The city of London recently held a contest to promote drinking tap water in restaurants. Entrants had to design an "iconic" carafe. The winner's design is simple and lovely--it even has a "waist" to hold back ice cubes. When I checked out the runners up, there was one design that instantly stood out. One design which, though iconic in a sense, doesn't seem to be exactly family-friendly, let alone something you want to drink out of. I present to you "Tap", or as the Brits would say, "Meat and Two Veg":
The designer explains himself thus (the parentheses are mine):
"To be effective a design that communicates a message must be confident (cocksure, even) – it must be, to a degree, an icon.
...
I felt that as well as producing a form that could stand out in the visual noise of the better dressed tables in London’s restaurants
(liquid filled phalluses do have that tendency, don't they?), when diners paused for a second
(only a second?) to consider the shape of the vessel
(of life?), they would enjoy the moment the traditional tap came into their mind’s eye, and they got the design. "
Yeah, I don't think that a traditional tap is the first thing most people are going to think of. Although, it got so far as to be a runner up in a national contest, so I guess some people didn't notice...
Although, I could be wrong. Refer to designer Adam White's page on London on Tap (
here) and find the body part (don't worry, it's G-rated) that his design also resembles. Art, meet Life. Life, Art.
