As I progress through my design "career" I have slowly started to notice my design preferences. After taking a long hard look at a set of headphones designed by the solidworks team I began to realize, no way in hell I would have come up with anything similar to that. Dozens of surface changes, dongles that have in-explicable purposes, buttons, fasteners, material changes and the list goes on. The resulting product looked extremely impressive. This however is not the type of product I would design on my own. I'm sure if a client were to ask for something similar I would be able to complete it, however, I am no stylist. There were so many people in my graduating class that could make the simplest of things look extremely cool and complex. The left side of my brain could never fathom the answer to the question "but why". Although designing things to look extremely bad-ass may serve to impress us visually, again there is no utilitarian purpose. So begins the dilemma. Does good design need to have extreme styling to better improve the visual component? Or is less always more. Well turthfully its both. I mean Oakley seems to be doing quite well, and most of their products have what I like to call an "excessivism" look (design that takes the most complex path to function). Anyway my point is that I have begun to realize that my personal style is fairly simple and I enjoy design that doesn't require a redundant surface change to make it look interesting. I came up with this headphone idea. Bent wood, Some sort of fabric (the computer calls it potato sack) I'll call it old man hat fabric. Rounded (metal) ear pieces, and ear cushions that remind me of yacht seats for some reason. Now I am not saying my shit is better than oakleys stuff http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/sunglassesgiant/Oakley-Plate-Sunglasses-3.jpg, or even the other head phones I saw http://www.yankodesign.com/2011/06/09/hardcore-headphones/... just that I tend to gravitate toward the simpler style. Any thoughts?
Oh also keep in mind those headphones in the link are designed to completion (mine are just a 3d sketch)
I'm definitely on the simpler side of the fence.
ReplyDeleteI look at things like razors and wonder why on earth they need seven blades and useless little turbine looking plastic bits on the side. The first safety razor that came out in like, 1914 or whenever was made of aluminum and had one blade and even compared to today's technology reportedly gives a better shave.
Coincidence?
I suspect not.
to be honest I am a fan of both but I do tend toward the simpler; more analogue style which is shown in your designs. Quite a fan of the simple machined ali. BTW the Yanko headphones are just concept renders as well..
ReplyDeletehmm Well by the looks from the last part of the article they seem to elude to the fact that there is a real version out there. Either way, they did a great job with them, serious CAD skills as well.
ReplyDelete