Elegant Technology

Apple’s products use appropriate materials and a have refined designs. Each new iteration is either thinner, lighter, simpler, more powerful or cheaper whilst maintaining the clean approachable look. The design of Apple’s products are at once a delight to the eye and are unobtrusive allowing the function to be fully utilised.

Some other premium manufacturers seem to have adopted a radical departure from their previous understated designs in order to differentiate their products from others. In doing this they hope their products will ’stand out’. Two such companies are Bang & Olufsen and Audi.

Bang & Olufen’s products have always been expensive but this was coupled with great design. As well as simplifying function, B&O refined the look their products and used high quality materials. Whilst they still use high quality materials some of their latest designs seem odd.

Take the Serene mobile phone developed in conjunction with Samsung. The phone DOES look different and has a simplified interface BUT I think the design fails. It fails because of the number pad being circular and located where the screen would normally be. It also fails in its overall form which I think was developed ‘to make it stand out’.

Good design does not stand out but fades into the background.

Similarly Audi have changed the look of their cars. Primarily with the introduction of the single frame grille at the front. This was obviously to make more of an impact on the road and for the public to associate the sight of the grille with the Audi brand. A bit like the Nike swoosh but more extreme. Audi already has the four circle badge which was enough to identify the brand in my opinion. Audi wants the buying public to associate the brand with high performance and it sees the grille change as a way of doing it. Whilst the new design language is growing on me I still think that Audi cars have lost that ‘understated elegance’ they were long associated with.

Back to Apple. Apple has over time used materials, colour, and design sparingly to the point where its products automatically stood out and were different from the norm. The worry is now that they will change their design language, as other manufacturers copy them [iPod .v. Zune], to a point where they introduce ‘flourishes’ and strange forms just to make the product stand out.

I am pretty sure that Apple will hold it’s nerve and continue on its present course with products having a minimal design and a high quality finish.

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