Although the lithium-ion batteries inside phones and power banks have mostly remained the same, other areas related to batteries and charging have seen significant improvements. Gallium nitride or GaN charging technology, for example, is allowing chargers to be smaller and power banks to be more efficient despite the same battery size. This, in turn, opens the door to more design possibilities, including those that don’t conform to the rectangular convention of most power banks.

Cute branded power banks are not exactly new, but most of them simply lap on some skins or decorations to achieve that effect. Changing the design’s shape can actually do more for less, even without making excessive modifications. This concept, for example, adds a playful flavor to a power bank, figuratively, by mimicking the appearance of a popular treat for people feeling drained and empty, especially under the summer sun.

Designer: Ming Sheng Shih (SHS Shih/Stone Shih)

Conventional power bank designs are practical and practically boring. They often come in different shapes of boxes, whether flat or large. After all, they have to contain rectangular battery packs, but that doesn’t mean the rest of their design has to follow the same shape. If phones themselves are becoming more expressive, why can’t their accessories follow suit?

PoPsic is a concept that bucks that trend by looking nothing like a boring box. It adopts the shape of a popsicle, which is actually also a rectangle with one end curved. For the stick, it uses a somewhat flat and rigid USB-C cable that folds in half to take that form. Both ends of the cable are inserted into the popsicle’s body to maintain that illusion and prevent the cable from dangling away.

Almost like a sticky popsicle, PoPsic attaches to the back of a phone magnetically. If the phone is MagSafe-compatible, then it can already start charging that way. Otherwise, the USB cable offers a more direct and faster route, though the popsicle might not stick to the phone’s back in that case, depending on the design.

PoPsic doesn’t actually offer any new functionality you haven’t seen in other power banks already in the market. The strength of its appeal is, instead, found in its appearance and the emotions it can call up. While most power banks have an air of professionalism, the image of a popsicle never ceases to bring a smile to someone’s face, even those who might not care for eating such a sweet delight.

The post Popsicle-inspired power bank concept is a delicious treat for your phone and your eyes first appeared on Yanko Design.

The journey of creating a product doesn’t end at design—it’s where it begins. KeyShot, a trusted name in product visualization and rendering, is evolving that journey with its innovative Product Design-to-Market Suite. Imagine a world where designers, developers, and marketers don’t work in silos but move together in perfect sync. That’s the vision KeyShot is bringing to life, and it’s already shaking up workflows for companies big and small.

We sat down with Garin Gardiner, Product Director of KeyShot Hub, to uncover how this suite is solving challenges designers didn’t even know had solutions. From effortless collaboration to smarter asset management, KeyShot isn’t just keeping up with the demands of the design world—it’s rewriting the rules. Dive into this conversation to explore how KeyShot is empowering creators to dream big and deliver faster.

Click Here to Download Now: The whitepaper for an in-depth look at how this new framework can transform your business.

Yanko Design: What specific areas in the product design process does KeyShot’s new Product Design-to-Market Suite address? How does this optimize a business’ workflow in ways that older versions of KeyShot didn’t?

Garin Gardiner: Our flagship product, KeyShot Studio, is primarily geared towards the individual designer. It was the first scientifically accurate rendering engine, now used in over two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, with thousands of customers around the world. We’ve always worked closely with our customers to keep Studio relevant to their needs, and over two decades of development, we learned about other significant needs related to the design process, team workflows and business logistics. We saw a huge opportunity to help – and to revolutionize the way products are brought to market.

We’re introducing a concept called Product Design-to-Market, which is a holistic strategy that connects the many departments involved in product creation and market delivery. You can think of it as bridging the product design and go-to-market processes. Instead of working in silos, we’re encouraging a smooth exchange of information and assets across design, development and marketing teams. The result is faster iteration, better alignment, and a seamless transition from first sketch to market delivery.

Of course, you need the right tools to make this vision a reality. Our Product Design-to-Market Suite, which includes KeyShot Studio, also provides comprehensive design team support in KeyShot Hub and connection to the management and distribution of marketing assets in KeyShot Dock.

Yanko Design: How have early adopters responded to KeyShot Hub’s collaboration capabilities, and can you share how it has improved their design process?

Garin Gardiner: It is amazing how nearly every customer we’ve talked to, when we ask them how they’re navigating team workflows, say they struggle managing a central repository for their team to find the core items they use frequently. When individuals can’t find what they’re looking for, they often create duplications, and there’s so much time wasted in that. Hub provides that central repository, so everyone has access to the current version of the file, meaning no duplications are necessary. Plus, changes to the file can automatically be tracked and you can easily revert back to a previous version.

Another favorite is the shared material library in Hub. Customers say being able to work from the same material library makes a huge difference. If a material gets modified, the entire team will automatically get the latest and greatest the next time they use a material. They are also able to tag it for easier searchability, so they aren’t creating duplicate materials, like they often do today.

Hub’s related assets feature is really resonating with customers. When you apply materials to a scene and save it to the Hub, you are able to see all those materials linked to the scene in the Hub for a quick CMF view of your scene.

Tagging is another feature customers appreciate. When saving a rendering to the Hub it will automatically attach tags – Model Sets, Camera, Studio, Environment, Image Style, Colorway, and Materials. These tags can then be used to search for renderings. Searches can be saved for later re-use by all members of the team. Our customers care a lot about their CMF – it’s a key aspect of what they do. They can also manually update tags if they prefer.

Customers are also loving the side-by-side comparison feature between versions. You can select two versions and real-time compare them using a dynamic slider; it’s really helpful to compare differences between versions, especially when the differences are in small details. Our customers create a lot of versions of the same rendering and being able to compare versions side-by-side is helpful.

These are all features that Hub users say address the team and workflow challenges they’re facing today. Ultimately, it’s all about saving time and enabling easy collaboration, so designers can focus on their craft rather than administrative tasks. And you can see how everything works in a full demo of Hub available on YouTube.

Yanko Design: What developments in other industries are providing inspiration for KeyShot as it paves the way forward with its new Product Design-to-Market Suite?

Garin Gardiner: There’s certainly movement toward breaking down silos and supporting cross-collaboration. We have seen how companies like Microsoft have enabled richer collaboration using the cloud through their Teams platform. We have also seen design tools like Fusion transform how their customers work with Fusion Team.

These developments were part of what inspired us to offer a purpose-built Product Design-to-Market Suite to better support our customers. Now KeyShot provides speedy and intuitive rendering, support for design team workflows, and support for marketing.

Yanko Design: We’re very excited about KeyShot Dock’s enhanced Digital Asset Management system! How do you envision it helping companies better organize and distribute their 3D assets across marketing and sales channels?

Garin Gardiner: Right now, marketing teams are typically responsible for generating their own images and animations, separate from product design. They budget for product visuals and often make them from scratch, spending time and money on photography and design work. But they could be saving time and money by repurposing the 3D renderings already produced by design teams, which make it easy to create an infinite amount of marketing-worthy product visuals. CAD models and KeyShot scenes can be stored in KeyShot Dock, providing a connection between marketing and product design and empowering marketing to use those assets across go-to-market channels.

Our customers tell us that 3D visuals are much more effective than 2D images or product photography; 3D visuals lead to higher conversions and lower return rates.

Customers can expect regular updates to Dock. Over time, we are looking to enable viewing 3D interactive files like GLBs and even the possibility of generating on-demand 3D viewables from CAD models like SolidWorks, STEP and more.

Yanko Design: How do you see technologies like AI and machine learning influencing the future of 3D rendering and Digital Asset Management, and will KeyShot incorporate these innovations?

Garin Gardiner: We’re considering how to incorporate AI into our tools in a way that adds value to users. While generative AI can provide impressive results in image generation, we still believe that accurate rendering – down to highly detailed materials and brand elements – will require physics-based rendering. However, we are analyzing how AI can help our customers achieve greater efficiency in their workflows or increase the speed and quality of rendering, through processes like sampling light rays used by rendering algorithms or denoising rendered images.

On the marketing side, AI has the potential to make it faster and easier for teams to generate 2D renderings as a replacement for physical photography. Imagine feeding AI with 100% accurate product data and using it to generate creative environments around accurate renderings.

These are all possibilities we’re looking at right now. AI has so much potential to provide creative and logistical support – it’s all about making the most of it.

Image Credits: Silvester Kössler

Click Here to Download Now: The whitepaper for an in-depth look at how this new framework can transform your business.

The post How Collaborative Tools are Revolutionizing the Design Pipeline: An Interview with KeyShot first appeared on Yanko Design.

It’s rare that we as consumers get a look behind the curtain to see the design process behind the products we use. In fact, even as designers, we’re usually very appreciative of a final product, not having any idea of the process behind it… and rightfully so – companies hold their cards close to their chest. You’re probably never going to get an insight into how Apple makes its phones, or how Lockheed Martin makes its jets. All these processes are highly confidential, however, for creatives, there’s a lot to be learnt from getting exposure to great design companies, their processes, and even the mindsets of their creative leads and heads. It’s rare for us to get such an insight, but not entirely impossible. We got the opportunity to sit down with the design leads at Electrolux and its premium brand, AEG, and ask them questions we wouldn’t normally get to ask. Keeping products and launches aside, we spoke about design processes, thought patterns, approaches to sustainability, and even managed to ask them the most important question of all: What does it take to get hired at Electrolux/AEG! Take a stroll through the interview below with Thomas Gardner (Global Senior Design Lead for Product Line Taste at Electrolux Group) and Christopher Duncan (Head of Product Line Taste at Electrolux Group in Europe APMEA), and be sure to bookmark the page for later.

Yanko Design: For our readers who are getting their first insight into AEG’s design wing, tell us a little bit about the philosophy behind how you operate.

