Soft Electronics

The golden era of industrial design that revolutionized home appliances.

The fascinating world of product design that emerged between the 1960s and 1980s symbolized the birth of a new age in human behavior. From coffee grinders to electric knives to blow-dryers, each home appliance was intended to help in the daily household routines—but they were also masterpieces of style.

Based on Jaro Gielens’s collection, Soft Electronics explores a nostalgic and unique set of products from a very distinct period in design. Each object possesses a sense of longevity, quality, and innovation that has been hard to match since planned obsolescence redefined our relationship with consumer goods. Soft Electronics pays homage to an iconic era of product design.

Jaro Gielens is a Dutch collector of vintage consumer electronics and electronic games. His collection includes more than 1,200 boxed small household appliances. As an online designer, he has created and designed online ads and websites on a daily basis for the past 25 years. His first book with gestalten, Electronic Plastic, explored handheld and tabletop devices from the 1970s and '80s.