Studioclues – Industrial design blog and portfolio site

I have been having debates with my colleagues and friends about a specific product that we make and a competitor product that has come into the market.We have made Dustbusters for 25 years in the form show in the image on the right.  This design was done by Carol Gantz over 25 years ago. We look at this design today and take it for granted. It has an ergonomic handle and a “streamlined” or directional design. For the time, it was a revolutionary design. A few years ago, Karim Rashid designed the Kone Vac for Dirt Devil. Many scoffed at is primitive shape, a cone. Ergonomically, it is not good at all. It comes in a few different colors and is marketed in a IPODesque sex style where individual images of the product are flashed before  you in a sequential, brilliant matter.

That being said, it is designed to be more form than function. The main compromise would be ergonomics. I tend to argue that ergonomics are not as important as people make them to be when you use the product for a 20 seconds at a time. On hand held products such as these, ergonomics tend to drive form substantially. When you throw them out of the picture you have the freedom to explore forms such these.

I don’t mind designing products in the philosophy that Karim has developed.