Certain Items

Certain items, when I look at them, make me want to pick them up and go on an adventure. The first things that come to mind are the tattered backpack that I’ve had since high school, my passport-sized notebook, and my dented travel thermos. It’s certainly the history I have with these items that makes them extra special, but an emotional bond with specific goods can only come from consistent functionality over time.

Great design is simple and the aforementioned things are some of the simplest: a bag, some paper, a cup. The backpack is nothing more than some heavy canvas material sewn together in a specific way, but the product value comes from this choice of materials and design. The same can be said for the notebook – thick paper bound together in a convenient size, or the thermos – metal cylinders fused together to hold liquid and trap insulating air.

It’s no accident that these simple items require activity. The backpack carries anything I pack in it. The notebook captures whatever I choose to write or sketch. The thermos holds and maintains the temperature of whatever I choose to make. Pack, write, make – the best products require action. Each item has a minimum amount of energy that has to be put in before it provides any output.

This same philosophy applies to Guac Box, the first product offered by Aquacado. Guac Box provides simply designed tools to make guacamole, but you need to bring your favorite ingredients and recipes in order to extract value from the product.

In all aspects of life, you get out what you put in. The best products require inputs, and that’s exactly what make the outputs that much more special.