Thomas Gardner: With consumer-centricity and sustainable living as our guiding principles, design has become so much more than just giving form to objects. Working on such a complex ecosystem of appliances involves so many different skillsets and expertise, from usability research to materials specialists, digital craftsmanship and project leadership. We’re not just designing products, we are creating an entire cooking experience that spans all manner of technology and platforms. Being able to create a cohesive and harmonious outcome, that’s the real magic of delivering a range of products such as this.

YD: Does the design team spearhead which direction the company innovates in? Or is it more of a collaborative effort between management, marketing, engineering, design, etc.?

Thomas Gardner: It is absolutely a collaborative effort, since good innovation rarely happens in a vacuum. The only way we can innovate in a meaningful way is to base the creative process on real observations and genuine consumer understanding.

Christopher Duncan: Design has been one of the key ingredients in our innovation process. Because at Electrolux Group we see the designers not just focusing on 3D design. They are at the center of our so-called innovation triangles, our cross-functional teams working on innovation, at the forefront of developing great solutions for our consumers. Thinking out of the box to deliver functional and meaningful design.

YD: Tell us a little about the current line being debuted at IFA 2024.

Thomas Gardner: The three pillars that underpin this range are SUSTAINABLE, PERSONALISED, and INTUITIVE. Sustainable, as in using the full potential of a connected ecosystem in order to guide the user to make smarter decisions about what they cook and how they cook it. Personalized, as in offering an experience that grows and develops with you, guiding you into exploring new techniques and technologies. Intuitive, as in everything being exactly where you need it and where you expect it. As an example, we’ve been working with eye-tracking technology to validate the placement of functions, buttons etc… So let’s say you ask 100 people ‘How would you turn on the oven’ and a majority of the participants first looks in lets say the top left corner of the product, well, you may not have the final solution but you have a really good clue to research further… just one example of how we research and validate that which may seem obvious.

YD: What about the new features being debuted this year?

Christopher Duncan: The new AEG Kitchen Range is articulated around 3 main pillars: A Striking Design, Sustainability enablers, and Assisted Cooking redefined. The jewel of our kitchen design lineup is our stunning AEG SaphirMatt Induction Hob, which received the “Best of the Best” Red Dot Design Award. It’s a perfect example of what I call functional design. Thanks to the matte texture of the ceramic glass we can offer 4 times more scratch resistance and no more fingerprints.

When it comes to responsible living & sustainability, we strengthen our AEG Ecoline offering with better energy class across the whole range and provide eco guidance tips to consumers helping them to save 30% energy across the range.

Let me now elaborate a bit more on what we are doing to bring more assistance to the consumers. We are coming up with new connected User Interfaces, across ovens and hobs, which we call CookSmart Touch. And we are launching a world premiere with AI TasteAssist. This is a cool feature enabled by our AEG App that helps consumers to turn online recipes into optimized settings for their oven. The key insight is that 80% of consumers look online for recipes. And most of these recipes recommend a top-bottom heat 180 degrees program… simply because they are universal recipes that have to apply to any oven. Thanks to AI TasteAssist, we are able not only to automatically translate the recipe into cooking settings for the oven, but we are able to optimize the settings for better taste and more healthy cooking thanks to Steam.

YD: How would you describe your design language?

Thomas Gardner: What I’m personally really proud of is how we’ve managed to keep the design language really restrained. It’s all about having a few visual elements that can be applied across different product categories, creating a sense of familiarity without feeling forced on the individual product. It’s really understated which I feel conveys a strong sense of confidence and purpose. Maybe the best example of this being the execution of the AEG logotype on our Matte Glass products, where the appearance of the logo is simply the absence of matte surface. Our logo, our most precious commodity, simply being expressed in negative space. I really like that.

YD: We’re actually debuting a collaborative Design Competition shortly too, can you tell us what kind of decor do you see these products fitting in? Do you personally believe in a cohesive design language or do you like the idea of products standing out against their surroundings?

Thomas Gardner: For what we do, how we sell our products, and the context they work in, I believe a cohesive design language is critical. Just as an example, having the same tone of black across the range rather than multiples thereof helps not just in simplifying production but also in creating a sense of whole, harmony, and completeness. This becomes even more important in the creation of user interfaces, where learning new icons and behaviors for each product would be extremely frustrating and inefficient for the user.

YD: I’m sure sustainability plays a very important role in the way products function. We remember seeing quite a few unique features in the dishwashers and washing machines from a few years ago. How is this current product line championing sustainability and zero waste on the design end?

Christopher Duncan: As I mentioned, Sustainability is one of the three pillars for this new range. Since 85% of the global climate impact of an appliance is coming from the usage phase, we dedicated more effort to reducing their energy consumption. That means we secured updated energy classes for all products in line with industry best practice. We then spent more time to give eco guidance to our consumers through our new CookSmart Touch User Interfaces, helping them to reduce energy consumption by 30%. Let me give you two examples. On our hobs we offer the SenseBoil technology. Thanks to vibration sensors in the hob, we’re able to detect when the water is boiling, and therefore able to reduce the power at that stage. Did you know that 20 seconds of overboiling with an induction hob consumes as much as charging fully your mobile phone? The second example is on ovens: we have configured our cooking cycles in a way that uses the residual heat in the oven cavity to finish the cooking, to reduce energy wastage. Consumers are really welcoming such smart solutions that help them to reduce their carbon footprint and at the same time save money.

YD: As far as the consumer goes, how do the sustainability-driven features affect/uplift their lives? There was a debate in 2019 about how the ‘Eco’ feature in dishwashers may take less time, but it ends up using more water and energy. How is Electrolux Group approaching these issues this time?

Christopher Duncan: It’s more and more important for consumers, not only because they have become more eco-conscious due to climate change, but also they have felt every month the increasing cost of energy affecting their purchasing power especially during the energy crisis last year. The challenge for us is to make people understand what drives energy consumption in appliances. For example, our dishwashers eco programs take more time. Why? Because what drives most energy consumption is the heating of the water. So to reduce energy consumption, we lower the temperature of the water but we then need to compensate this with more mechanical action from the water jets in order to deliver the same washing performance. It’s quite counterintuitive for consumers to understand that longer dishwasher cycles consume less energy. That’s why we developed the QuickSelect user interface. Slide your finger along the MyTime slider to set the cycle duration. The display will show the program length and provide guidance on energy and water consumption, indicated by green ECO bars on the left-hand side. The more green bars, the less energy and water you use.

YD: What sets your design ethos apart from other brands in this space?

Thomas Gardner: As I touched on before, having the confidence to go understated and restrained, rather than loud and decorative. Having the final consumer in mind rather than the crowded shop-floor environment has guided our process into one of calmness and intuitive, simple usability. Our continued commitment to a more sustainable way of living and eating is also pretty unrivaled in the industry and it carries across to the products we make, no matter if it’s the materials we use or the guidance we provide.

YD: A lot of our readers are designers or aspiring designers. What’s the one thing you learned on the job that you didn’t learn at design school?

Thomas Gardner: Communication and collaboration is everything, at least if you wish to work on complex industrial products like these, that literally involve hundreds if not thousands of people across multiple-year long timelines. The trust and respect of your colleagues is the single most valuable currency you have and it takes years to build up. The language you use is as important as the pictures you show, whether it’s giving a presentation or writing an email. So make sure you master both.

YD: Finally, a portfolio question. What do you look for in a designer/creative and a manager in product line when they apply for a job at Electrolux Group?

Thomas Gardner: Finding that perfect person to join your team can be one of the most challenging yet rewarding and stimulating experiences you encounter as a design leader.

Normally, let’s say I’m hiring for a junior designer, I would be looking for two things, mainly:
1: Does this person have the capacity to be somewhat productive from day one? To know that, I’m looking for some nice computer renders, perhaps some storyboard illustrations, basic Photoshop work, a good sense of visual space, layout etc… Since I’m probably looking at many portfolios in a short amount of time, less is usually better. So pick your top 5-7 projects, no more. But make sure they show variation, no point in showing 10 projects that all demonstrate the same skillset (unless you’re looking for a job to do that exact task, of course).

2: Learn to ‘pitch’ your process. Not the outcome, it’s usually less relevant than you think. But the journey you took, how you got there, that’s what I’m keen to hear. To understand how you think, your process, your enthusiasm for the subject at hand. Don’t be afraid to ‘nerd out’ on some small detail, those things are usually where the magic happens, the thing that stands out and makes your presentation memorable. It’s really hard to disagree with someone who is absolutely passionate over what they have created…

Christopher Duncan: Good tips from Thomas there. From my side, I look for curious people. People who ask the “Why?” question 5 times. Because truly understanding the consumer pain points is what leads to great and relevant innovation. And then having a collaborative mindset. We believe a lot in co-creation at Electrolux. Each function comes with its expertise in the discussion. The outcome is usually surprisingly good. And finally, for a designer/creative, it is very powerful to be able to visualize ideas and concepts quite early in the concept. Because this triggers even more innovative thinking from the cross-functional team.

The post “Learn to ‘pitch’ your process” AEG+Electrolux Leadership talks about Design Ethos, Career Growth, etc. first appeared on Yanko Design.

Mitja Borkert’s approach to designing the 2022 Lamborghini Countach is a masterful blend of reverence for its heritage and a leap into the future. As the Head of Design at Automobili Lamborghini, he walks Yanko Design through his creative process, illuminating how the new Countach is a culmination of various iconic elements from its predecessors, reimagined for the 21st century.

Designer: Mitja Borkert for Lamborghini

Borkert’s design journey begins with the original Countach prototype, unveiled 50 years ago at the Geneva Auto Show. He extracts the essence of its purity and simplicity, as evidenced in the uncluttered silhouette and the slim front grille. This minimalist approach is a nod to the prototype’s untainted form, a defining characteristic he sought to echo in the new model.

The influence of the LP400 ‘Periscopio’ is evident in the innovative photochromatic roof panels of the 2022 Countach. This modern interpretation of the ‘Periscopio’ view offers a contemporary solution to the original’s limited rear visibility, allowing the driver to adjust the transparency of the roof panels as needed.

