Corensis® Medical Kiosk from Arçelik is a medical measurement terminal. It offers automated hospital registration and medical measurements. This is enabled with high precision medical sensors, advanced algorithms, and AI assistance (Artifical Intelligence).

Omuus created the concept design, CMF design (Colors, Material, Finishing), industrial design, and visual UI concept (User Interface) of the Medical Kiosk.

Medical Kiosk improves efficiency when medical staff can focus on healthcare. It provides contactless interaction, a new demand raised by COVID-19. Antimicrobial materials and sanitation of the contact surfaces were part of the concept from the beginning.

In detail

The medical measurement process is guided on a large touch-screen, where an AI assistant shows the actions. In the concept, life size real people were considered most approachable. The screen may include private information. Sidebars and handles block the view from others, and private information can be found at the bottom of the screen, blocked by the user.

Medical Kiosk is used by people of different sizes and ages, including users with physical disabilities. Users sit and stand at different stages of the medical measurement process. These requirements set a challenge for ergonomics design. Manually adjustable settings would be too complicated. Automated adjustability was considered expensive and fragile to implement. Therefore automation was considered only for a blood pressure monitor that needs to stay at heart level. Side handles and ECG handle bar on the front help to sit down and get up, as well as to rest hand while blood oxygen is measured in the finger hole on front.

Medical Kiosk includes several sensors for the medical measurement. Their positioning for different users was concepted and tested with the client. In the concept, the floor and seat were a combined weight scale, so a disabled user does not have to stand up for weight measuring if it is difficult. Measuring the length of the user requires momentary standing. Fixed seat with arched front enables medical measurements while seated, as well as the standing position. There are grooves in the seat to prevent slipping. Backrest was considered, but without it is easier to sit down.

Use in hospital also regulates materials. Medical Kiosk is not used in invasive care, yet it has to be easy to clean, and stand strong detergents. Antimicrobial materials and sanitation of the contact surfaces were part of the concept. The materials used in consumer products were considered more approachable than clinical materials. New natural and natural imitating materials were studied during the design process. Materials with a softer appearance were implemented in the seat and as accent materials.

Medical Kiosk has a long service life. The design and materials are expected to be long-lasting. Timeless geometric forms are created with extruded aluminum pillars on corners. They are created from one mold. Sheet metal is used in the maintenance door and below the screen to ensure privacy while seated. Maintenance door on the back of the Medical Kiosk can be used as an information board. Sheet metal on the floor is textured to avoid slipperiness. Side handles are also created from one mold. Parts are replaceable and economical to manufacture.

Collaboration between Arçelik and Omuus started in 2016. Together we have created products like Smart Assistant speaker Arçelik Asista, awarded Point-of-Sales device Beko Sardis, webdesign for Token Inc., as well as Research and Marketing.

Corensis® Medical Kiosk has received multiple awards:

 A’ Design Award & Competition – Bronze A’ Design Award

Medical Devices and Medical Equipment Design Category

• The World’s largest, most prestigious and influential design accolade, the highest achievement in design. 

 Doktorclub Awards 2020 –  R&D / Innovation Practice of the Year

• The Pioneer of Digital Transformation in Healthcare, and the Leading Phycisians – Only Platform in Turkey.

 MedTech Breakthrough Awards – Best IoT Healthcare Platform 2020

• Recognize the top companies, people, platforms and products in the health, fitness and medical technology industries today.

Arçelik works for a sustainable future through technology, human resources and production power. As Europe’s fourth-biggest white goods company, Arçelik operates in 146 countries with 12 brands (arcelikglobal.com).

Omuus is a strategic, material driven technology design agency based in Helsinki, London and Beijing. We are rooted in Nordic design sensibility with knowledge of global market preferences with sensitivity to business.

Inquiries: info(at)omuus.com

There are many fantastic trend agencies globally that provide color reports. So, you might ask, why do we create a new service?

We want to achieve a revolution of color reports – to go beyond the traditional mediums. Compared to traditional color reports with 2-dimensional color data, the 7SEC. CMF Futures is serving the technology industry with actionable CMF tools linked to actual material technologies.

We started the work with a mindset to learn from you, the users. We tested the accuracy of our own strategy with global surveys to industry experts. We asked amongst other topics, what was generally working for them and where they felt was space for improvement with the current services they were commissioning to. One of the hypotheses in our strategy was that traditional format of a physical book was constraining to the space and time. E-learning is growing in importance and we want to create tools that provide flexibility in where and how you learn. Digital learning is the quickest growing market in the education industry, with a whopping 900% growth since 2000 by KPMG (https://e-student.org/e-learning-statistics/).

