“In a world filled with e-mail, e-cards and e-commerce, perhaps it was no surprise that the e-condom was next.” Really New York Times? Because this lede made our jaw hit the keyboard.
As we read on, it turns out the news isn’t all that shocking. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has launched a Facebook page and application (oddly, the article links to neither) that allows you to become a fan of NYC E-condoms, send an E-condom to your “date”, or watch a video about… you guessed it, condoms.
The one thing we did find surprising: the bit about the design-heavy roots of the NYC condom (the real ones, that is):
“Last year, Yves Behar, an industrial designer in San Francisco, redesigned the condom with a new wrapper and a dispenser that has received several awards from design organizations… In the original design, the letters ‘NYC Condom’ were printed in white or black letters against colorful circles, evoking the letter symbols the Metropolitan Transportation Authority uses to represent subway lines. Last year’s redesign features the letters ‘NYC’ in black against three interlocking circles, with the word ‘Condom’ underneath, each of the six letters in a different color.”
Well, we had no idea. This is a man who has been honored with a solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He helped design the laptop for One Laptop per Child. He’s cutting edge! If we were supposed to be impressed by this, we are. In fact, once we hit publish, we’re sprinting to the nearest dive bar to grab a handful of ’em to sell as collector’s items on EBay one day. He could be our generation’s Eames. Nuts.