The most striking inspiration comes from the LP5000 Quattrovalvole, known for its exaggerated features and a favorite among Countach enthusiasts. Borkert draws from this version to infuse the new Countach with a sense of drama and presence. The hexagonal wheel arches, reminiscent of the Quattrovalvole’s prominent flares, are reinterpreted with a more human, rounded form. This subtle softening of lines blends the Countach’s characteristic sharpness with elegance.

In reimagining the Countach for the present day, Borkert doesn’t just replicate; he reinterprets. For instance, the new model’s taillights are an agonal shape iconic to the original but are slimmed down, aligning with the car’s overall streamlined aesthetic. The chopped-off rear end, another hallmark of the classic Countach, is reenvisioned to dramatically showcase the rear tires, much like a motorcycle, adding to the car’s dynamic stance.

His vision for the 2022 Countach extends to its interior, drawing inspiration from a white Countach with a red interior owned by Lamborghini in the mid-1980s. This color theme is a tribute, linking the past with the present.

The essence of the Countach spirit underlies all the design elements of this car, making it an experience rather than just a sight to behold. The new model maintains the V12 engine’s iconic roar, which is a crucial aspect of its DNA and has been amplified by a specially designed exhaust system. This sound, combined with the innovative design, not only pays tribute to its predecessors but also honors its long-standing legacy in the world of high-performance supercars.

The post Exploring the 2022 Lamborghini Countach: An In-Depth Design Analysis with Mitja Borkert first appeared on Yanko Design.

The more we become dependent on electronic devices, the more we become beholden to electricity. It’s a resource that many of us take for granted, expecting that it will always be there when we need it. Power shortages and outages, natural disasters, and remote locations, however, shatter those illusions, often leading to inconvenience or downright unlivable circumstances. The gasoline-chugging generators of old are no longer viable solutions, and battery-powered power stations have risen to the challenge of providing safe, quiet, and clean energy when access to the power grid is impossible. Of these, BLUETTI’s name is one that soars high above blue skies, so we had a little chat with them at CES 2023 to learn more about their past, their present, and their future vision for a greener tomorrow.

Blue Skies and Innovation

Bluetti AC300 & B300

Every company has an origin story, that one critical point in time when the seed of the company’s vision started to take root. Sometimes, that origin is immediately expressed in the company’s name. Other times, it is obscured by the company’s history. BLUETTI’s beginning might not be as dramatic as, say, Apple’s or Google’s, but its name carries a rather interesting background that explains its rather unusual moniker.

It’s almost too easy to presume that BLUETTI is an Italian word, and unsurprisingly, that has caused confusion about its pronunciation. The rather surprising truth is that BLUETTI is actually composed of a word and an acronym. The “BLUE” refers to “Blue Sky,” a reference to the company’s hope for a better Earth with blue skies instead of smog-filled heavens. The rest of the name refers to “Tomorrow, Technology, Innovation,” the pillars of the company’s commitment to supporting a sustainable lifestyle through green energy storage solutions.

The exact meaning of its name may not be that obvious to the world at large, but its spirit is easily witnessed in BLUETTI’s growing range of products. You might not know what the letters of its name stand for, but you’ll definitely know the promise that the company makes. Providing a more sustainable power source has always been BLUETTI’s rallying cry, one that has resounded among many customers if the latest crowdfunding figures are to be considered.

Wisdom of the Crowds

BLUETTI’s latest run on Indiegogo for the new AC500 modular power station and its B300S battery module partner raised a whopping $12 million from more than 5,000 backers. If that isn’t clear proof of belief in the brand, we don’t know what is. Given the prices for these portable power stations, that’s not an easy commitment you can make on a whim. It’s not hard to see, however, why so many people put their trust in BLUETTI.

Taking the AC500 and B300S as examples, the company was able to iterate, innovate, and improve on its already successful modular design, a design that delivers power in a mobile and flexible form. In addition to providing a wider variety of power outputs, the AC500 also ups the game by allowing as many as six 3,072Wh battery modules to be connected to the 5000W inverter for a jaw-dropping total of 18,432Wh of power. You can hot-swap these batteries at any time, adding or removing modules as needed. The connectors have also been redesigned to be easier to hold and handle, and resemble the nozzle of a gas pump that many drivers and car owners in the US would be familiar with.

That latter detail, though small, is an example of what keeps BLUETTI at the top of its game and above its peers. It keeps on innovating, doing intensive research for its target local market and adjusting its designs and campaigns around the American lifestyle and power situation. Multiple problems with power grid outages and disasters that affect power distribution have had very critical effects on people’s productivity and entertainment, which is where BLUETTI’s power stations come to the rescue. Its portable power stations and solar generators don’t consume fossil energy, don’t make noise, and don’t emit poisonous gas, all in line with the growing sustainability awareness among customers, both in the US and around the world.

It might come as a surprise, then, that all of BLUETTI’s designs are made in-house at their headquarters in China. It is a testament to the team’s talent and expertise in designing products for a certain demographic outside of their own. From the texture, shape, and size of the power stations, to the AC and DC connections, to the interactive panel, BLUETTI’s designs demonstrate a deep knowledge of what their customers need and what they want, and the success of their products even after crowdfunding is testament to that.

Innovation on a Larger Scale

Bluetti EP900 & B500

The battery-powered, solar-charged power station is relatively young, only three or so years old, and there is still plenty to be done and plenty of innovations yet to be made. Even BLUETTI admits there’s still plenty of room for growth, and it is setting its eyes on bigger things while keeping its feet planted firmly on solid ground. Its line of portable power stations isn’t going away, that’s for sure, but individual and small homes aren’t the only ones that can use clean and green energy storage.

The company’s next gamble is the EP900 and its partner, the B500 battery module. Big in size and capacity, the total package can provide as much as 79kWh of power at the flip of a switch, at least when combining 16 9kWh modules together. While it will definitely be overkill for camping, it will be necessary to power a whole house or even a small or medium size business (SMB). Given how these batteries can be charged using solar energy alone, that means you can almost run the whole house or business on completely green power. The EP900 marks BLUETTI’s entry into the residential power station market, and this standards-compliant power station is expected to launch sometime in March or April.

While the power stations provide sustainable energy, there might be lingering concerns about the sustainability of the batteries themselves. Unfortunately, those are unavoidable at this point in time, just as how many consumer electronics can’t get rid of non-sustainable materials and processes completely just yet. BLUETTI, however, is also doing due diligence in making sure it doesn’t become part of the problem that it’s trying to solve. With longevity that goes on for five years or more and warranties that can run up to 10 years, the company’s power stations are in for the long haul. It is also in talks with its partners in the US to make sure that batteries are recycled or disposed of properly to prevent them from becoming planet killers themselves.

Blue Sky, Green Tomorrow

BLUETTI is hardly the only player in this nascent market, and it definitely has some tough competition ahead. The company always has its doors open for new customers and also wants to point existing ones to resources that can help them make the most out of their power stations. The BLUETTI Support YouTube channel, for example, has plenty of guides for different products. The Official BLUETTI channel, on the other hand, not only has announcements and promotional materials but also videos on how BLUETTI can and has changed lives for the better. Some even found love through their shared love for the innovative power stations.

Whether it’s for an outdoor weekend trip or for an unexpected power outage, BLUETTI’s power stations stand ready to supply much-needed energy with none of the harmful consequences of traditional generators. More importantly, however, the company is paving the way for a future with more sustainable energy storage, no matter the need. From the small portable power stations to the upcoming residential line, BLUETTI will continue to innovate to help keep the lights on and keep the skies blue for today, tomorrow, and beyond.

The post BLUETTI at CES 2023: Shaping a Better Tomorrow with Green Energy first appeared on Yanko Design.

We talk to Fabio Filippini – Ex-Pininfarina design director and author of ‘Curve.’

BACKGROUND

Over the past 35 years, Italian design guru Fabio Filippini has worked as an influential car designer for such automakers as Volkswagen, Audi, Groupe Renault, and other international car makers in countries ranging from Italy to France or Spain and China to Japan, before taking up a position as Pininfarina design director from 2011. He is best-known for his work on the Mitsubishi Minica, Audi A8, Kangoo 2, Mégane III, Clio 4, Twingo III, Espace V, as well as concept cars including the Pininfarina Cambiano and Sergio, BMW Pininfarina Gran Lusso, the hydrogen-powered H2Speed and the Fittipaldi EF7 Vision Gran Turismo. He has also dabbled in the design of alternate transportation vehicles like the Eurostar e320 train and the Zetor Concept Tractor. For his design work, Filippini has received numerous awards such as the ‘Interior Design of the Year’ in 2012 and the National Innovation Award for the Pininfarina Cambiano, and ‘Best Design Study’ for his Pininfarina Sergio at the 2013 Autonis Design Awards.

In 2018, he moved to Tokyo where he currently works as an independent car designer and design strategy adviser. Besides his professional design duties, he also serves as an international judge at the world’s most renowned classic car concours such as Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and Salon Privé.
In late 2021, Filippini toured Europe to launch ‘Curve,’ his new book on automotive design. I caught up with Fabio recently for a chat about his work, his thoughts on design, and his book.

INTERVIEW

Peter Lyon (PL) – Firstly, congratulations on the launch of your book. I must say that once you start flicking through its pages, your book is hard to put down. The illustrations are exquisite. Are they all your own work?

Fabio Filippini (FF) – Thank you. Yes, I drew all of those drawings and sketches. I’m glad you like them.

PL – The book’s introduction looks intriguing and should capture the attention of every student of automotive design out there. It says “What does an iPod and a Renault have in common? Why was Le Corbusier creating innovative architecture but driving a car with decidedly antiquated lines? How does the car industry react to changes in society and its impact on the environment? The illustrated essay ‘Curve’ by Fabio Filippini brings together the history of car design with the personal and professional experiences of the author.
This is a book that talks about the essence of the car and the path that leads to its creation with unprecedented passion, competence, and originality.”