An ongoing strategic direction for us is to continuously improve the interactivity level and improve on the inspiration of the future reports. Our volume I, Utopia e-book, is answering also to the trend of CMF industry going towards phygital– holistic physical and digital product and service design – and how we as CMF designers need to master both aspects.

If you want to be invited to be part of the co-creation journey, send us a note and you will receive the future surveys too.

In the survey we asked what the industry experts consider as a priority of all the trends. 87.5% answered: sustainability with futuristic twist. The report is based on our extensive 7SEC. Material library with over 12 000 material samples from our network of material suppliers. The global pandemic has accelerated some of the mega trends, with lasting impact in consumer behavior and we are exploring the implications to the brands and to the CMF design in the report.

When we started the research for the volume I, we had to acknowledge the sheer fact that we only see the beginning of the changes driven by the aftermath of global pandemic to the material technologies and to the CMF design. This crisis demands strategic thinking, creativity and co-creation to come up with innovative solutions that support the global consumers.

These CMF directions reflect general insight, current material technologies and best practises based on the information available now, and cannot contain all the information needed to determine the future for specific brand strategies. Yet we are sure these directions cannot simply be ignored.

As a method for the 7SEC. CMF Futures© we research wide amount of data, analyzing into technology industry specific CMF trends and translating this with global material supplier’s solutions. Our trend reports will aim to deliver interactive CMF samples for multisensorial experience and easy implementation to your product portfolio. The CMF directions are created with material technology specific colors through the science of Applied Color Psychology to match technology industry.

Utopia e-book: sustainability with future twist

In a world of climate change, technology break throughs, demographic changes and shifts on many fronts, the concept of utopias has become a life line of hope for us today because it gives us something to strive towards. It motivates us to rethink the structures and methods of the last century and find entirely new, better solutions.

We can see today the return of Utopianism through the concept of sustainability that becomes the utopian horizon itself. The global drivers for theme Utopia are the growing consumer attitudes towards sustainability and safety due to the pandemic. Along with the consumer behavior, corporate attitudes and regulations around the world are driving sustainable strategies. The CMF trend report is created celebrating this mindset, with actionable tools for sustainable materials for technology industry. You can access the report here.

Content of the e-book:

– Mega, macro and micro level trends

– Supportive data

– Industry benchmarking

– Mood boards

– Inspirational videos

– Digital 3D CMF

– Material directions

– CMF color directions fit to technology industry

– Language variants: English & Chinese

If you need Chinese language variant, please contact our China team at WeChat omuus_China

Utopia CMF Collection.

The CMF report is supported by limited edition CMF Collection, to be released August 2020. Since this is a novelty service for which we are collaborating with the suppliers means that the physical CMF Collection is under development. You can preorder the collection here.

The 1^stvolume of Utopia focus on the sustainable bio-materials, composites and transparent materials, sourced globally from our 7SEC. Material Library supplier base.

Content of the CMF Collection:

– Curated collection of physical CMF samples: unique custom-made reference CMF samples and supplier material samples

– CMF coding with material supplier information

– Material technology information

– Language variants: English & Chinese

If you need Chinese language variant, please contact our China team at WeChat omuus_China

A final thank you: with gratitude to the industry experts for answering the surveys and helping to form the volume 1 directions. Thank you Business Finland for supporting our digital mission, and enabling long dream to come true. Cheers to Omuus global team for yet again talented team work. We are in awe of all the brands and suppliers that has been highlighted in this report of the strategic work towards sustainable future. Let’s work together for better tomorrow.

Stay safe!

Annina Verkkomäki

Chief Creative Director

7SEC. FUTURES ©

7sec-cmf.com

OMUUS is a CMF design agency (Colors, Materials and Finishes). The volume 1 of our article covered impacts to the China market and how the situation has affected the product and service design.  

In the volume 2 we have a look into how has the epidemic changed the emotional and psychological behavioural aspects of people’s lives, and how the color design can have profound comforting, soothing and relieving impact to consumers that are in the search for new rituals for their everyday lives. We also share about the impacts to the material technologies, what are the winning recipes, what should companies invest to their future material portfolio, and what materials are perfect for product development. 

How does the situation affect to colors in design?

Grace Boicel, Omuus creative Director & Applied Colour Psychology specialist

 ‘Colours have a profound psychological influence on human emotions and behaviour.

