毛伊岛总面积比欧湖岛大,是夏威夷群岛中的第二大岛,占地面积为729平方英里。可是总人口却只有欧湖岛的八分之一,刚过十万人口。海岸线总长为120英里。以其山谷的秀丽著称。岛上最著名的旅游圣地是“太阳之屋”(Haleakala)和十六世纪捕鲸时期形成的城市“捕鲸镇”(Lahaina)。 “太阳之屋”海拔一万英尺以上,有成群的火山河蟹汇一处,游客可以租车沿公路开到顶上,在那里你会感到自己好象已经离开了地球,站到了月球上一样。那里还有一种高原花草叫“银剑”,世界上只有毛伊岛的“太阳之屋”和大岛的高山上才有,而且也濒临绝种,所以去了以后别忘了参观一下。“捕鲸镇”则完整地保存了十六世纪的风貌,古风古店依然,捕鲸的工具和船只也轻靠在海岸,世界上最大的榕树也在那里。整个“捕鲸镇”被国家列为国家公园。在“伊噢”山谷 (Iao Valley State Park),还有针尖山 (Iao Needle),肯尼迪肖像石等值得一看。
IMAGE: Take-out beverage lids, collected in the 90s and early 00s, photographed by sarcoptiform
图片:九十年代末20世纪初的外卖饮料盖子,拍摄者sarcoptiform
The disposable coffee cup lid falls squarely in the category of random, everyday objects that you might assume are overlooked, but are actually quite the opposite. In fact, they have been collected, dissected, and put on display by a handful of notable design critics and curators.
As early as 1995, design historian and author Phil Patton’s personal collection of over 30 different lid types underwent categorisation and analysis in a feature article for I.D. Magazine. Under the headline “Top This,” Patton noted that Americans get through about a billion and a half plastic lids each year, and marveled at “how many varieties there were, how various and intricate the device is and how intensely designed they are.”
IMAGE: The Solo Traveler lid, photographed by sarcoptiform.
图片:随心盖,拍摄者 sarcoptiform
In 2007, Patton’s collection was put on display at the Cincinnati Museum of Art. Press materials for the exhibition, which was titled “Caution: Contents Hot!”, drew attention to highlights of the genre:
For example, the Solo Traveler lid was designed to accommodate the nose and lip of a drinker. In accomplishing this design goal, the necessary height of the lid made it useful for foam-topped gourmet coffees. Visitors will also see the McDonald’s lid, which is the only lid that features Braille markings for “decaf” and “other.”
The Solo Traveler lid had been singled out a few years earlier by MoMA’s Paola Antonelli for inclusion in her 2004 “Humble Masterpieces” exhibition, where it was displayed alongside such other examples of quotidian ingenuity as the paperclip and the Q-tip. Designed by Jack Clements in 1986, the Solo or “sanitary lid,” as it is officially called, can also claim art director and critic Steve Heller as a devoted fan:
Here come the inevitable Freudian references: the Solo Traveler lid is a substitute for a mother’s breast – what we might call nature’s original travel lid. [...] It provides comfort and joy as well as nourishment. Certainly plastic is not the most warm and loving material, but somehow the fundamental shape transcends the emotive limitations of the materials. Somehow that lozenge-shaped opening is a means to a totally satisfying end.
IMAGE: The Harpman/Specht lid collection, as featured in Cabinet.
图片: 柜子中展示的是Harpman/Specht(两个都是很著名的建筑师)收藏的盖子
However, it is architects Louise Harpman and Scott Specht who proudly lay claim to the largest collection of “independently-patented drink-through plastic cup lids” in the United States. Forty of their 150 different examples of the form were put on display in a large safe at Proteus Gowanus, a Brooklyn gallery, in 2005, and featured in an accompanying issue of Cabinet magazine.
但是在美国拥有最多“不同设计样式饮用杯盖子”收藏的是建筑师Louise Harpman和 Scott Specht 。2005年,在布鲁克林一家名 Proteus Gowanus的画廊从他们150件藏品中挑选了50件,在一个保险箱内公开展示。Cabinet杂志还对这次展览做了报道。
IMAGE: The Harpman/Specht collection on display at Proteus Gowanus in 2005.
图片:2005年Proteus Gowanus画廊展出Harpman/Specht的收藏
Despite the Solo Traveler’s celebrity status, to my mind, these lids are most interesting when considered as a group, unified by function and yet differentiated in form. Patton, Harpman, and others have traced their design evolution over time, from the “primitive days” of simple vented plastic circles, through the invention of the sip tab, to the multi-functional straw/sip-through domes of today.
The very earliest patent for a drink-through lid — Roy Irvin Stubblefield’s “Cap for Drinking Glasses, filed on April 27, 1934 — was designed for cold beverages. Designer Zeke Shore, in a plaintive post that asks “Why Do Coffee Cup Lids Still Suck?”, traces the first tearable vented plastic lid for coffee back to 1967 patent filed by Alan Frank of Philadelphia.
IMAGE: R. I. Stubblefield’s “Cap for Drinking Glasses” patent drawings.
图片:R. I. Stubblefield“饮用玻璃杯盖”专利图纸
IMAGE: Alan Frank’s patent drawings, via Type/Code.
图片:Alan Frank的专利图纸
In those early days, would-be mobile caffeinators had to peel back the un-perforated plastic to create a wedge-shaped opening through which to drink, and a triangular piece of rubbish to discard, akin to old-fashioned ring-pulls. It wasn’t until 1975 that Walter Elfert and James Scruggs came up with the fold-back tab that could attach itself to the lid to stay out of the drinker’s way. And, according to Harpman, “the true efflorescence in drink-through lid design and production can be traced to the 1980s, when we, as a culture, decided that it was important, even necessary, to be able to walk, or drive, or commute while drinking hot liquids.”
IMAGE: Elfert and Scruggs’ patent drawings, via Type/Code.
图片:Elfert 和 Scruggs的专利图纸
Twenty-six new patents were issued in the 80s alone, for refinements in “mouth comfort, splash reduction, friction fit, mating engagement, and one-handed activation.” Several of the innovations are not necessarily improvements: Harpman castigates the Push and Drink Lid, which requires lateral bracing to allow users to puncture the plastic by pressing downwards, as “the most over-designed of the lid types.” Meanwhile, the “pinch” mechanism lids simply add an extra squeezing motion to the peel-back process, without any noticeable benefits.
Although their design continues to evolve (I am particularly taken by this colour-changing version, which indicates temperature as well as warning of insecurely attached lids), it’s possible that the glory days of the plastic single-use lid are over. Last year, Starbucks partnered with Core 77 and others to run the Betacup Challenge, a crowd-sourced design contest to reduce to-go cup waste.
The winner — Karma Cup — did not offer any improvements in mouth feel or splash reduction.Instead, it incentivised the use of reusable cups by charting their use, and giving away every tenth drink ordered in one. If the idea takes off, maybe one day the disposable plastic lid will be collected for its rarity value, rather than its everyday charms.