Layers of Meaning

Flat Mode Sewing

It's the current dream machine: Flat Mode by Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design graduate, Itay Potash. Featherweight fanatics have proven that what any in the sewing world want is a good straight stitch and a machine that doesn't cost a fortune or weigh a ton.

Potash describes his inspiration, "People don't sew for hours at a time anymore. Most people use their machines for quick minor repairs--to hem a pair of pants or to refasten a button."... "Flat Mode has only four buttons: an up/down button, a second for selecting a program, another for setting stitch parameters, and the last for resetting the machine." After learning to sew on an ancient Singer that only went forward (no reverse), I hope that reverse is also an option on the proposed Flat Mode machine.

An intriguing question is how this sewing machine reflects Don Norman's theories of Emotional Design: "Our studies lead us to suspect that just as we might be able to classify products along three dimensions of attractiveness (visceral), functional and usable (behavioral) and high in prestige (reflective), we can also classify people along these dimensions. Visceral level people will be strongly biased toward appearance, behavioral people towards function, usability, and how much the feel in control during use. And Reflective level people (who would seldom admit to be one), are heavily biased by brand name, by prestige, and by the value a product brings to their self-image – hence the sale of high-priced whiskey, watches,, automobiles, and home furnishings."

In his essay, Emotion & Design: Attractive things work better, Norman labels the three categories of design: "aesthetics, usability and practicality". Potash appears to have covered at least two of these three categories in his design. The red minimal design is extremely attractive. The thin fold-away design is highly practical. Now, if they will only release the machine, we can figure out if it actually sews or not.