The structure of a chair consists of a backrest, seat, arm rests, and legs, just simple and easy to copy. It’s so easy that we, every time launching a new product, are concerned if there are any other similar products. I’ve seen some copies of our chairs at furniture exhibitions sometimes. Were we mad? Not really. Of course, we’re not happy at all with such copies but believe it’s almost impossible to copy our products with the same quality in the same price range. Actually, the copies I’ve seen so far were cheaper, and their quality was worth the cheap price.
There are pros and cons on the subject of imitation. It seems difficult to simply condemn that imitation is bad. Even a genius scientist, Einstein said “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” Steve Jobs ordered Frog Design to imitate Sony while blowing up about Windows and Android. In the first place, as far as we think in the languages developed by our ancestors, all of our ideas may not be said to be completely original because our thought is limited by language. Although I think it’s still difficult to clearly define it, fusing existing things (ideas) together to make a new thing (idea) sounds fine. It’s said to be the basic way of innovation, totally different from imitation.
I have no real answer for this issue like this, but let me go back to the story of copies of our furniture, I don’t think that’s worth a try because it will require not-small expenses anyway to try to re-produce our products to the details. This may be not only because our furniture is technically difficult to produce but because of the characteristics of wooden furniture: not suitable for mass-production, though. If there are copies of our products with the same quality in the same price, I really want to ask the copycat for instructions how to realize it.
Shungo Ijima
He is travelling around the world. His passion is to explain Japan to the world, from the unique viewpoint accumulated through his career: overseas posting, MBA holder, former official of the Ministry of Finance.
Photo Credit: https://artuk.org/discover/stories/imitation-is-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery-an-artists-take-on-the-art-of-copying