{"id":6198,"date":"2014-03-18T12:03:34","date_gmt":"2014-03-18T04:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/?p=6198"},"modified":"2022-11-16T16:39:55","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T08:39:55","slug":"perfect-imperfection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/2014\/03\/perfect-imperfection\/","title":{"rendered":"Perfect I’mperfection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Because flawed mugs can be beautiful too<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Mavis Wong<\/strong><\/p>\n

We live in an age filled with discontent where people not only complain about others, but also themselves. You often hear people say, \u201cI\u2019m too fat\u201d, \u201cI have too many freckles\u201d, \u201cmy skin isn\u2019t good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only do we want our appearance to be perfect, but we also want the things we buy to be the best. We search for the best pair of jeans and the best pair of shoes. We look for headphones with the best sound quality and smartphones with the best looks and functions. And before we are willing to pay for something, we scrutinise it for the slightest trace of imperfection. But in doing so, are we just wasting our time and effort to satisfy an ideal perception of what constitutes perfection?<\/p>\n

Founders and designers of CoDesign Eddy Yu Chi-kong and Lam Wai-hung are not chasing perfection. They launched I\u2019MPERFECT, a line of products which were once seen as imperfect. The range includes mugs, pencils and notebooks. By taking the word \u201cImperfect\u201d and inserting an apostrophe between the letters \u201cI\u201d and \u201cm\u201d, Yu and Lam have turned \u201cImperfect\u201d into \u201cI\u2019m perfect\u201d. They aim to encourage consumers to embrace and appreciate imperfection.<\/p>\n

The idea popped up after a trip to a ceramics factory in mainland China. They realised that in the ceramics manufacturing industry, around 15 per cent of products are regarded as defective and are thrown away in every batch. If workers see as many as one black spot on any of the ceramic mugs, the mugs go straight into the dumpster. Outside the factory building, Yu and Lam saw a slogan that said, \u201cStriving for Perfection\u201d and they felt an immense urge to change the deeply entrenched idea that imperfection should not be tolerated.<\/p>\n

The two designers collected mugs from the manufacturer and created designs that magnify the tiny spots that were thought to be defects. Instead of covering up the spots with elaborate designs, I\u2019MPERFECT circled them and put the word \u201cperfect\u201d beside them. The designers made the imperfection the selling point of the mugs and transformed the mugs into something with a deeper meaning and more educational value. \u201cThe so-called imperfection can be something that makes us special\u2026 It itself might not be either good or bad,\u201d Lam says. \u201cWe only think it is bad because we judge it with our own values and perceptions.\u201d<\/p>\n

As each mug has defects of its own, designers at I\u2019MPERFECT continue to emphasise the \u201cimperfection\u201d and turn it into part of its uniqueness. The mugs come in various sizes and each one is unique. Even though most people would think that a good ceramic mug should be smooth, shiny and symmetrical, the I\u2019MPERFECT project transforms the worthless into the priceless, and conveys the message that imperfection is natural, subjective and conditional. Also by giving these once-worthless mugs another chance, the project has conserved resources and achieved \u201cupcycling\u201d in creating products of higher value.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, we want to promote the message that it is okay to be imperfect,\u201d Yu says.<\/p>\n

I\u2019MPERFECT ceramic mugs are available at any Caf\u00e9 330 location.<\/p>\n

For information on other products and activities powered by I\u2019MPERFECT, please visit www.i-mperfect.org<\/a> and www.facebook.com\/imperfectX<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Go get yourself a mugful of imperfection today!<\/p>\n

Edited by Natalie Tsoi and\u00a0\u00a0Esther Leung<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’MPERFECT celebrates the unique beauty of imperfection by taking ceramics cast off as ‘seconds’ and turning them into desirable goods in their own right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1980,11,18],"tags":[249],"class_list":["post-6198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issue-131","category-photo-story","category-vchoice","tag-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6198"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21382,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6198\/revisions\/21382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}