We all know minimalism is presently king in the gadget design world . Fancy shape , switches and knobs have been eschewed in favour of clean and mere designs that take a backseat to interface . So we asked Fake Steve Jobs , Bruce Sterling , Daniel Will - Harris and Yves Behar whether or not they thought there would be a counter - minimalist repercussion .
phony Steve Jobs :
Yes , there will be a backlash . Wait until you see what the peregrine sound hombre have planned . Like Nokia . God love those Finns , but they never meet a button or a switch that they could defy . They ’ll load their devices up with every possible feature and they ’ll create a package interface that nobody can understand , and for reason I do n’t understand , unearthly people all over Europe ( the artsy sort wearing too - small jackets and scarves wrapped around their necks ) will embrace this clusterfuck of useless feature and impossible operating intention as a new breakthrough .
Not us , though . We ’re going to keep driving toward even greater reductivism . My goal is to have zero buttons . Zero seeable screws . Just nothing at all on the outside . Perfectly smooth surfaces . Remember the Pet Rock craze in the ’ 70s ? That was a huge intake for me . citizenry spend a fortune corrupt those footling rocks , just because everyone else around them was doing it too . Huge lesson in that and it led directly to the founding of Apple in 1977 . My favored rock – I call him Frank , after Frank Gehry — still sits on the desk at my authority . Kind of a admonisher of what our company is all about .
Bruce Sterling
Yeah , it ’s incredible how much magnate [ the real Steve ] Jobs has , is n’t it ? Even when his company ’s on the ropes , if he say , “ It ’ll be semitransparent , blob - shaped and in lickable candy - colors , ” hoi polloi from Toledo to Taiwan just go for it . Whereas , if an iPod or iPhone ’s got no buttons , all of a sudden push button are like leprosy . you may “ backlash ” the Reality Distortion Field , but you ’re better off not assay .
Projects Watch Designer Daniel Will - Harris
Minimalist designs like the iPhone are quite beautiful , but also , in a way , inconspicuous . They become frames to the cognitive content . But fashions in intent are always evolving , and what ’s nerveless now may look go steady , or at least “ not young ” in a few years .
I see a time when devices have a standard core of electronics design to be lay into a wide intention of lawsuit tailored to your specific need and desires . These event would be pop the question by the equipment maker , and also by third - political party who are given the open specs for creating a case . Think software skin , but as ironware . You could get a custom gimmick sheath that specifically is mold to your bag , or is mould like your favored pet pygmy hamster . Maybe you want your twist to be made of waterproofed soft orange silicone polymer , or mill out of gruelling cold malachite .
Now with rapid prototyping machines [ and other fresh techniques ] , deal yield does n’t have to mean endless humdrum , it can imply sempiternal variety . for sure , there will always be those who require what Madonna is carry ( and knockoffs will be easier and chintzy than ever ) . But customization and personalization will permit you make devices more unambiguously your own .
Yves Behar , head of fuseproject design house :
Rather than going with a trend — minimalism vs. a more glossy innovation — we’re gon na get much more variety . Companies will have the chance to be unique . The hope here is that there is chance that is take by tech companies to create their own counselling , produce their own ethos recognizable , one from the other . Wired Magazine created something like this from the start , a unique look . Whether you like fluorescent colors or not , it ’s that kind of individualism or uniqueness , eclecticism . Hopefully this is something we ’ll see bechance more . last in a trend - driven surroundings with everything being matchy matchy is n’t very interesting .
Bruce SterlingDesignMinimalist
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