Gladiolus
a small minimalistic Bluetooth speaker that fits into every interior.
A design that transcends time and space.
The design is based on principles from minimalism, Wabi Sabi and Roman architecture. These 3 work together while bringing their own unique features.
Minimalism makes the design clean and easy to blend into different kinds of interiors.
The wabi-sabi philosophy brings natural elements to make the design come to life while also giving it a timeless look.
At last, the roman architectural elements give gladiolus an elegant and classic look, enhancing the underlying beauty of the design.
The lack of buttons and switches gives the design its minimal look. Only the on/off switch is visible and embraces the philosophy of wabi-sabi. It embraces imperfection and becomes a proud feature enhancing the overall aesthetics.
The main shape draws inspiration from a blossoming flower. Flowers are the perfect blend between the 3 styles. The simple yet intricate shapes combined with their natural beauty draws the eye while still not overpowering a room.
Design Process
Defining the product
Music has been a big part of my life. I cannot play any instruments so speakers were the only thing I had to listen to music. For this project, I wanted to make a small portable Bluetooth speaker. Speakers can be shaped in very interesting ways but are often boring to fit into every interior. My goal is to design a visually interesting speaker that can still fit into almost every interior.
fusion style
To challenge myself I wanted to combine different styles into a totally new one. This new style still had to have a bit of my personality but also had to push me creatively to get me out of my comfort zone.
Personally, I prefer the minimalistic design approach, so choosing minimalism as the first style was a great way to incorporate a bit of myself into this design. I wanted to incorporate Wabi Sabi as well. Wabi Sabi is a Japanese philosophy that focuses on finding beauty within the imperfections of life and accepting peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay. This style draws inspiration from nature in a subtle almost minimalistic way.
I wanted to combine this with something entirely different without being something that I don't like. Therefore the second style is Roman Architecture. Roman Architecture is everything but minimalistic. It doesn't leave any surface blank.
Combining these two opposites was an interesting challenge.
Defining characteristics
After my three styles were locked I started working out what this style would look like. The depth and layers of Roman architecture combined with minimalistic design and the natural elements from Wabi Sabi made me think of flowers. Flowers were therefore a big part of my inspiration.
Idea generation
After making these decisions I started sketching to get some ideas out. After a while, I changed to 3D modelling in Blender to create more refined concepts. The basic shape from where I started stayed the same and resembles a blossoming flower. I made the design more and more detailed until it started to look too much like a flower. At that point, I already had some designs I liked so decided to take some steps back and work further with a previous iteration.
DETAILS
On/off button
To achieve a minimalistic design I wanted to keep the number of buttons to an absolute minimum: an on/off button and one for Bluetooth pairing.
Until this point, I didn't think about the positioning of the buttons. In light of Wabi Sabi's principle of embracing imperfections and enhancing them, I made my on/off button relatively large, put it right in the middle and gave it a bright gold colour to embrace my "mistake".
Further, I chose to replace the button with a sliding switch. This way sliding up would turn the speaker on, enhancing the upwards motion of the blossoming flower. To point out that it is a switch I placed a concentric pattern on it. This is reminiscent of the texture in zen gardens, which links back to nature and Japan just like the Wabi Sabi.
I also tried to do the same with the button for Bluetooth pairing but it didn't work out, so I placed it on the bottom to keep the clean look.
Exposed Speaker
The top of the core was also not that difficult to figure out. I first tried a Zen garden texture but eventually chose to put an open speaker design on top of the core. The open speaker adds something raw and pure to the design which links back to the Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi. By placing the speaker in this position the music seems to originate from within the core of the speaker and blossoms out into the room. Exactly like I want it to.
Roman accents
After the general shape was figured out I wanted to incorporate the texture of the Roman columns. I applied this on the inside to keep the design subtle.
Lights
At this point, I really started to like this design but I still had the feeling that something was missing. It looked like a blossoming flower but still felt like a static object. Moving parts were in this situation not an option so for this reason, I opted to play with light. When the speaker is turned on the speaker comes to life through light and would pulsate on the rhythm of the sound. Besides making the design come to life, light also is very important for plants and flowers to survive which adds a deeper meaning to the design. Here I tried some variations as well but ended up putting the lights between the leaves. This way the darkest parts became the lightest parts. A second nice feature of these lights is that they can also serve as Bluetooth indicators.
Materials
I tried a lot of different materials but relatively quickly discovered that this design works best with lighter colours. The lighter colours elevate the small details more while the darker colour hides most of the details. I mostly tried natural materials like wood and stone but also experimented with some steel. Eventually, I went back to less is more and decided to go for a cracked grey stone. The neutral colour keeps it minimalistic and it hints towards Roman architecture and nature from Wabi Sabi.
CAD
Once the full concept was realized I modelled the speaker in CAD (Siemens NX) to make it ready to design for production.