There comes a time when a good product category just dies, think telegraph or typewriter, fantastic inventions eclipsed by time and progress. Case in point, the Eclipse phone from Brian Ho does a great job of making everything old look new again. But despite looking like it belongs in Minority Report, it functionally remains the same old, outdated, rapidly aging home phone. Can industrial design save products from nursing homes or is this a lost cause?
Designer: Brian Ho
Phones are enormous, expensive, and fragile. That’s enough to make any industrial designer wonder why smartphones of today aren’t designed to be easy to grip? Somewhere…
With details that would absolutely entice any mechanical-design/industrial-design enthusiast, the Wingback Mechanical Pen is a hat-tip to the reliability of products from half a century ago….
There are times we come across designs that make us smack our heads and say – why didn’t I think of that?! This switch light is…
Aptly named for the kind of activity it’s made for, the Hunter 1.0 is a keypad designed explicitly for FPS (first person shooter) games. Putting everything…
It’s so simple yet effective. I love the Hands On Salad Bowl, winner of a 2010 Red Dot Award. A pair of serving sporks are integrated…
The Vialattea pendant, designed by Paolo Manganaro for Formabilio, immediately becomes the protagonist of your interior thanks to its unique character… or shall we say, many…
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Nice design, though you’ll have to be careful when you put the the phone back onto it’s station.
“Can industrial design save products from nursing homes …?”
Definitely! Target high-end consumers with luxury items (think MontBlanc pen vs. Wacom tablet). This way outdated technology becomes a feature not a lack thereof.
I agree that *good* ID can save product categories, but in my opinion this is not entirely the problem. The reason these products are disappearing is because people can’t justify paying two phone bills. There are a couple companies that can cover both, but they charge the same as if two separate companies were providing the services. I understand that land and wireless are two separate technologies, but they are growing closer together every year. Someone should innovate and provide a land line and mobile service that are tied into the same system. This would provide consumers with all the benefits of a land line (faxing, better connection) but with the flexibility of wireless for a better price, and it would drive innovation in ID. The driving force behind the disappearance of home phones is less ID and more of a SP issue.
Looks like a design B&O would do… Nice…
I don’t get it????
well, i think if this could be used with VOIP softwares, it wouldn’t be “waxing the old”
Very good blog! Do you have any helpful hints for aspiring
writers? I’m hoping to start my own site soon but
I’m a little lost on everything. Would you propose starting with a free
platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many choices
out there that I’m totally overwhelmed .. Any tips?
Thanks a lot!