FF – There is a lot of history in this book. And a lot of passion.

PL – Speaking of passion and originality, I’m interested to hear what you consider to be the best five car designs ever?

Image – BMW Pininfarina Gran Lusso

FIVE BEST CAR DESIGNS according to Fabio Filippini

1. Ferrari 512s Modulo Pininfarina

That’s a tough one. Okay, let me start with the Pininfarina Modulo based on the Ferrari 512S from 1970. This was an extremely special Berlinetta, an experimental one-off prototype penned by Paolo Martin for the 1970 Geneva Motor Show. When it came out it looked more like a spaceship than a car. It matched perfectly the mood of the time to come. The first sketches appeared in 1967 before man had landed on the moon. And of course, at that time, Stanley Kubrick was still preparing his ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ movie. If you look at the Modulo, it could so easily have appeared in Kubrick’s film. This Pininfarina concept and ‘2001’ were the top expressions in different fields of this futuristic vision at that time. And the car still looks futuristic today.

2. Citroen DS

My second car would be the Citroen DS. It was so advanced when it appeared in 1955. There was nothing like it. And still today, it is still much more modern than most contemporary cars. The shape, the space inside is big and comfortable. Aerodynamically it was fantastic and so modern with its fiberglass roof. But strangely, no one copied it. In the years after that, no other carmaker took inspiration from the DS. It influenced no one. Not even new technology like the unique hydraulic suspension influenced other carmakers. It was beautiful but seemed to be an anachronism.

3. Fiat Panda

Next is the Fiat Panda designed by the legendary Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro of Italdesign in 1980. It’s like Muji-style philosophy applied to cars 20 years before the Muji brand was born. I like the proportions. It’s purposeful, functional, thoughtful and refined. It’s a masterpiece in simplicity by Giugiaro.

4. Nissan Silvia

Obviously, I could also add the Lamborghini Miura and Ferrari Dino to my list but that would be too obvious. I’d much rather add a Japanese car that was launched around the same time I first arrived in Tokyo. Now this car might not be one of the most beautiful cars ever, but it’s a car I really love, even 34 years after its launch— it’s the Nissan Silvia (S13) from 1988. This Silvia was so beautiful that it almost looked like a Pininfarina-styled car. It was low-slung with nice proportions, had very clean styling, and had good balance. It was a very Italian-looking car. There is a subtlety with the treatment of the front fender that not many people recognize. But as a designer, I look at it and I like to see the subtle twisting effect on the fender and hood.

5. Porsche 911

Now, where would a top 5 list be without the Porsche 911? Basically in any of its iterations, starting with the original air-cooled model in 1964 right through to the current 992 Series, it’s an automotive masterpiece. To me, the 911 is not only a brilliant technical evolution but also a perfect representation of good and timeless design going through the ages. While the 911 is an icon, I will not include the 996 version which I consider to be a heavy makeup caricature.

Image – Fittipaldi EF7 concept

WHAT ABOUT TESLA’S CYBERTRUCK?

PL – Okay, that’s a very eclectic list of five cars indeed. Thank you. Actually, as we were going to interview you today, we asked Yanko Design’s over 1 million Instagram followers for questions, and one that came up several times was your take on the Tesla Cybertruck. When it came out – our demographic was a 50:50 breakdown. Half loved it because they said it was innovative and outside the box and the other half said it was rubbish. What do you think?

FF – My take? Okay, I think it’s brave and courageous. This truck is brave to go against convention but it’s nothing revolutionary and nothing new. I think Tesla has real guts to come out with something like that. It’s edgy and looks like a triangle or a pyramid shape but that is not new. You can find cars with sharp, triangular designs like the Aston Martin Bulldog or Citroen Karin concept, but at least they look good. I don’t see the Cybertruck as being innovative, just different. The electric powertrain technology inside is innovative, yes, but that’s what the market wants. To be honest, I think it’s bad to do something so aggressive in modern times. It’s like a caricature. In 99% of car designs, there is not a single straight line. Even when they look straight, every line is actually curved in some way. Even in the Fiat 130 and Maserati Boomerang, which is a beautiful wedge-shaped car, all of the lines are curved to a degree. But in the Tesla Cybertruck, some of its lines are actually straight. Also, the rear door area is not good because when you get in you will hit your head. They’ve made no consideration of the most basic consideration.

WHY I CAME TO JAPAN 30 YEARS AGO

PL – Thanks for your expert insight into those designs. For someone who has traveled so much and worked in so many different design studios, I’d like to get an idea about the different aesthetics and approaches towards design.

FF – It comes back to the reason why I came to Japan over 30 years ago…
I was working on Japan designs for Mitsubishi in Italy in the 80s. In one of my first design jobs with Open Design in Torino where we were working on Mitsubishi’s Minica and GTO styling, I was seeing something totally different from the Japanese when compared to our traditional Italian designs. In the middle of the 80s was good in Italy. Sensibilities were so different. I was seeing some totally unique ways of doing designs from Japan. Just going through Japanese magazines like the well-known Car Graphic, I saw things that blew my mind. Like an advert for Bridgestone tires. I could not read the text but the images were telling. I saw a full page with a very nostalgic image of a seashore, of a man and a dog looking at them from behind, and then in the corner of the advert, was the name ‘Bridgestone’ and a small photo of a tire. If that was an ad for say, Pirelli tires in Italy, the tire would have featured much more prominently. I was intrigued with this artistic subtlety and very interested in this new design world opening up to me. Soon after I was invited to work in 1988 in Japan so I decided to go. I knew Italy, but I thought I needed more stimulation and a different outlook. I was attracted to things I don’t understand and I wanted to work outside of my comfort zone.

THE LATE 80s IN JAPAN WAS LIKE WORKING IN DISNEYLAND

PL – The late 1980s? That was the peak of Japanese car design with the new launches like the Skyline GT-R, Mazda MX-5, Subaru Legacy, Toyota Celsior, and the opening of luxury brands Lexus and Infiniti in the U.S. These cars all influenced European car styling, production, and product planning in their own ways.

FF – That’s exactly right. It was the middle of the ‘Bubble Economy’ and the peak of Japanese design creativity. And there were so many concept cars coming out too. It was so alive and vibrant that for a designer like me, it felt like being in Disneyland! Remember the early 90s with those brilliant tiny cars like the Nissan Figaro, Suzuki Cappuccino, and Honda Beat? Japanese designers were certainly thinking outside of the box back then. They were willing to push the envelope and experiment.

Image – Nissan Figaro

PL – So what really impressed you about Japan back then?

FF – It was part aesthetic and part philosophical. The aesthetics had a different range of criteria. Japanese design was similar to German or Italian design for the main, but there was always some kind of twist to it — either good or bad. But unexpected. In Europe, you have Italian, German, French, or English design — everything is defined. In Japan, they could mix everything without any barrier, without any frontier. And there were a lot of different influences from fashion, architecture as well. For example, the so-called ‘Pike’ postmodern cars from Nissan, namely the quirky Be-1, Pao, and Figaro.
In Europe, many saw those designs as copying European design. But not me. To me, they were bringing back the emotional and nostalgic feeling of old iconic cars such as the 2CV, Mini, and Fiat 500, but in truth, none of those Japanese cars were copies of anything. They resembled European cars in certain ways but they still had their own identity and uniqueness. They were taking some generic hints from Europe’s classic cars and reinventing them.

Image – Hydrogen-powered H2 speed concept

JAPANESE RETRO REACHES EUROPEAN ICONS

PL – Then again, you have a car like the Mazda MX-5, which was supposedly inspired by the Lotus Elan. But when the MX-5 was born in 1989, its looks, drivability, and reliability sparked a boom in roadsters giving birth to the Boxster, SLK, Z3, and TT among others.

FF – Yes, indeed. But what’s interesting is that Japan, through cars like the Be-1 and Figaro, was reinventing retro-style design. In the late 80s, Europeans were not into retro. But then, strangely, within around 15 years of these Japanese retro cars appearing, new versions of the Mini, Beetle, and Fiat 500 were launched. Because of the high intensity of creativity in Japan in the late 80s through the 90s, I realized that Japan was the right place to be at that time. That made me open up my mind to what was good and bad in Italian design and what was good and bad with Japanese design. The common denominators were purity, simplicity, and innovation although the definitions of those ideas were a little different in Japan. So it was those philosophies that I took with me to Pininfarina when I became their Design Director in 2011.

PL – Japan really seems to have shaped the designer you are today.

FF – Yes, you could say it did. But what really surprised and shocked me in the early 2000s was why Japan started to go in the wrong direction with a design that was not pure but very aggressive. They went through the 90s with the remnants of the bubble economy, but then from the late 90s, they seemed to get lost and were scared to do anything. They were turning things out without really knowing what to do. They just kept on doing what they were used to doing. Then they finally realized they had to change so Nissan brought on Carlos Ghosn while Toyota started with hybrids in earnest. That period you could say was a Japanese renaissance. Suddenly Lexus for example, wanted to become very original so it came up with the ‘Spindle’ design. Because they were saying that everyone buys Toyota but not for the design. So they tried to improve the design.

DESIGN LOSES ITS DIRECTION

PL – Yes, as you say, in the 2000s, design became very edgy and aggressive, like the spindle grille.

FF – Many Japanese carmakers suddenly became extreme with design and went to the other end of the spectrum with edgy aggressive styling. It was like a caricature. Yes, design nuances like the spindle grille, surfaces twisting in every direction, lights which are a patchwork of different shapes. It was like they were saying ‘we want to be different and unique and any cost.’ But such a design is not beautiful. That change of heart really shocked the design community. Okay, to be honest, some Lexus surfaces are magnificently done. But there seems to be no real cohesion. It was like an orchestra with all of the musicians playing their own instrument as hard as they can, trying to get the most out of it, while not playing in unison with other musicians—so it just ends up being a cacophony. That is not music. Like Lexus designers, all of the players are incredibly talented, but the end result is not in symphony, so to speak. This comparison with an orchestra is something I feel more often in car design. They are great at playing their instruments but they don’t know how to create music.

