Everyday Objects: Great Design

You'll find these metal things on concrete benches and curbs all over the San Gabriel Valley. They are placed to discourage skateboarders from using public spaces as ramps. Yeah, the idea is kind of a buzzkiller, but I can see the point. Besides, skateboarding wouldn't be nearly as punk rock if it were accepted everywhere!

I digress.

Establishment-placed anti-skateboard thingiemabobs may serve the purpose of restraining our rambunctious teens, but they also give us an example of lovely design. We're surrounded by elegant, everyday objects like this, but probably don't take much time to notice them.

Larry Wilson wrote a great piece on two South Pasadena designers responsible for some of the objects we use and take for granted every day. I had long known that Henry Dreyfuss -- creator of the iconic Honeywell home thermostat and one of the world's most famous industrial designers -- called South Pasadena home until his tragic death in 1972. Larry points out that another designer, Henry C. Keck of Keck-Craig, also hails from our fair town. Read all about Keck's contributions to utilitarian design, as well as a few tidbits from his self-published memoir, in Larry's column here.