Welcome to Soft Electronics
This online museum has 1985 examples of small household appliances from the 1960s to 1990s.
All products are complete with the original packaging, and often in mint to new condition. And every item has a reason to be in the collection, like a special feature or innovation. Each item also has a story to tell. Stories about industrial design and brands. Or about lifestyle, women's liberation, packaging design or useability. Or about how rare an item is and how it has found its way to the collection.
Many items should look familiar if you were born in or before the 1970s, but you haven't seen many of the other items before. They are all forgotten products.
The high quality of these products was never matched again since the end of the last century. After that manufacturing has moved completely to Asia, and planned obsolescence was put into every product.
In comparison to
Hard Electronics these products were designed and built to be used by women in the first place. Each product was supposed to help in daily routines in the household, but still be easy to use and add no extra work or maintenance.
Please enjoy this collection of
best and forgotten items from the past. Only images of the packaging for the moment. Images of the items will be added subsequently over the next months and years, together with short descriptions.
Instagram
Please checkout and follow
Soft Electronics on instagram if haven't already, for frequent updates and many more images.
Magazine
If you like having collections of Soft Electronics pictures to carry around,
please buy the new small magazine. 30 objects on 68 pages. 10,5 x 21 cm.
Book
The
Soft Electronics book is also still available. Published in 2023 with gestalten, it showcases 101 devices on 256 pages along with manufacturer portraits and essays on the different eras.
Exhibition
In 2024 a selection of 250 devices was displayed in the exhibition
Men, women and their appliances in the Design Museum Den Bosch. Take a look at
some pictures of the event.