Surprising that this phrase should come from the Japanese.. In one of the conferences I attended in Tokyo, an American (then CEO of Oracle, Japan) was talking about the cultural differences and nuances while doing business with the Japanese who value the way the gifts were presented as much as the gift itself. He was elaborating how they would buy a (musk) melon - very meticulously and beautifully packed - for USD100 - yes, for one melon! - and gift to the Japanese on important occasions.
I once bought a beautiful hand-crafted sandal-wood elephant (before they were banned for sale) from Cauvery Empoream on MG Road, as a gift to a Japanese colleague when I was traveling to Tokyo. It was very poorly packed - you know how our Government owned shops pack :) - and my colleague did not look very impressed when I gave it to him the first thing in the morning. Later in the day he came around to my place and thanked me profusely for the gift - for he had realized the value of it only when he opened it during lunch time. :)
In sport we say - Form is temporary and class(content) is permenant. The objective should always be to build packaging on real content not the other way around.
The pandemic taught us that the more "essential product" your business is the more you survived the low times. "Need" lives longer than "greed" !!
In india (and I suppose in many rooted cultures) art was functional and an integral part of things of utility. I am not talking about the rich and the blue bloods who had art just because they had the money to commission it. It is only in modern times that we have art divorced from utility, which has given rise to a lot of kitsch masquerading as art. I still have with me items of daily use from my great grandmother’s time which continue to be useful as also being beautiful in shape and character.
Surprising that this phrase should come from the Japanese.. In one of the conferences I attended in Tokyo, an American (then CEO of Oracle, Japan) was talking about the cultural differences and nuances while doing business with the Japanese who value the way the gifts were presented as much as the gift itself. He was elaborating how they would buy a (musk) melon - very meticulously and beautifully packed - for USD100 - yes, for one melon! - and gift to the Japanese on important occasions.
I once bought a beautiful hand-crafted sandal-wood elephant (before they were banned for sale) from Cauvery Empoream on MG Road, as a gift to a Japanese colleague when I was traveling to Tokyo. It was very poorly packed - you know how our Government owned shops pack :) - and my colleague did not look very impressed when I gave it to him the first thing in the morning. Later in the day he came around to my place and thanked me profusely for the gift - for he had realized the value of it only when he opened it during lunch time. :)
In sport we say - Form is temporary and class(content) is permenant. The objective should always be to build packaging on real content not the other way around.
The pandemic taught us that the more "essential product" your business is the more you survived the low times. "Need" lives longer than "greed" !!
In india (and I suppose in many rooted cultures) art was functional and an integral part of things of utility. I am not talking about the rich and the blue bloods who had art just because they had the money to commission it. It is only in modern times that we have art divorced from utility, which has given rise to a lot of kitsch masquerading as art. I still have with me items of daily use from my great grandmother’s time which continue to be useful as also being beautiful in shape and character.