I realize that the design of these Ministry of Sound headphones was the result of countless ID man-hours: Sketching, 3D work, mock-ups, testing, not to mention the back-and-forth with the engineers and suppliers. But wouldn't it be cool if designs simply sprung to life in our heads the way it's shown materializing in the video below?
That video, by the way, was the result of man-hours put in by motion designer & director Paul Clements, who's got some great stuff up on his website.
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It is also true that most of the designs are genuine and mostly unique (of course inspired by others or whatever). In that sense Ministry of Sound have created a design language continuity to get their message across and that is only possible when professionals are taking care of such a lineup.
I work as designer for one of those big names stated above....and I know how difficult is to get the message across and convince engineers to tool several parts which are unique...the costs are prohibitive to get such a return in investment....
Yeah thats what Im interested in though. It seems more than most other product categories, almost ALL headphones come from Basen. Im not saying everything is coming from open tooling there, but if you look at their OEM designs, a percentage of headphones, even from well known companies like WESC, Pioneer and Sony either share components, or entire designs completely. WESC's Bagpipe DJ headphone was just Basen's generic DJ phones with custom colors and branding slapped on it.
I just think the whole concept of open tooling is fascinating. When the goods are a product of branding off the shelf components, its not unlike t-shirt companies silkscreening onto American Apparel shirts, and re-tagging them. But this type of manufacture and rebranding of OEM goods has gone on for a long time correct?
China is full of enormous factories that are responsible for building large percentages of well known products. Perhaps the best known is Foxconn. They not only produce a large percentage of Apple's product line, but also manufacture for HP, Dell, and many more. The factories in China operate as contract manufacturers- they build what their customers have designed.
You're referring to low cost products that use open tooling. Most manufacturers offer their own components for customers to use. This is where a lot of the me-too headphones come from, but any headphone manufacturer will have open tooling.
All I'm saying is that the fact that many headphones come out of one factory does not necessarily indicate that they are all made using off the shelf components. Many of the products have been meticulously designed by companies that care about providing great products. It just so happens that many choose Basen to manufacture their designs.
See any similarities to the WESC Bongo?