PL – But even with those edgy design traits, Lexus still sold very well.

FF – Yes, the new styling, hi-tech, and luxury levels appealed to a younger generation because it was radical, and I think very Asian, seemingly influenced by Kabuki or Chinese opera. It was around that time that China started to copy those edgy designs. We cannot forget of course that around the early 2000s, BMW’s Chris Bangle was doing some strange stuff like that controversial 7 series rear end and others. Even today design at BMW is overdone like the 4 Series kidney grille for example.

PL – Yes, as you say, that grille is a little over the top perhaps. So where do you see design going in the future?

CHINA AND INDIA GAIN INFLUENCE IN THE DESIGN STUDIO

FF – After 2000, design became repetitive and less creative and at the same time the digital world was happening. Now everyone everywhere can get online and be creative. It is getting more difficult to identify real trends from the original culture. Young designers today are being influenced from all over the internet including the digital worlds of China and India. As one-third of the world live in those two countries, now they are more influential than ever before.
At car design studios over the last 15 years, I’ve seen a lot of designers coming from India, China, Korea, and Russia. Suddenly there are more designers coming from these countries than traditional countries in Europe.

In China, there are several thousand design schools shooting out young potential designers every year. So today, even if you go to Western car companies, the majority of designers are either Indian, Chinese, Korean, or Russian which is having a definite influence on car design. Styling has changed already. For example, Russians are very precise, very technical but they have a particular taste for macho and aggressive design. Just look at the latest batch of SUVs coming out of Europe and the US. Some look very military-like. Then you have the Chinese who do these swoopy lines everywhere.

Image – Pininfarina Sergio

Image – H2 Speed concept

PL – I went to a couple of design studios last year and noticed the growing diversity of nationalities. As you say, many more Indians and Chinese. Speaking of the Chinese, they are becoming more influential on the world stage, not least because of their commitment to EVs. What sort of role do you think they will play in the near future?

FF – The big difference is that the Chinese are heavily into EVs and new technology and are able to switch and adapt quickly, whereas Americans, European and Japanese, like Toyota for example, are having trouble getting out of ICE (internal combustion) cars. China has already made this big jump into new tech and will help them gain a significant footing.
Remember that they started from basically nothing, so they can change fast.
The same thing happened with phones, like with Huawei. You did not know that name 10 years ago, and now it’s the biggest. I’ve been going to China for over 10 years and I have seen how quickly they can adapt and change.

PL – Speaking of design, how do you see design changing as powertrains switch to electric?

FF – Obviously with new EV powertrains we will see a totally new take on car design. I can understand, however, that people will still want a car looking like a traditional car. But in cities in the near future, we must think about personal transportation, which will require people to think in a different way. We don’t have to do the same shapes. You can make car bodies more efficient and practical. Indeed, you can make a car that can change its shape in the city, a car that adapts its shape to its needs or its environment. Cars will also be partially autonomous. You will be able to drive it on weekends but have it ferry you to work autonomously on weekdays.

PL – Now, I’d like to ask you what you are up to now in Japan.

FF – For the past few years in Tokyo, I’ve been working as an independent car designer and design strategy adviser. I mostly now work on strategy and advanced design to define the positioning of a design or a brand. They include all the things that happen before you start to draw a design. My job is to tell a brand which is the best way to go forward for them. I firstly identify the value of the brand and then try to put it into perspective and then create guidelines before starting to develop it with a team of designers and strategists, who are located all over the world. Presently I am working with carmakers and other design companies but unfortunately, I cannot tell you what projects I’m working on now. (Smiles)

PL – Can you give us an idea of exactly what your work entails?

FF – I’m currently working with a German company to develop a new business on sustainable transportation. It’s related to trucks and buses with electric and hydrogen powertrains. They have the technology so they are doing retro-fitting on existing vehicles. And they have even started selling them now to public companies, with some new transport for cities like garbage trucks. I’m working to help them define their new brand and identity. You must first set up a vision and then develop the products based on that vision, followed by design direction and identity.

PL – Many thanks today. Finally, what advice do you have for young designers wanting to get into car design?

FF – I think designers need to move around in order to grow and adapt. Above all, don’t be afraid to work outside of your comfort zone. And always keep an open mind. Don’t be afraid of things you don’t understand. Put simply, a designer should be someone who enjoys the art of designing, is critical and complimentary of a peer’s work, puts things into perspective, changes, and adapts.

PL – Grazie Mille.

The post Best car designs according to the styling legend Fabio Filippini first appeared on Yanko Design.

Here’s a recent factoid that sits rent-free in my head. In the UK, there are more CEOs named Peter than there are women CEOs. Sounds absurd, doesn’t it? What’s disturbingly hilarious is that this isn’t even a gender comparison, it’s an entire gender versus an aggregate of guys called Peter. Sadly enough, that strange disparity doesn’t exist within the executive domain or within entrepreneurship alone, but also is rampant within the creative industry. However, here’s what’s even more surprising about the creative industry… women make up over 60% of students studying creative arts and design at the university level, but beyond college, the world of product and industrial design is anywhere between 78 and 95% male.

We shared these details in an Instagram post roughly a year back, with responses that shocked and wowed us. The viral post raised awareness on the experiences of women in industrial design, and also the amount of appreciation, recognition, and exposure they truly deserve but do not always receive. In an ode to amazing female designers and the mindblowing work they do, together with our guest post author Kristi Bartlett, we’ve curated a collection of 14 women industrial designers and their innovative product designs. Scroll on to meet them and learn from their answers to 2 questions that give us their outlook on the design world. From tech to furniture to architecture, there’s no design industry left untouched by women and their creative enigma! It’s a women’s world, and it’s time we celebrate it!

Fumi Shibata

Japanese designer Fumie Shibata (follow her on Instagram to get a glimpse of her work life!) is the founder of the Design Studio S. Her experience spans a range, right from electronics, medical equipment, housewares, to even doing the creative direction for a capsule hotel. Her past clients include the legendary minimal Japanese international brands like Muji and Zojirushi. Her portfolio showcases the awards she has won – the iF Gold Award, and the Design for Asia Top, Culture, and Gold Awards among others. She works as the Professor of Musashino Art University and is a part of the Judging Committee Chair of the 2018-2019 Good Design Awards. She has also authored the book ‘Forms within Forms.’ Her latest work, the Bonbori collection is hypnotic lighting that uses a minimal dot pattern to create an interesting gradient in this lamp. The design also won the Elle Deco International Design Awards for 2021.

What is your design philosophy and how is it reflected in your work?
I would like to create a variety of options without being bound by existing values. For example, I believe that the 9h (capsule hotel) I designed has created a new style of accommodation.

Is there a social issue you hope to design can help solve?
As a person involved in manufacturing, I am always thinking about what I can do to address environmental issues.

Qin Li

Qin Li is the Vice President of Design at fuseproject, and has over 20 years of experience and knowledge of the industry – which is why she guides the entire design process from ideation to production. She is also the Chair Emeritus of the Board of IDSA (Industrial Designers Society of America) and has served as a juror in multiple design competitions. Her Instagram is a collage of her work and personal life with interesting architectural shots making up the mix. Showcased here is one Ori Living, one of her ‘TIME Magazine 100 Best Inventions of 2020’ winning designs. The Ori Cloud Bed was designed to be integrated into smaller living spaces to make the most out of the space we have for working from home.

What is your design philosophy and how is it reflected in your work?

More than ever, I am feeling the increasing responsibility as a designer – reimagining the post-pandemic human experience, and being active stewards of the environment. I’ll always have a passion for uncovering new opportunities in the design process. A concerted effort in unpacking challenges allows us to deep dive into understanding user needs – on a physical, emotional, and cultural level – to deliver a streamlined, elegant, and human-centered solution. It is also a natural segue into pushing for true accessibility and universal design. A paradigm shift is needed to carve a path for this profession that prioritizes fundamental human needs over profit and consumerism.

Is there a social issue that you hope design can help solve?

We’ve seen California skies turn dark orange for days on end, entire glaciers disappear, and unprecedented drought and flooding all over the globe. The need for a serious and collective response to global warming is immediate and critical. As designers, we understand the depths of this systemic issue in our industry. Only a clear and deliberate charter spearheaded by the design community will change the attitudes, behaviors, and necessary legislature to address the climate crisis. Designers need to lead the charge in imploring clients to choose sustainable solutions and helping them understand this as both an opportunity and a necessity for the future health of our earth.

Ti Chang

Ti Chang is a feminist industrial designer and entrepreneur who is the co-founder and VP of Design at Crave, a female pleasure company. With international design awards in her portfolio, she has led her company to have partnerships with Nordstrom, MoMA Design Store, Standard Hotel, Goop, and Saint Laurent. Ti describes herself as a feminist industrial designer and an unlikely activist and is passionate about her cause of getting women an equal consideration in the field of design. Follow her on Instagram to understand more about design activism. We have here the “Ouchless” hairbrush collection, a prolific product for nearly a decade designed during Ti’s time at Goody. The invention addresses the core of design philosophy – using simple changes to solve an everyday problem, which explains why the design is such a hit.

What is your design philosophy and how is it reflected in your work? 

Designs must have a reason to exist, and to me, design is at its finest when it is in service to humanity. Design is my activism — it is my opportunity to serve those who are underrepresented and underserved. Women have largely been ignored and pandered to in the design of products. I am most interested in improving experiences that are universal because in this divisive time, there’s also so much that unites us. I have worked on consumer products such as hairbrushes and currently, I’m working on pleasure – we could all use more joy and permission to embrace the pleasure our bodies are capable of.

