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Good Thing Launches Minimalist Soap by Designer Jasper Morrison

02.02.18 | By
Good Thing Launches Minimalist Soap by Designer Jasper Morrison

New York based design brand Good Thing veers in a new direction with their latest release. While it is for the home, as their catalog of products are, this product is more personal in that it cleans the hands and body. As with all of their designs, Good Thing aims to bring smart, simplified designs for everyday use into the home – so why stop at home accessories and furniture? Good Thing’s Founder and CEO, Jamie Wolfond, decided to expand out in order to include the whole home. The idea of reimagining a bar of soap came from their belief that something so simple and revolutionary should be scaled back to do what it’s supposed to do and to do it well – that’s all. Coming to that conclusion led Wolfond to the perfect designer to take this on and that was Jasper Morrison. The company brought the famed designer to the table and the result is Soap, a gentle yet effective tool for everyday life.

We talked to Jamie Wolfond more about Soap and how it came to be…

What did you find interesting about producing a mundane item like soap?

Our interest in making a bar of soap stemmed from the very fact that it is mundane. Good Thing is all about replacing the not-so-thoughtful items on the market with more considered choices. Since soap is not conventionally thought to be a designed object, this gave us a great opportunity to make an improvement.

What kind of perspective and/or message are you interested in conveying through this design?

We chose to make soap because it was a category of product that we wanted to see simplified. The goal was to make something that contains only the ingredients it needs to fulfill its function, and excludes anything unnecessary. The message is that every object in the home can be simplified to simplify the lives of its users.

Were there any challenges releasing such a ubiquitous item?

The main challenge was not so much with the product itself, but with the messaging. Since soap is not a part of the typical homewares canon, we were tasked with the challenge of telling the story that connects it to our products and brand. After a good deal of thought, we’ve realized that the premise is quite simple. We’re a home brand, not a homewares brand, or a furniture brand, but a company that investigates and simplifies the relationship between a person and their most intimate space.

How did you team up with Jasper for this project?

We reached out to him on Instagram! Jasper started liking our photos, so I thought it was worth an ask. The rest is history.

What direction do you see Good Thing heading in now that it’s made the leap to soap?

We want to continue exploring the idea of being a home brand, and exactly where that can take us. At the moment, we’re developing several products surrounding the kitchen and food in general. We’ll be launching these later this year.

Soap is both a pigment and fragrance free glycerin soap molded into one block that breaks apart into four individual bars of soap. Currently it’s available on supergoodthing.com for pre-order with Soap shipping in April 2018.

Caroline Williamson is Editor-in-Chief of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.