1960s and 1970s can be seen against the backdrop of a post-war fluorescence of Italian design. Manufacturers and the government aimed to renovate Italy’s international reputation and the domestic economy through the production and export of high-quality design objects, particularly those that made creative use of plastics or other recently developed synthetic materials. While some designers entirely rejected the design principles of the pre-war modernist movement as cold or restrictive, others sought to retain its aspirations while lending new colour and dynamism to the precepts of functionalism.
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