Is there a social issue that you hope design can help solve? 

Design can profoundly change people’s lives – and I’m particularly interested in how it can empower women on a daily basis. We just haven’t earnestly tried in the past to serve women in industrial design because often we assumed the experiences of men mapped to the entire humanity. We are only beginning to scratch the surface of what we are capable of achieving for empowerment of women. As I see more businesses embrace diversity and the emergence of women-led companies, I am hopeful that the lens of design will continue to evolve and be a force for a more equitable world.

Arielle Assouline-Lichten

Arielle Assouline-Lichten is the founder of Slash Objects, a sustainability-minded design firm based in Brooklyn, NY. Arielle is passionate about design as a way to transform how humans experience the world. Her work aims to reframe our understanding of the resources we have through tactile stories that create a sense of intrigue into our material world. If you think you have seen her before, she’s the runner-up on Ellen’s Next Great Designer. Follow her on Instagram for some fun behind-the-scenes of her daily life. One of her latest pieces, the Adri Chair, is all about clean lines and is a renewed interpretation of a modernist experiment. Marble and recycled rubber were used to create this exquisite piece of furniture!

What is your design philosophy and how is it reflected in your work?

I am a minimalist with some maximalist tendencies – but I ultimately aim to highlight the beauty of materials. I’m interested in what we can do with the least amount possible, how we can pair things down to uncover new connections.

Is there a social issue you hope to design can help solve?

I think that representation is important in the creation of design – our canon of design pieces has historically been overrepresented by one type of creator. I’d like to see new authors create timeless pieces – that is something I am aiming for.

Veronika Scott

Industrial designer Veronika Scott is a social change entrepreneur and the founder of the Empowerment Plan, a Detroit-based non-profit breaking the cycle of homelessness through empowerment. What started out as her senior project is now a full program which provides jobs to people who need them. The workers make EMPWR coats, durable coats that can transform into sleeping bags or be worn as an over-the-shoulder bag, which are distributed to people experiencing homelessness. Her work embodies the principle ‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.’ Veronika’s organization gives the ones in need a lifeline, a chance to make the world better and that’s what can change their life. Follow her on Instagram to see the impact of her work.

What is your design philosophy and how is it reflected in your work?

My design philosophy is centered around constant evolution to meet the needs as they change over time and that really goes hand in hand with listening. Truly listening, not just for the answer you want to hear but letting people drive the growth of the work. We are constantly getting feedback on the coats we make as well as the job opportunities we create. We aim to make people feel heard in the process. No issue or challenge is stagnant, things change, and we need to keep up.

Is there a social issue that you hope design can help solve?

I wish some of the incredible design minds that I know are out there could solve the childcare issue. We have such a challenge with this as a country and in this last year, we have truly felt the impact of poor childcare, on the whole family and in particular women. I think that designers could take on this complex social issue and come up with some beautiful solutions.

Matali Crasset

Matali Crasset’s experience shows the trends of Industrial Design, and you can see her personal style on her Instagram. Graduated at Les Ateliers Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle, Matali Crasset is an industrial designer of formation. She collaborates with eclectic universes, with work ranging from handicraft to electronic music, from the scenography to the furniture, from graphic design to interior architecture. The work here showcases the renovated Michèle Monroy’s apartment in Paris. Matali showered it with colorful hues of orange, yellow, pink, blue, and green – this ecstatic rainbow-themed space is designed to instantly lift up spirits.

What is your design philosophy and how is it reflected in your work?

I see this profession more and more, through the projects I lead, such as that of a midwife. It is less and less a question of shaping matter – aesthetics – but rather of bringing out, federating, organizing, around common intentions and values, links and networks of skills, connivance as well as sociality.

Is there a social issue that you hope design can help solve?

A designer is not a problem solver. I defend design as an artistic, anthropological, and social practice ever since graduating from the ENSCI-Les Ateliers. I strive for its dedication to creativity, people, and everyday life: how can design contribute to our community and help us navigate the contemporary world? This is the simple yet engaging premise, from which I think and set anything in motion.

Jasmine Burton

Meet Jasmine Burton – a powerhouse designer who has spoken at 130+ global stages – including a TedxAtlanta, Women Deliver Power Stage Speaker – and has also been featured on 50+ media platforms including CNN Money, Inc., WIRED, Fast Company, and WSBTV. She is the founder of Wish for WASH, a startup intended to innovate the field of sanitation. Post that, she started the Hybrid Hype, a woman-owned global consulting firm. Jasmine aims to use design thinking and business skills to improve access to health and sanitation for all. And she reinforces that ideology on her Instagram with the hashtag #everybodypoops aimed to normalize discussing sanitation. The design showcased here is the SafiChoo toilet – an inexpensive toilet frame that can be easily carried to any destination. The toilet also comes with a bucket system that allows for a safe and clean method of disposal.

What is your design philosophy and how is it reflected in your work? 

“Design is inherently optimistic and that is its power” – William McDonough.
This quote rings true for me as I seek to use my product design skillsets and design thinking mindsets as generative, inclusive, and asset-based tools to help drive sustainable development particularly related to work rooted in health equity, gender parity, racial justice, and social inclusion. I firmly believe that design – especially human-centered design – has the power to change the world if used and proliferated intentionally. Across my ventures and vocations, we seek to design for dignity and ownership by designing ‘with’ not ‘for’ in the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), menstruation, and global health sectors.

Is there a social issue that you hope design can help solve? 

I identify as a hybrid professional who is passionate about using my design, public health, and business prowess to drive innovation in sanitation and gender equity through Wish for WASH and Period Futures. Over four billion people lack access to safely managed sanitation. Many communities share unimproved pit latrines or holes in the ground, which can be overflowing, poorly maintained, and/or far from home. The lack of toilets in schools and public places also makes it incredibly challenging for menstruating people to safely manage their periods. We need more inclusive, representative, and innovative product development and design research in this sector that touches all people’s lives because #everybodypoops and #menstruationmatters.

Morna Gamblin

Morna Gamblin has 12 years of experience covering a design right from its research and concept development phase to its manufacturing. Taking this extensive experience, Morna now teaches eager students about the intricacies of Industrial Design through her Instagram and her Youtube channel. As she explains, “I started putting my learning out into the world because I see a lack of design research strategy being taught in ID schools. One of the most difficult aspects of being an industrial designer is that you could potentially design anything that is manufactured….and ANYTHING is a broad topic! ” One of the products designed by Morna is the Muse – a brainwave sensing headband that uses biofeedback sensors to provide a deep meditative experience.

What is your design philosophy and how is it reflected in your work?

My approach is oriented to be: Functional so that the design works, Friendly so that it’s inclusive and understandable, Attentive so that the needs of the end-user are addressed, Appropriate so that the solution is perfectly suited to the problem, and Beautiful so that it resonates emotionally with the end-user. I’ve worked on many projects that shape technology (new and old) into beautiful, functional, understandable, and manufacturable products. These tenets guide my approach, especially while juggling multiple needs from the client, their business, the end-user, and manufacturing.

Is there a social issue that you hope design can help solve?

Gender equality and inclusion in the workplace is an important issue for me. Recently, The Globe & Mail (Canadian newspaper) reported “men still hold the bulk of decision-making positions, and they continue to dramatically outnumber, outrank and outearn their female colleagues.” It’s a wicked problem: complex and nuanced. Design is well suited to address it because, unlike other disciplines which are problem-focused, design is solution-focused. As designers, we facilitate a process to imagine new futures. Last spring, I co-organized an event with Lindsay Malatesta for women (and non-binary) designers because we need to connect, share stories, and support each other.

Susan McKinney

Susan McKinney is a ceramic artist and award-winning industrial + CMF designer; she was a design manager at New Deal Design prior to starting her own creative studio, SKINNY. Her design contributions over the past 12 years are notable, with honors from IDEA, Spark, FastCo Innovation by Design, and the National Design Award from her 7 years at New Deal Design, a renowned design agency in SF. Susan began exploring clay’s materiality in 2008, connecting her passion for inventive design with natural materials – as seen on the behind-the-scene images on her Instagram. Her use of clay pushes the material to go past its usual form as shown in her clay weaving called the Infinity Collection.

What is your design philosophy and how is it reflected in your work?

I’m constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible, embracing radical ideas and processes. My work seeks to connect people to their own sense of wonder. By using materials in unexpected ways, like weaving clay, I create objects that go beyond our everyday experience, to bring moments of curiosity and magic to our daily lives.

Is there a social issue that you hope design can help solve?

As designers, we have a role to play in advocating for a positive and equitable human experience, at every level, while equally advocating for our planet.

Alejandra Castelao

Alejandra Castelao is a senior industrial designer at Fjord, San Francisco. Alejandra works best at the intersection of the digital and physical realm and has over 10 years of experience working with multiple Fortune 500 companies. She also creates stunning human as well as insect forms sketched in VR, which you can see on her Instagram!

The product featured here is The Band – an original wearable design for Virgin Voyages’brand new cruise ships. The design is a solution that works across multiple environments – from lounging in a bikini, adventurous days out to a classy evening in cocktail dresses.

What is your design philosophy and how is it reflected in your work? 

Not quite a philosophy per se but I believe we as designers are innate problem solvers. And our skillset sometimes involuntarily makes us jump into solutions right away, especially when we’re young and eager to make an impact. Now that I’ve been in the business of design for a while, I find myself assigning more focus, time, and importance to the definition of the problem itself. Defining the “why” something needs to be designed before figuring out the “what” it should look like is 90% of the battle if we are to ship products and experiences that will stand the test of time and won’t just satisfy fleeting needs.

Is there a social issue that you hope design can help solve? 

I’ve been really interested in the healthcare space and how design can gain a seat at the table to help improve not just patient experiences but general wellness outcomes. Healthcare as a whole is an intricate and complicated challenge that is ripe for innovation in terms of how care is being delivered – even minor changes can have a direct impact on millions of lives. The current environment has finally opened the door for re-evaluation of incentives and outdated processes and institutions are a bit more open to change. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for the industry as we move toward more human-centered care models.

