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Spotify device designer has brains, Braun, and balls

By Rain Noe - February 15, 2011

in Object Culture | Braun

An interaction design student from Sweden's Umea Institute of Design did this home music player for Spotify, seen above. Reportedly done in collaboration with that company, it allows you to play music by sticking a magnetic RFID tag linked to one of your playlists onto the volume knob; a reader embedded in the player identifies the tag and the appropriate music comes out of the speaker.

That's all fine and good. What we take exception to is the assertion that this device "looks like a digital lovechild of Jonathan Ive and the brilliant Swedes at Ikea."

Oh, really? Is that what it looks like?

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i2h

12 years ago

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i think ro needs to chill. as already mentioned...it was worth pointing out because too many times, dieter rams' brilliance is mistaken for jonathan ives' supposed groundbreaking 'designs'...
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Raph

12 years ago

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I know the guy from Umea, I studied there and know him just a bit, although I think he's somewhat pretentious, you can't flat out say what he's done is a copy. Ok well.... it's pretty dern close (let's say it's an hommage). He did this while in school surrounded with educated product design teachers and students, so when he 'came up' with the design, you can be sure nobody was unaware of the inspiration there, so no harm done here I guess.

Furthermore, Jordi Parra is an interaction designer (granted with ID background), so I dont think the point of this radio is form development and reinvent the radio package. Rather, it's the interaction that matters. Whether it's anything crazy/inventive is another issue... Personally, I don't think it deserves tech crunch's coverage beyond the blog's obvious attempt to keep the 'spotify comes to the US' buzz alive. Cause you know, it's a successful startup and Sean Parker's hedge fund is backing it.
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Ricardo Sa Freire

12 years ago

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Dear hipstomp,

The guy is a student, an interaction Design student.
What you see there is a Prototype. He is showing how the interaction between the user and the system works.

Most interaction designers I had the chance to meet don't even think about getting their hands dirty making physical prototypes of their concepts. This guy not only did it beautifully but he also put down on his report the direct influences of Dieter Hams' work.

What I see there is a tribute to a genius work mixed with XXI technology.

Journalism is about informing blogging should be too... leave bulling for the narrow minders!
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shane

12 years ago

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To a tech blog, anything white and clean is an Apple copy...
Nice modernisation of a classic form. I wish the holes were smaller though in new one.
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jojo

12 years ago

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I think they were just trying to say Techcrunch didn't get the lineage of the device right. Not surprising considering it's a tech blog. Doesn't read to me like an assertion that the design is a copy.
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Ro

12 years ago

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I can respect your eye for design history, but please: Chill out. The forms in the first photo are utterly generic - some circles, a soft rectangle... When your design goal is to whittle down, and not build up, you're likely to create something "familiar."

It's a shame that anyone who wants to use the silhouette of a soft rectangle is accused of design plagiarism, nowadays.
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