Pick me up a blender on your way back from work, my girlfriend asked me. And there I stood, in a heavily lit kitchen appliance shop, in front of a wall that displayed over fifteen neatly polished blenders in a broad variety of colours. I got stressed out by this abundance, wanted to avoid arbitrariness and decided to go home empty-handedly.
Back at home I googled ‘blender + best + buy’, but the numerous reviews that came up talked about subjective things and technical features I didn’t particularly care about: the amount of horsepowers, the sharpness of the blades, nutrition facts on blended food and the coolness of blenders in general. I was starting to get disheartened, as it seemed impossible to buy an object without marketingblabla. Being seduced by colours and stories is not my hobby, I just want my blender. Manufactured by the company that invented the blender. Or by the company that has set the industry standard of the blender. I just want that ONE blender.
It was clear that I had to do some research. Not an easy task as the content on websites is always sponsored and thus lacks objectiveness. Reading books on classic designs, I just stumbled upon gratuitous lists of iconic designs and design classics. It struck me that all publications focussed mainly on chairs and lighting, but very little on other objects of use – and none mentioned a blender!
This for me was the reason to bring Wikiconic into life: a concise guide where you can look up a desired object to find its origins and its most iconic manufacturer. An objective list of all the things you needs to own. Easy as that.