Kickie Chudikova

Kickie Chudikova’s approach to design is full of colour. Her work spans across a wide range – from products, objects, furniture to lighting. Her Instagram is full of colour palettes that attract your attention using a mix of raw materials, different textures, and patterns. Kickie’s eye for detail shines with her bold, aesthetically pleasing designs which are designed to last – each product is made to be kept, valued, and appreciated. Featured here is the Spiral of Life, a public installation that draws inspiration from the waves of the Hudson River and the sculptures of Isamu Noguchi. It offers a space to sit, relax, contemplate, and take a break from the hectic city routine.

What is your design philosophy and how is it reflected in your work?

I believe in well-designed products. That means products have to function, look beautiful, trigger an emotion all while using environmentally friendly materials, innovative production techniques and live within a circular system. This is the way to sustainability since products like these are the ones we keep and pass on to the next generations. I am striving to create new icons, designing products that spark joy. Living with less but better. Color is a big passion of mine and I really like to use it in my work.

Is there a social issue that you hope design can help solve?

One of the issues I deeply care about is waste management and its global impact and effects on human health and the health of our planet.
I am convinced design could be used as one of the tools to help with the trash and material recycling crisis we are facing. Therefore I carefully select materials I use in my designs and focus on the lifecycle of the product. Whether it means longevity, recycling, or up-cycling.
I am witnessing this pressing issue daily, since living in New York where only 17% of garbage gets recycled. The United States accounts for only about 4 percent of the world’s population yet generates 12 percent of the planet’s garbage. These numbers are mortifying, as Americans create 3 times more trash than India or China.
We need a systematic change, change in peoples thinking, approach and behavior. Sustainable design, repurposing, reusing, repairing rather than throwing away. Small steps can go a long way!

Carol Gay

Brazilian designer Carol Gay was originally trained in architecture, but later transitioned to furniture design. She has been nominated for multiple awards, including the XXI TOP Design Award Brazil created by the magazine Arc Design ranking among the three finalists in the lighting category. Her Instagram shows her love of experimenting with materials – be it mixing rocks with glass, or fusing metal to create a geometric base that holds up her furniture design. The molded pipes almost look like paper clips and add a quirky touch to the classic and elegant furniture designs.

What is your design philosophy and how is it reflected in your work?

In 1999, I attended the ‘Construction of Objects’ workshop, given by the designers Fernando and Humberto Campana. I consider this experience as the genesis of my current work.
Throughout the workshop, I was able to reflect upon many questions besides aesthetics, acquiring a keener eye for the world of product design, within a sustainable view, and finally reaching a personal expression.

Is there a social issue that you hope design can help solve?

A hands-on experience, performing constant artisanal skills, and the permanent search for new materials have become essential features of my design. Design is an important tool for many solutions and one of them is social. Design can transform poor communities and thus empower people by developing and sophisticating their skills. Valuing manual knowledge and awakening new paths. Working with artisans values ancestral knowledge and allows continuity through generations.

Elodie Delassus

Elodie Delassus describes her design approach as a people-centric Industrial, Strategic, and Experience designer. As she puts it,” I believe in uncovering opportunities to make lives better, solving challenges. I don’t get stopped by the tools and methodologies I know to rethink topics and challenges. Most of the time, many tools end up blooming along with a project.” With multiple iF Product Design Awards under her belt, Elodie loves working with multi-disciplinary teams to create a great design. You can check out her work process on her Instagram page, which is filled with interesting product ideation and sketches! The design here is LeVentilo, a soft and approachable fan that uses a metal perforated sheet to show the blades while removing the fear of hurting your fingers!

What is your design philosophy and how is it reflected in your work?

I always try to use reasoning to guide design choices, challenging my decisions with “what if” scenarios to understand the impact of each element. I ask myself if one part of the design were changed, would that improve the use, experience, manufacturability, affordability, or reparability? It is important to me to understand each and every design detail and decision that I made for my design. Design is about conscious choices, not a coincidence.

Is there a social issue that you hope design can help solve?

Accessibility for all is a topic that I keep front of mind in every new project I work on. Designing for the most extreme cases often also benefits the broader audience. The “curb-cut effect” is an example of this; curb-cuts are required to make sidewalks accessible for wheelchair users, but also benefit users of bicycles, strollers, and more. Sustainability is sharing the podium as another issue I am passionate about – it is such a critical need for designers to consider at the earliest stages of the creative process!

Monika Mulder

The post Female Industrial Designers you must follow to see the impact they are making with their designs! first appeared on Yanko Design.

The pandemic gave Sergio Spinel, an interior architect and furniture designer, a very unique opportunity to relook his craft as something that’s more than what most people perceive it as. Decor serves a very fixed set of purposes, combining form and function, but with COVID-19, Spinel realized his decor could promote safety too. Meet the POD, the coat-hanger reinvented.

Calling the POD a coat-hanger seems a little reductionist, now that I think of it. The device gives you a place to hang your coats, hats, place your shoes, store/charge your phone, keep your keys, and even provide a dedicated hook for your face-mask. Designed to be the last piece of furniture you interact with on your way out, and the first when you return from the outdoors, the POD stores your belongings, while also sanitizing them with PCO and UVC technology. The vertical wood-veneer pillar comes with a sliding door that opens when you approach it (thanks to a motion sensor at its base), revealing the organizing space within. Hooks give you a place to hang your coat, hats, and even your masks, while a tray at waist-level provides the perfect place to keep your wallet/purse, keys, and even wirelessly charge your smartphone.

The POD uses a variety of technologies to upgrade the furniture experience into something that explores the word ‘functional’ more literally. The sliding door ensures you never really have to touch the POD, and a partnership with California-based IRTRONIX gives POD state-of-the-art sanitizing tech. Once the door of the POD closes, a combination of photocatalytic air filtration along with UV-C rays helps kill microorganisms that may be lingering on the surface of your clothes and EDC, while even eliminating odor-molecules too, making your coat, hat, shoes, and masks fresh again, while ensuring your wallet, keys, and purse are germ-free, and your phone is sanitized and charged. A typical POD cycle will run 2 hours unless you interrupt the cycle.

Available in 3 sizes, the POD approaches furniture with a very different design brief. Its wooden pillar-esque form feels visually commanding, while also complementing the space, and the POD even works as an ambient floor-lamp when it isn’t actively disinfecting your belongings. However, this novel approach and avant-garde tech comes at a price. The POD Mini retails for $810 a piece, while Magnus, the largest variant, can cost as much as $1595. Some may say it’s perhaps too expensive for the average home, but I can totally see the POD finding its place in hotel rooms and the like!

Designer: Sergio Spinel

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Airbnb has single-handedly changed how the world travels – it has not only made travel accessible but taken it up to a different dimension altogether with its one-of-a-kind homestays. Airbnb filled this gap that benefits the traveler and the host but also provides multiple tiers between hotels and motels. Like many, I love to travel and sometimes on dull days I will check for the most unique Airbnb stays, you can actually book igloos, treehouses, sheep trailers, caves, castles, and even a POTATO – yup! To add to that bucket list is the Airship002 – a futuristic tiny house in the Scottish highlands overlooking the pristine Sound of Mull.

The superhost of Airship002 describes it as “comfortable, quirky, and cool. It does not pretend to be a five-star hotel. The reviews tell the story” and they have over 200 of them! The secluded pod designed by Roderick James almost looks like a glass submarine straight out of Spy Kids but with the aesthetics of a cool adult. The insulated cylindrical structure is made with aluminum panels riveted together at hard angles and porthole windows with wraparound dragonfly glass at both ends that truly brings the outside in.

Airship002’s interiors are mostly wood and aluminum with modern-rustic decor. With the large windows and steely exterior, one might assume it is cold but, natural fabrics and soft accent lighting actually make it cozy and inviting. Especially the wood-burning stove adds a touch of homely warmth – literally. My favorite part of this pod will still be the windows that not only let you soak in the gorgeous view but also fills it up with that natural light glow. You can just curl up by the fireplace with a good book (how many of us get the time to read anymore?) or a steamy bowl of mac-n-cheese with your favorite music in the back!

Another surreal feature of this Airbnb design is the pair of windows over the four-poster queen bed in the main sleeping quarters that let you stargaze all night. And the morning coffee (after all night of stargazing!) is even more comforting on the private waterfront deck. I would recommend this stay for a digital detox given how much we all need it right now, there are several opportunities to connect with nature and savor a moment with your soul. Go for a sunset hike in a field of blooming bluebells or enjoy bird-watching along the lake, and clear night skies filled with stars. The best part – you have this property all to yourself!

Designer: Roderick James

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Simon Bradford is sitting in the conference room waiting for us. He’s just demoed Electrolux‘s Intuit kitchen range, a cutting-edge range of kitchen appliances that are more than just instruments, they are enablers. I’m talking ovens with closed-circuit cameras in them and induction hobs that can tell the chimney when to switch on or off. Bradford’s spent years developing the products around this technology, creating kitchen tools that can turn amateurs into experts, and can help experts cook things they couldn’t before. After the demo, Simon even took us through the design process he’s instated at Electrolux, putting the consumer experience at the absolute forefront. We enter the conference room and are greeted by a warm welcome, after which we speak to Simon about a lot of things, ranging from his view on design in the past and the present, his thoughts on Silicon Valley’s motto of moving fast and breaking things, and we even asked him about the new Mac Pro 2019 (how could we not!) Simon explained to us how he approached designing his range, what the next big thing was for Electrolux after introducing Artificial Intelligence and intuition to cooking, and the distinction between designing using the the glorious past as a reference, and the exciting future as a direction.

