Welcome to a world of problems, solved.
Imagining a future controlled by one bright-eyed corporation that holds your hand as you move through every challenge of daily life.
ORIGINAL MEDIA SERIES BY STUDIO MALAGÓN
A creative endeavor of Studio Malagón, Object Solutions is a design fiction laboratory that wears the mask of a real company.
Through fictional inventions and storytelling, we envision an ‘optimized’ future that requires participants to outsource their most personal troubles to a corporate caretaker.
With a dose of dark humor, we investigate how our daily lives are entangled with personalized technology, while provoking questions on what kinds of futures we actually desire.
2013–2014
showroom
Step in to view our signature products, and watch the dramatization videos that establish our vision for daily life.
Magnifying Spoon
The Magnifying Spoon allows its user to survey the landscape of a meal served at a restaurant, in case foreign objects have appeared. On approval, the same tool is used to scoop up a healthy mouthful.
Morning Panic Pajamas
The Morning Panic Pajamas put an end to our detrimental “snooze” habit: they are a wearable wake-up alarm that gradually delivers an electric shock to the body.
Sleep Achievement Medal
The Sleep Achievement Medal is a wearable device that broadcasts your sleep metrics from last night. It celebrates your success or holds you publicly accountable for your failure.
2015–2016
laboratory
Look behind the scenes at our experimental products, and get an exclusive look at our blueprints for the future.
Love,
Optimized
‘Love, Optimized’ envisions the high-tech future of romance, where Object Solutions serves as a verified third party in every relationship.
Love is re-designed as a seamless consumer experience, thanks to personal drones, smart home surveillance, sensual GPS and neuro-dating.
Designing the vision
Our design process for Object Solutions was a calibrated dance between the real and the unreal, the playful and the critical.
OUR ROLE
Creative Direction
Branding
Design
Video Production
Illustration
Writing
We put our branding expertise to the test: How do we embed a dark satire into a visual identity, while wearing the mask of a real corporation?
We wanted a logo that felt monolithic and stark, but also had a friendly wink. Hence, we combined the O and S with the feel of a downward spiral, a sweeping storm, an all-seeing eye, a benevolent eyebrow — and whatever else you might see.
The website needed to feel like a straightforward product catalogue (with standard-issue typography) to create a neutral space for audiences to make their own interpretations.
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Just as science fiction can reflect the world as it is in the world-yet-to-come, Object Solutions reveals something true and queasy about how we already consume.
Object Solutions on Motherboard (VICE)
The Showroom and Laboratory are distinguished through color: Showroom is the ‘accessible beige’ of everyday life, while Laboratory is the harsh blue of modern tech companies, turned up to an uncomfortable degree.
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It’s less about coming up with viable solutions, and more about asking how far we’re willing to let technology in.
Object Solutions on Inverse.com
EXHIBITIONS
We showcased the inventions in various ways, from glass-case displays of objects, to blueprint illustrations with audio guides.
The Magnifying Spoon made it all the way to the Shanghai Museum of Glass, where it sits in their permanent collection.
‘Love, Optimized’ exhibited at MIT, with a ‘corporate keynote speech’ at the opening. See more Love, Optimized →
Workshops
We engaged people to serve as ‘laboratorians’ in our design fiction workshops, where our creative ideation kits helped them solve a given ‘challenge’ from the future.
The materials are a creative card game: participants receive a challenge, explore brainstorming cards, and draw up a blueprint of their very own Object Solution.
For ‘Love, Optimized’ we created a speed-dating format where strangers paired up to invent their way out of love troubles. See more Love, Optimized →
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Design can be a means of outsourcing our concerns, or a process of digging deeper into them.
Object Solutions on Folio
Special thanks
Chris Maggio
John Wilson
Shelly Ronen
Sam Beebe
Carlos Maldonado
Juan Pablo Viedma
How can we help?
Let’s talk.
©2022 . Studio Malagón . Made in Austin