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Soviet-Era Industrial Design

atlasobscura.com

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Re: Soviet-Era Industrial Design

#11

Post by pandaman »

Jhsto wrote: post #9

For those interested, this particular kind of design is known as retrofuturism around the Internet. Reddit has a good subreddit on it: https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroFuturism/ I personally have once had these Sputnik razor blades: https://www.ebay.com/p/Sputnik-100-Double-Edge-Razor-Blades-... In addition to being dirt cheap, I also found the branding funny. Somehow I felt like I am buying something not very good in t…

It's Ladas (a Greek athlete). Surprisingly Wikipedia has no entry for him but only for a village named after him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladas,_Messenia

Re: Soviet-Era Industrial Design

#12

Post by pvg »

Jhsto wrote: post #9

For those interested, this particular kind of design is known as retrofuturism around the Internet. Reddit has a good subreddit on it: https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroFuturism/ I personally have once had these Sputnik razor blades: https://www.ebay.com/p/Sputnik-100-Double-Edge-Razor-Blades-... In addition to being dirt cheap, I also found the branding funny. Somehow I felt like I am buying something not very good in t…

Those are made in a Gillette factory that happens to be in Russia. Entirely unrelated to anything Soviet.

Re: Soviet-Era Industrial Design

#15

Post by krasin »

raquo wrote: post #14

I like that the pasta box indicates net weight at 13% humidity level . One can only wonder what led to this. https://assets.atlasobscura.com/article_images/54191/image.j... Does anyone happen to know the meaning of "пояс" (belt) in the pricing scheme on the same box?

The prices were set by the government, but different parts of the Soviet Union had different prices ([1], in Russian)

Belt 1: Moscow, Saint-Petersburg (named Leningrad at the time), republic capitals, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, closed cities ([2]). Those had lower prices, and more products available at the stores.

Belt 3: Far North regions. Prices were higher, but so are the salaries.

Belt 2: the rest of the Soviet Union. The worst option out of three. The largest.

1. http://russian7.ru/post/cenovye-poyasa-v-sssr-chto-yeto-bylo...

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_city

Re: Soviet-Era Industrial Design

#16

Post by c-smile »

raquo wrote: post #14

I like that the pasta box indicates net weight at 13% humidity level . One can only wonder what led to this. https://assets.atlasobscura.com/article_images/54191/image.j... Does anyone happen to know the meaning of "пояс" (belt) in the pricing scheme on the same box?

"Пояс" here means geographical area of accessibility: on the north and Siberia prices were higher but salaries were also higher.

So the price included delivery cost taxes.

As of "at 13% humidity level":

Pasta is highly hygroscopic and being packaged in paper box can absorb a lot of moister increasing its weight significantly. Fair remark, isn't it?

For that matter: all devices sold in USSR were coming with principal schemas so anyone can repair and reproduce. Open Source at its best :)

Re: Soviet-Era Industrial Design

#17

Post by Jhsto »

pandaman wrote: post #11
Jhsto wrote: post #9

For those interested, this particular kind of design is known as retrofuturism around the Internet. Reddit has a good subreddit on it: https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroFuturism/ I personally have once had these Sputnik razor blades: https://www.ebay.com/p/Sputnik-100-Double-Edge-Razor-Blades-... In addition to being dirt cheap, I also found the branding funny. Somehow I felt like I am buying something not very good in t…

It's Ladas (a Greek athlete). Surprisingly Wikipedia has no entry for him but only for a village named after him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladas,_Messenia

I'm grinning. That does make much more sense.

Re: Soviet-Era Industrial Design

#18

Post by Jhsto »

pvg wrote: post #12
Jhsto wrote: post #9

For those interested, this particular kind of design is known as retrofuturism around the Internet. Reddit has a good subreddit on it: https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroFuturism/ I personally have once had these Sputnik razor blades: https://www.ebay.com/p/Sputnik-100-Double-Edge-Razor-Blades-... In addition to being dirt cheap, I also found the branding funny. Somehow I felt like I am buying something not very good in t…

Those are made in a Gillette factory that happens to be in Russia. Entirely unrelated to anything Soviet.

Interesting, I must have made the false assumption when I received the package and saw the Russian postage labels. Looking at some other eBay listings now, the connection to Gillette is apparent. Thanks for letting me know!

Re: Soviet-Era Industrial Design

#19

Post by pilsetnieks »

It's a small nitpick but the Saturnas vacuum, the first product featured, was actually Lithuanian. The most obvious clue - the name is written in Latin alphabet, not Cyrillic.

Of course, with centralized economy, most of these designs probably had to be approved by Moscow but it doesn't mean that it was the seat of all creativity and innovation.

Re: Soviet-Era Industrial Design

#20

Post by onemanstartup »

Jhsto wrote: post #17
pandaman wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's Ladas (a Greek athlete). Surprisingly Wikipedia has no entry for him but only for a village named after him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladas,_Messenia

I'm grinning. That does make much more sense.

No, it doesn't. It is not ladas, it's lada and it's from a type of ship - https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B%D0%B0%D0%B4%D1%8C%D1%8F... You can see logo of lada and there is a ship there
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