Amass - Industrial design: Radio concept

Work and play or just work...

It has been a while since I last posted as the workload for Industrial Design suddenly piled up and so did preparation for the 3 exhibitions I have coming up in the near future.

First exhibition is Fringe Furniture which is apart of the "Melbourne Fringe Festival" which has been running for 30years. Its a blast to be apart of such an event in Melbourne 2012.

The other two are one after the other up in Sydney with "Workshopped". And I can't wait for the road trip up with my table 'threaded out'.

The Brief

"Through either a radio or coffee machine, this project sets the “classic” industrial design challenge of re-packaging an existing product, in an established sector. Understanding constraints such as styling, human interface, materials, manufacturing, technical package and cultural context are critical elements to a successful design.
The interesting factor in this project is that the current market for both coffee machines and radios tends towards conservative, traditional forms. This project asks the designer to explore the past and present of design in order to create the future."

"Design a radio or pod coffee machine responding recent changes in the product category as described above. The device may take any form you choose but must fit within the overall dimensions of 300mm by 300mm by 300mm. The design must accommodate the relevant technical package and user controls."

Here's my response to the brief with progress shots and design process.

The original concept before refinement

The interface is based on rings that circulate around the tubular structure


The technical package is enclosed in a sleeve

Suitable for large displays

Suitable for text and symbol display

How photons are created between the layers

I wanted this radio concept to employ the OLEDS (Organic Light Emitting Diodes). There are two main types of OLEDS. The Passive matrix is a grid layout of layers of cathode and anode strips that create open sections which are the pixels. The amount of current applied to the strips is proportional to the intensity of the light. I thought the PMOLEDS would suit the radio in communicating on the left and right of the volume and radio station rings. For example : as you rotate the ring away from you the volume goes up and the blue ring fills up like a bottle of water.

The Transistor matrix is layers of Anode, Cathode, Organic layers but the catch is the Anode layer is over a "Transistor array". This formation creates a pixel grid much more suited for large displays.

I was happy with the final concept. The whole interface is based on rings that circulate the radio body. There is a gyroscope type of mechanism that refers the rings to the ground. That way the rings will always be level according to where the ground is. And to serve a 360degrees audience the front display is replicated on the back aswell.