Current Styling Trends, What do you think?

These are great Philippe!

Thanks Michael. Just doing my yearly trends research and thought I’d share it as I go. Just wished more people would chip in !

I’ll share one -

Non Linear Patterns

Cool, Thanks !

Alright here’s one. Fully rounded edges, with the most obvious examples being the Apple Watch and iPhone.

I’ve noticed speckling/marbling be a finish trend over the last year or so:

Ah, I’ve been curious about this one. For manufacturing, does anyone know how this is normally applied? Looks like sometimes it’s just printed on the surface, but is there also a way to do it with an additive in the raw material?

@brian_donlin

I too have been curious about this. A few options i found (some from thread here on the LAPKA piece). In mold decoration; looks good but easy to scratch off potentially. Adding higher or lower temp polymer in your plastic; may take a lot to dial it in to prevent mold flow/smearing. Flex/paid printing. Post mold painting. Think im explaining them correctly but could be wrong.

https://www.durat.com/products/material/

Brian: For plastics, it can be done just like with metallic effects. The flakes are mixed in with the resin.

It’s an old technique that was once very popular with bakelite:

https://www.google.com/patents/US3095400

“These are the patents you are looking for”

Looks like the final answer is mixing small particles of a thermoset with a thermoplastic during the molding.

Wow, thanks for all the info everyone. Looks like I could’ve answered my own question with a quick search…

That Logitech keyboard (K780) on Sketchgrad’s imageboard was actually my project here at Logitech.
The CMF designer and I worked very closely with our rubber supplier to find a way to mold rubber with flakes.
We spent weeks in their labs to fine-tune the mix and find a recipe that could actually be molded.

We really wanted to avoid to paint as we are striving for authenticity and are trying to not use just surface decoration as much as possible.

But it was a pretty slow and hard process with lots of “can’t be done” along the way but it was fun to get this into MP and to prove the doubters wrong :wink:

we call this one “Friendly Future”, it is about the trend of high tech, often ecosystem based products moving toward very simple, playful aesthetics. This board is probably 12-18 months old, you can see us riffing off of it in our latest products:
https://www.polkaudio.com/products/boombit

What’s the transistor radio with leather cover? I loved one that my parent’s had. Not that nice though!

Marc Newson, aka Mr Friendly Future :wink:

Yo…you should call the inspiration board “MD style” :wink: Looks very much like your personal aesthetic.

I find it really interesting when a designer’s sketch style is so distinct it’s obvious when translated into in a 3D product.

R

LOL, too true on that one, but on the flip side, the inspiration board the influenced these Definitive speakers was very very different. https://www.definitivetechnology.com Can’t show you that board yet though as it is influencing some future work still

That’s awesome! I haven’t had a chance yet to go that deep with one specific detail to get it perfect. I want to do that someday.

Yeah there are at least 5 Marc Newson products on that board. Love his work.

I think with more and more digitization, natural patterns will go out of style quickly, if they aren’t already.
We will see a move towards weightlessness together with sustainable energy supplies and recyclable materials. Infinity is the keyword.
Tokujin Yoshioka and James Turrell explore this space aesthetically. As for surface textures we will more and more see the uprising of composites such as WPCs and biomaterials.

Telefunken . Match . Transistor Radio . Designed by Richard Sapper

https://www.kaufmann-mercantile.com/field-notes/transistor-radio/

https://www.google.com/search?sa=G&hl=en&tbs=simg:CAES_1gEJlvuJkoXjmkka8gELEKjU2AQaAggKDAsQsIynCBpiCmAIAxIo4Aa_1Bb4F9hL8BfUG4QaxEsMFyRK3NrY2tTbWNrM2uDbxMrI2sTadMxowoUNLDHxdmvx3tCjxN8y9eRU75vJ4vDZ0QNC9j1lwl8TlAnqxYAwDHtoVzN9v5SrMIAQMCxCOrv4IGgoKCAgBEgRSmWokDAsQne3BCRpgChgKBm9yYW5nZdqliPYDCgoIL20vMGpjX3AKHgoLcGVuY2lsIGNhc2XapYj2AwsKCS9tLzA1Njc2eAokChFmYXNoaW9uIGFjY2Vzc29yedqliPYDCwoJL20vMDQ2M3NnDA&q=telefunken+match+transistor+radio&tbm=isch&ved=0ahUKEwjt3bD54OzSAhVGJCYKHaAtCNkQsw4IKg&biw=2048&bih=1008#imgrc=_