Most of us can remember looking at a rainbow appearing on the sky filling us with hope and wonder. We can also remember a day where everything isgrey and the sun seems to be far away.

In these difficult times many are looking for comfort and safety. Not all of us can enjoy looking at the sky and even be outdoors as much as we want anymore.

Did you know that colors can make us more active or calm us down?

Colors help us feel uplifted or calm down anxiety by positively influencing our mental wellbeing. Whether it is in the way of surrounding ourselves, visualising or dress in colors. Colors can be stimulating or smoothing depending on the intensity and saturation of the color. The stronger stimuli the stronger effect on us.

In Omuus we use colour psychology as the foundation of our work. Color is an incredibly powerful phenomenon used to influence us every day of our lives. It can influence our mood, behaviour and feelings; making us move quickly, feel relaxed, take action, eat more and spend more.

Simple changes in colors, can lead to big changes in sales, conversion rates and much more. If you are working with colors within your business it is important to get this right. We are happy to help if you would like to know more.’

How materials are changing and developing due current situation?

Anne Taitto, Omuus Materials Director

Certain type of materials have had increase in the demand due to the virus impact to product expectations from consumer or businesses. For example materials used in medical equipment, protective clothing and gear, as well as materials that are being used for leisure activities and hobbies. In addition to these, the production of plastic sheets for the protective shield has massive increase in demand.

Many companies have transformed their production to answer to the demand, and now produce above mentioned along with their original products. From OMUUS supplier network some of the fabric suppliers and sewing factories have started the protective clothing production and chemical producers have started to produce hand disinfectant under the emergency conditions. It is great to see companies being able to be flexible to meet the demand, and also new collaborations emerging, working together to find solutions.

The demand for easy to clean, anti-bacterial and anti-viral material has risen. Beside health care, the request for these health promoting materials is for high traffic locations to protect passersby and shoppers in public transportation and market places. Due to the virus impact globally, I believe this direction in materials will have long term impact and become an expected hygiene factor across industries.

Another material and supply chain impact with the lock down has been that production has moved from the world back to country of origin. For consumer electronics this will increase the need for suppliers to be able to produce high quality specialty finishes to be able to meet the standards.

We want to thank Grace & Anne for sharing their thoughts about current situation and how it has affected to their world.

Interested of future market specific trends? Contact us and let’s discuss more of your needs!

Annina Verkkomäki +358 40 7680127

annina.verkkomaki@omuus.com

The Macro Wanxiang series of products designed by OMUUS has been launched! We are honored to be able to collaborate with Macro and being part of combining Nordic Design Style with Chinese Lifestyle. The product portfolio is based on the natural elements of Water, Fire, Earth and Air that are closely tied to everyday life and the product features. The Wanxiang series is created to meet the younger generation requirements ofhigh performance and high quality of life.

The article from Macro of the Wanxiang series launch.

Writer Macro

Macro launches new products ~

1^st April, Macro Wanxiang series of Gas Water Heater [淼] was launched on the platform of JD.

17^thApril, Macro Wanxiang series of Stove [焱], Hood [飍] were launched.

Redefine new generation of good appliances.

Combination of Nordic Design Style with Chinese Lifestyle

In order to create products that better meet the needs of young users, Macro has designed in cooperation with the Nordic top industrial design team to integrate the Nordic modern style with Chinese bathing and cooking lifestyle. It took more than one year to design and develop the Wanxiang series of products.

“We started designing on both ID and CMF. After studying the Chinese lifestyle, we have a common understanding that how to implement our ideas into products,” the product design team introduced.

Macro breaks the mindset, applies natural elements of Water, Fire, Earth and Air which are closely related to people’s life to the design, to create the products design concepts.

Gas Water Heater [淼]: Innovative Technology, Comfortable Experience

The overall pure appearance of Wanxiang series of gas water heater [淼] are inspired by water. The combination of flowing water shape and visibly light materials creates this shining right-angle curved-screen water heater, which realizes the naked-eye 3D effect on the appearance, can be well integrated into the modern home environment, and has the practicality of easy cleaning.

During bathing time, users care most about the water temperature. Only when the water temperature with almost zero-fluctuation, it can give users a more comfortable bathing experience.

In 2008, Macro pioneered the “zero cold water” technology in the industry, and the Wanxiang series of gas water heater is equipped with an upgraded version of the “zero cold water heat cruise system” which ensures heat preservation. People can enjoy hot water anytime at home.

