Familiar Design

These products are wonderful interpretations of objects which people have a long standing familiarity with.

Firstly, there’s the LCD TV by Naoto Fukasawa. By utilising the familiar shape of a CRT television he’s been able to integrate wireless equipment and good quality speakers into the body. This allows the compact, cuddly tv to be used anywhere, with only a single power cable being required.

Here’s a Leica camera. It looks like an old film camera, but it’s actually a sophisticated piece of digital equipment. The references to the older style evoke thoughts of quality and familiarity.

This is a hard drive by Lacie (designed by Sam Hecht of Industrial Facility). It reminds me of old video cassettes, and all the obvious connotations of recording and memory.

It’s a powerful method of creating familiarity with new products, and as technology gets increasingly advanced I expect to see this kind of design used more and more.