plastic plus is a designing concept, a neighborhood store, a place, a time.
its birth in the early 1980's was part of the creation of a municipal renewal in the center of tel-aviv.
a process in which a crumbling old neighborhood started to attract a young population, usually educated but not financially based. plastic plus the aesthetic and designing concept of hans pallada and ilana herschenberg has been developed in direct relation to that place and that target population. its characteristics are - simple low priced products, handy industrial materials and sophisticated structural and constructive solutions.
thus, for example you can look at what is their first mass product, the click-on lampshade as a brilliant simple solution to the problem of exposed light bulbs that identify the rented apartments in the neighborhood.
looking back it is hard not to notice how the designing line has turned into a statement of value which dismisses what seems to be normal, taken for granted, joint between design and money, residential culture and high financial position.
yet, the designers personal creative temperament should be stressed. the materials, industrial yet colorful, light and friendly, the major use of "ready made" existing materials causes that in many cases the nature of the work is one of improvised, that conveys the feeling that any one could easily make them. they have playful amusing nature, sometimes childish yet nevertheless the structural solutions are always constructive and functional, and from that aspect severe.
the intent in organizing an exhibition was to make possible a new observation approach to the plastic plus products, when they are diverted from their familiar correlation to the store or home, to observe them mainly aesthetically, as objects, almost as statues, as an expression of a creative imagination, fresh and original.
