The Japanese Essence in ThinkPad: Bento Boxes
Shokado Lunch Boxes
The story is famous enough to be introduced in ThinkPad – Wikipedia, but did you know that ThinkPad draws inspiration from the Shokado Bento, lunch boxes of Japan?
The concept of the ThinkPad has consistently reflected the experience of eating a Shokado lunch box. When closed, the Shokado lunch box is a simple lacquered black box, but opening it reveals an orderly and beautiful arrangement of delectable foods (like the functions of a ThinkPad). When the brand was first launched, Richard Sapper and in-house design team created this concept.
Our design consultant, “Maestro” Sapper loves Japan with all his heart. When he came to Japan to review the design, he said “I want to visit the Katsura Imperial Villa.” Under a very tight schedule, he made time to visit Kyoto and had only the highest praise for what he found there.
Now, let’s get back to lunch boxes.
At that time, there were no other black computers. In an era when the rule was that “all computers are off-white,” the extreme opposite was proposed, and this met with virulent opposition within the company. However, we made an appeal within the company to shoot for something that had never been done before, and the first notebook PC with a black chassis was born. That choice was the right one. After that, black chassis were designed for desktop computers, workstations and servers, and this contributed greatly to the unification of our brand image and our business success.
For us, to consistently preserve the “simple black box” design is as natural as Japan’s reluctance to tamper with the Shokado lunch box design. However, there are a lot of lunch box colors and shapes. “God only knows” if ThinkPad will forever retain its “black and squarish” design.
Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic. (LOL) We are always looking at a variety of design proposals.
A Variety of Lunch Boxes
December 19th, 2009 at 16:40
elegance of simplicity.
December 24th, 2009 at 01:41
Do you sell Thinkpad-branded bento boxes? Would be a fun gimmick item.
May 24th, 2010 at 02:55
Perhaps one of the directions the design team might like to branch out is to build upon the simple base of the current ThinkPad an elaborate but professional design that is still clearly a ThinkPad at heart.
The zen-like simplicity of the ThinkPad is elegance at its very best, but we should always explore exciting new areas.
June 15th, 2010 at 14:56
That’s cool, I never knew it.
Salmon bento box. Yum. Now I need a lunch break AND to go buy my new Thinkpad!
Keep writing, cheers!