Last Friday night, Metrophile checked out a preview of cell phone prototypes by students of the California College of the Arts Industrial Design Program. The senior studio class was sponsored by South Korean cell phone manufacturer, Pantech, so the beauty of the experience was that students got to see their designs produced in real physical form. On top of that, four outstanding students were selected to present their designs at Pantech's headquarters in Seoul as well.
This isn't the first class CCA has gotten sponsored, but Instructor Noah Reinhertz told us it was the first tech-oriented sponsorship they've received in recent years (Thanks, Noah!).
Backed up with advice and know-how of ID Program Chair Yves Béhar and Reinhertz, students in the senior studio class addressed the idea of emotional networking in their designs. We're not talking regular cell phone fair here though, the student designers completely overhauled the cell phone as we know it. Move over iPhone, the future-forward mobile devices we checked out put Apple's touch-screen eye-candy to shame.
For example, the Inhealth Phone designed by Kristina Lee, allows health conscious individuals keep track of their food intake, identify foods through use of NASA's eNose technology, and keep other like-minded individuals on the same page through social networking. Rachel and I were particularly drawn to the green pod-like shape of this design, which was inspired by the shape of a vegetable. It looks much easier to hold than the KRZR or that ridiculous mini flip phone... Um made by the sponsor.
Photo courtesy of Fuse Project
Lee was one of the lucky designers who visited Pantech, as well as Cecilia Nguyen. Her phone was the Locale, a design that was inspired by community mapping efforts like wikipedia. The phone features an OLED screen display suspended in a transparent plate that slides in four directions to reveal the main function buttons -- phone, mapping, input, and output.
Photo courtesy of Fuse Project
Nike+ phone designer Cubby Golden and Broadcast designer Kenneth Ng check out the final results of their coursework. (Apologies for crappy pictures...I really need to upgrade my beat up 2.0 megapixel)
