Analog Artifacts, the new collection by the Los Angeles-based brand Normal Objects, embodies their design manifesto.
By reinterpreting everyday items, they elevate them into desirable objects. Analog Artifacts is the result of a collaboration between the founder of Normal Objects, Jeremiah Baker, and Creative Director Alexandre Souetre. The collaborative project was devised and executed during the pandemic, which was a challenging process for the design team. Jeremiah Baker refers to this in the following words; “In a lot of ways, the process mirrored the provocation behind the objects themselves. The notion that today everything is easy and automated. Crafting the objects through more traditional methods was more mindful and it meant thinking about form generation differently. I feel like it made the whole process honest and natural”.
The design uses compelling visuals and a rather unique narrative. Normal Objects define their style as "irreverent minimalism". They value timeless over trendy, slow over fast. “Our approach is not fast culture or governed by trends. We challenge the convention in high design by elevating the most everyday archetypes for all and seek to not overwhelm culture or the Earth. We encourage value in timeless things, equity in high design, and increased appreciation for the everyday objects in our lives. Discouraging, a culture of consumption and waste, for a brighter future” explains Jeremiah Baker.
The collection consists of a Analog Lighter and an International Morse Tapping Key. These provocatively simple yet sophisticated objects remind us of primitive and manual human gestures – so vulnerable and sometimes abstractly forgotten in online and virtual reality.
The International Morse Tapping Key presents its utility in a totally reimagined form. The concept stems from the need to slow down communication and challenge the expected speediness that users experience with smartphones and advanced tech of today. Fully functional, it has an emphasis on sensation and possesses distinguished form and detail. It allows the user to send Morse signals, with an LED for feedback, and comes with an international Morse code alphabet and numeric breakdown card.
The Analog Lighter is a provocation, thinking backwards in function but forwards in form. It’s a known archetype that here delivers a completely reimagined utility. The Analog Lighter has a slide function to reveal a compartment for storing matches. The match strike pad is on the bottom of the product. The entire body is made of brass, with a polished exterior and a fine matte satin interior cavity. To remain honest, no chemical plating was added.
These Objects arose from the desire to reinterpret basic items and elevate them into more meaningful experiences. The products in the brand's collection are intended to be essentials of the highest quality, well-crafted classics – a limited number of objects that will withstand the test of time.
Regarding the future of the Analog Artifacts, Jeremiah Baker is reassured to continue the project. “There will be more limited objects under this provocation for sure, and we've done some in the past. It’s a super interesting space to conceptualize. We approach these as special projects with the core goal of making people think and experience”.
