Hasta La Ideas

Michael DiTullo is the Chief Design Officer at Sound United, Polk’s parent company.

There is an old story about Picasso that goes something like this: A young woman recognizes old Pablo on the street and exclaims “OMG! You’re Picasso! Would you draw me?” He replies “but of course!” and quickly scribbles something on a piece of scrap paper. Offering the sketch to her he simply states “That will be $25,000 madam.” Shocked, she responds “What?! It only took you 30 seconds!” To which Picasso explains, “On the contrary, it took my entire life to make that drawing.”

That simple notion—to encompass everything we have learned in over 40 years of making great audio in a single product—is the concept behind the Hampden. Polk got its start in Baltimore by a small group engineering majors from Johns Hopkins who loved music so much they started making speakers by hand. Beautiful, wooden cabinet speakers. The brand spent decades perfecting the art of making great home audio for those who shared their love for music.

This project began like most projects in our studio: as a simple user insight. While people love music just as much as they did in 1972, they now enjoy it very differently. We wanted to create something that brought our sound to the desktop with USB and Bluetooth connectivity and built off of our recently launched Polk Heritage Collection of speakers and headphones. We stated with an open competition amongst our designers. Our studio is set up similar to an auto studio where multiple designers participate in the research, ideation and design phases of a program. As the concepts are winnowed down through the design phase, the creator of the winning design becomes the lead designer of the project. I prefer running things like this because it becomes a very democratic way to assign projects. Designers being naturally a touch competitive typically ensures a relatively even distribution of projects.

Some of the initial concept directions

Cameron Nielsen’s selected thumbnail sketch

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If you’re one of those people who love a good ironic product (like this office-supply inspired bag we had our eyes on last April), there’s a good chance you’d be able to find a place for a shark fin lamp in your home or office.

The Shark Lamp in its natural environment

We covered the design back when it was still a prototype looking for a manufacturer. Now you can snag your own lamp online from furniture and lighting manufacturer Moree.

Sanding the perfect fin

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We’re no stranger to innovative clothes hanger designs. This time, we’ve been turned on to a design that consists a lot more than what meets the eye. UK-based homeware brand Gazel has introduced a sleek hanger that won’t damage your clothes with some avant garde functionality.

The Gazel clotheshanger will look good in your closet and it actually looks like one of those products that holds true on the term “user-friendly.” Read on to find out how this design might have the power to make you want to hang up your clothes.

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This one’s for the Japanophiles and notebook nerds: Hobonichi Techo planners are finally coming to an English speaker near you. (Pronounce it “tetch-oh” or look a fool.) These addictive planners are one part sketchbook, two parts calendar, three parts diary, and 100% obsessed over in Japan. They’ve got the good bits you can’t leave out of a decent planner: multiple attractive calendar views for your yearly/monthly/daily/hourly calibration, gridded paper with plenty of room for notes or drawings, and a binding tough enough to take a year of questionable treatment. They also offer niceties like moon phases, space to write weekly goals, printed month tabs for easy navigation, customizable daily timeline, and vital information like international sizing and global tea types.

To get pumped, I recommend this interview with the Hobonichi Techo designer Shigesato Itoi, in Ping Magazine. They cover the un/importance of note taking, writing all over Nietzsche novels, picking up girls by sketching floor plans, intentionally unhelpful design, and channeling Obama’s spirit at funerals. Clearly your life plans are in good hands.

In addition to the rote duties of day-planning and life-organizing, people use them for all manner of art and expression. This absurdly adorable video covers some of the creative capacities you didn’t know you needed in a calendar:

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Josh Woolliscroft, artist and corporate prankster, created a whimsical series of custom writing utensils from boring HB BIC pencils. After shaving down, cutting into and sharpening his purchases, he re-packaged them and contacted BIC France to share the specimens of “non-conformity.”

In response, the company asked that he send the pencils in for investigation and paid for his postage. They’ve also thanked him profusely for bringing this to their attention. Check out screenshots of Woolliscroft’s correspondence with BIC below.

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