Yanko Design: Hey Simon! Loved the presentation and especially the Intuit Range. For the people reading this interview, we literally made the most perfect pancakes on the SensePro induction cooker, and the cooker literally told us when it was time to pour the batter. The pancakes were absolutely perfect! So now that our stomachs are full, let’s head into this interview! Hi Simon, tell us a little about you and your role in Electrolux today.

Simon Bradford: Hey! Lovely having you here! I’ve been with the Electrolux group for almost 10 years. Started my journey with Philips, then moved onto Sony, then Nokia, and finally Electrolux here in Stockholm, Sweden. I’ve honestly liked working with corporate design organizations, because you really work within the full spectrum. You go from consumer insights to visiting peoples’ homes, all the way to the product rolling off the production line to launches like the this one! So, I started here as Head of design for Floor Care & Small Appliances. Five years ago I started on the major appliance journey as head designer there.

The kitchen space is a very emotional category to be involved in and it is continuously changing. It’s all about great tasting food! People buy appliances because they like cooking great tasting meals for family and friends, loved ones, on the weekend and during the week. With the arrival of connectivity, it’s an extremely interesting product category to be involved in because it is going to completely change it; change people’s behaviors, change the way we interact with our products, and change the way we consume food. This is what is driving me in my role and has done for the past 10 years.

YD: How did the range come about? What was the starting point?

SB:The clue is in the word “Intuit”. It is short for Intuitive, meaning something which is totally seamless and easy to understand. In our daily lives we are surrounded by negative stereotypes or user pain points. By putting the consumer at the heart of everything we do, is when we can start turning those negatives into meaningful experiences. Our definition of an outstanding experiences can be summarized by the following three words: Effortless, Enriching and Empowering. By Effortless we mean making things easy, taking away all friction points. Enriching means making the experience memorable, by creating moment of magic and tapping into all the human senses, touch, smell, hearing… And finally Empowering, meaning we adapt to the consumer, offering them solutions to expand their cooking repertoire!

YD: If we’re talking about enriching, I’d just love to go back to one of my favorite design details of the entire range. That swiveling refrigerator tray! As an industrial designer turned writer, that absolutely blew my mind. The intricate design, the way it comes slightly forwards so the tray can rotate a full 360°, it was just a treat to look at! How do you approach such a design problem? I’m assuming you went through multiple iterations.

SB: Hahah! I like the question, and I think I tried to convey that in my presentation earlier. We’re honestly learning a lot from Silicon Valley, we’re learning a lot from companies in the digital world who work agile. It’s very much this test, learn, iterate type of process, but you do it very quickly, until you’re really sure that the proposition you’re bringing into the market is the right one. The SpinView (rotating tray) was a great example of how we iterated time and time again, loads of cardboard mockups, but we’ve definitely been on this journey of being agile. Normally, a few years ago, the old fashioned way would be to build it, hard-tool it, bring it to market, and consumers tell you “Hey, it’s rubbish”. Our focus now on Consumer Experience helps us really pick up on feedback and gain insights on what they think, and we’ve spent a considerable amount of effort and money on developing tools that help us very quickly capture consumer feedback from reviews all over the internet, helping us be as agile as our American counterparts.

As far as the SpinView is concerned, the insight came from observing consumer behaviors rather than just feedback analysis. Do you know that 30% of the food in the fridge gets thrown out. Why? Purely due to lack of visibility. We see a lot of fresh fruit, vegetables, basically rotting away at the back purely due to lack of visibility. Among other features, SpinView was designed to uplift the refrigeration experience, while also ensuring that food doesn’t go to waste!

YD: You often mention the importance of human-centric design and the consumer experience. What does that mean to you?

SB: To me it means following a creative process that is centered around the user. Only when we have truly understood the needs of our consumer, can we then design experiences that will improve their daily lives.

YD: Okay, here’s a difficult question though. How much do you think Design Thinking has the potential to influence the workings of a corporate like Electrolux? At the end of the day a company is answerable to a board, its investors, and a wide variety of people, so is it easy to highlight the importance of design over reports and statistics?

SB: Design is a negotiation. It’s a collaborative process between all entities. Not every company is like Apple! There have been multiple instances where a design has been too expensive, or hasn’t effectively fulfilled a consumer need, which I think is an absolute failure. And in a corporate environment, there’s obviously a commercial reality that everyone has to face. A product needs to fulfill all expectations, and not necessarily those of just the consumer, right?

YD: That commercial reality is perhaps what is missing from design institutions, don’t you think? Is there anything you had to unlearn while entering the industry?

SB: What I really had to unlearn is that design isn’t all about cosmetics. When I graduated many years ago, the norm was to plaster the wall with as many sketches as possible, it was a bit of a beauty contest. Design is so much more than that. It’s about experience, which I’ve talked about. It’s about appeal, but it’s also about usability, low effort, robustness, longevity, and fulfilling a consumer need. The appeal is almost a by-product. If you get the insight right, and you’re solving a pain-point, the appeal will come naturally.

YD: Although this reality you mentioned is somewhat in contrast with what the Electrolux Design Lab has been about, right? Design Lab was always about creating outrageously futuristic concepts with focus on technologies that don’t exist and are purely conceptual.

SB: You’re right. With Design Lab, I’d claim that almost all the designs were based on insight, but it depends on how far-fetched the execution is. We often use the terms horizons. Is it a horizon 2,5,10 product? Naturally when you’re working for a company or you’re employed, you keep your horizon relatively close otherwise you disconnect yourself from the business. But with students, we want them to push the boundaries. They aren’t constrained yet, but it takes a couple of years of working in the industry for the horizon to emerge closer and closer, as designers start looking at commercial realities. It’s about finding the right balance while you’re in the industry, but with Design Lab it’s all about pushing boundaries.

(An Electrolux Design Lab winning concept for a refrigerator made for flat-sharing students with individual compartments).

YD: If we’re talking about pushing boundaries, let’s just go back to Silicon Valley for a second and look at their entire “move fast and break things” mantra. You see a company like Apple truly innovating, but when they do something like removing the headphone jack from their phones, how do you view their version of innovation versus Electrolux’s human-centric innovation? Do you think this fast-paced, often consumer-unfriendly innovation is healthy?

SB: I’ve worked for Nokia for 6 years, so I know all about Apple coming and disrupting businesses! Hahaha! I think they can afford it, because they’re the leaders and they’ve got a huge fan-base so probably they’ll be pardoned! But then, you see how their iPad now has a USB-C charger, which is the same charger for my laptop, and quite a few other devices, and there’s a synergy that Apple’s opting for. Nokia had their own issues too. There were too many chargers and too many different platforms, and it became a mess. Honestly though, I think it’s interesting that they removed the headset jack, because it kick-started a new industry in the truly wireless headphones. In the defense of human-centric design, maybe that innovation was forced upon the users.

YD: Your thoughts on the latest Mac Pro?

SB: I’ve just seen the images, haven’t seen one in the stores yet… but you’ll remember me talking about commercial realities. We’ll know how much of a success it is soon enough! Even though Apple doesn’t disclose the number of products they’ve sold anymore, I think we’ll get a rough idea whether that design worked or not!

YD: Back to Electrolux! What’s the stuff you’re working on now? I understand Electrolux also owns multiple sub-brands, AEG being one of the more notable ones. How does designing for Electrolux differ from designing for AEG? Is there a distinct difference in the way you approach designing for the two brands within the same company?

SB: The Intuit Range has to be the most recent thing we’ve worked on. You may have seen the AEG version of it last year, and we’ve been working to develop the range under both brands. Both brands have their own directions, heritages, provenances, and even users… so we approach designing products for both brands differently. For example AEG’s Germany-heavy audience focuses more on power-features, while Electrolux’s users definitely look for ease-of-use. It’s a fun challenge designing for both scenarios!

YD: There’s a lot of talk about sustainability. How does Electrolux view sustainability as a goal with its range of products?

SB: Oh, sustainability is definitely a strong theme. It isn’t just about designing a product, it’s also about helping people live sustainable lives, cook more sustainably, etc. The industry hasn’t changed much in the food-world for roughly 50-60 years, and the concept of ovens has pretty much been the same. Heat up a cavity and cook meats or pies inside it. So with connectivity, we’re also trying to build a sustainable world. Imagine a fridge that could know what’s inside it, and suggest recipes based on the items you own and beam those recipes to your oven. Electrolux is always actively working to build products that help people live better, healthier lives… not just for them, but also for the grander scheme of things.

YD: Wait, so did this push come from consumer insights? Or was it a design decision?

SB: Oh, it was a CEO decision! It came right from the top! It’s actually one of the company’s values, so it was natural that it would be a driver for our company. It affects everything we do. The way we design our products, how we run our factories, deal with suppliers, deliver goods, material choices, everything… and those are honestly the easier bits. The challenging thing is how to alter consumer behavior. A great example is our dishwasher, which does away with all features and has the most simple UI of a dishwasher, based entirely on one metric. Time. All the user does is select the time in which their dishes are washed, and the appliance does the rest. The longer time you select, the more water-efficient the machine is, and that’s much more eco-friendly… the UI was designed to promote that and educate the user that the longer cycles are more sustainable for the planet, while the shorter ones focus on cleaning efficiently and fast, often using more water in the process. Changing materials to more eco-friendly alternatives is really just the easier bit. We’re also trying to change user behaviors, which is the bigger play, and what’s better for the planet.

YD: This was an incredibly insightful conversation Simon! Thanks for taking the time out to speak with us, and for designing some truly innovative products! Any final remarks?

SB: It is a very fascinating time to be working at Electrolux! For many reasons: We are celebrating our 100 year anniversary, we are living in a ever changing digital world where the consumer experiences matter! And finally Electrolux is leveraging its Scandinavian heritage, its knowhow in Taste, Care, Wellbeing and its leadership in sustainability to continue bringing outstanding user experiences to our consumers for another 100 years!

[You can check out YD’s coverage on Electrolux and AEG’s products by vising this tag]

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