This is one of those objects that makes me despair at the current state of product design and consumerism. On the one hand, I don't doubt that this Bobbin system delivers pleasure to its target market. On the other hand, it's a bunch of plastic stuff.

The Bobbin system allows crafters, scrapbookers and the like to take decorative masking tapes and re-wind them onto individual bobbins, in the manner of spools of thread and sewing machines. The re-wound bobbin can now be loaded into a little dispenser. I'm not kidding, here's what the process looks like:

And of course, individual cases are sold for the cutter.

The manufacturer also sells masking tapes on little rolls that fit the machine.

You ask: Why on earth don't you just sell the tape wound on the cutter in the first place? Well, it makes perfect sense to me that this object comes from Japan, where you have a stationery-obsessed market and a love of rituals. This system essentially adds a new ritual to the existing ritual of scrapbooking or letter-writing. It's completely inane, to me--but I bet the target market loves it.

If this was an ID school project, what grade would you give it?

I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.

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