People are also very concerned about the water flow when using water heaters. Wanxiang gas water heater uses a “flying-flow supercharged engine” to maximize the water flow rate to 100% of the common water flow rate. Even for users who live on higher floors or using water at peak hours, they can take a comfortable bath.

Stove [焱]: Even Temperature for Delicious Stir-Fried Dishes

When people are cooking, if the stove cannot control the fire very well, the bottom of the pot will be unevenly heated, which means that the dishes won’t be tasty and the pot are easily got burnt.

Wanxiang series of stove is inspired by fire and flame. The overall design is about dynamic and simple modern style. The unique “cornice design” of the outer ring fire cover enables to gather the central fire better to meet the users need of stir-frying with even temperature.

Through technical upgrades, Wanxiang series of stove has up to 5.2kW of thermal load and 65% of thermal efficiency, which are higher than the national first-level energy efficiency standard. It saves energy and gas.

Hood [飍]: Take Away Cooking Fumes, Keep Delicious Smells

Long-term inhalation of cooking fumes during cooking is not good for health. In order to quickly and effectively remove cooking fumes, the Wanxiang series of hood uses Macro’s unique patent “double arc smoke-guiding structure” in design, and cooking fumes automatically flow upward along the curved arc surface.

After optimizing the structure, the exhaust volume of the hood can reach up to 22m³/min in maximum. The cooking fumes can be exhausted right away. Even cooking in an open kitchen, the kitchen will be still very clean after cooking.

When people are focusing on cooking, they just need to wave their hands to turn on/off the hood or adjust the exhaust level.

Anti-fouling And Easy to Clean

The problem of cleaning hoods and stoves has always been one of concerns of the industry and users.

Wanxiang series of hoods and stoves are coated with advanced nanotechnology in the industry. The glass panel is hydrophobic and has excellent anti-fouling capability. Oil stains can be easily wiped off, making daily use more convenient.

Wanxiang series is another original home appliance launched by Macro for the living habits of Chinese people. It is specially created for the quality life of young people and meets the dual requirements of new generation families for high cost performance and high quality of life.

Please note below Keywords in this article:

万象：It’s the series name of the gas water heater, stove and hood. In Chinese, it’s a Taoist terminology, meaning everything or sight in and out of the universe. Hereafter translated as “Wanxiang”, which is the pinyin of the word.

淼：The gas water heater’s name. This Chinese character 淼consists of 3 same Chinese characters, which is 水. 水means water. 淼means huge amount of water. Hereafter kept as 淼. The pronunciation is “miao” in pinyin.

焱：The stove’s name. This Chinese character 焱consists of 3 same Chinese characters, which is 火. 火means fire.  焱means flame of fire. Hereafter kept as 焱. The pronunciation is “yan” in pinyin.

飍：The hood’s name. This Chinese character 飍consists of 3 same traditional Chinese characters, which is 風. 風means wind. 飍means the look of runaway frightenedly. Hereafter kept as 飍. The pronunciation is “xiu” in pinyin.

Congratulations to our partner HONOR for the launch of flagship series HONOR 30 and HONOR 30PRO! Wonderful to see the success of the long-term development process and the brand experience of the event.

The HONOR 30 and HONOR 30 PRO launch was held 15th of April 2020 in China. Popular Chinese actor Li Xian revealed the product in his Weibo account showcasing the smartphone.​

HONOR camera smartphone 30 PRO+ was ranked second best in DxOMark’s tests according to GSMARENA. ​​

All the tech specs for HONOR 30 PRO.​​

HONOR 30 & HONOR 30 PRO LAUNCH EVENT

HONOR 30 & HONOR 30 PRO LAUNCH EVENT

HONOR 30 LAUNCH MATERIAL

HONOR 30 LAUNCH MATERIAL

HONOR 30 AD FOR BAZAAR

HONOR 30 AD FOR ELLE, ELLE MEN & MARIE CLAIRE

HONOR 30 AD FOR VOGUE, GRAZIA & YOHO

We at OMUUS believe design has an important role to solve challenges globally. The impact of Covid-19 has changed our daily lives for good, only time will tell what are the most successful scenarios. The virus has accelerated the trends that we have predicted – digitalization – this is the largest digital education program the world has ever seen. The acceleration of the need to design with empathy – the importance of supporting your community and find innovation that is truly helping in saving lives. We believe in the creative community to work together, to keep inspiring each other and creating new ways of working with the possibilities that these changes brings. WHO and The United Nations are asking design community to join to find solutions.

People are seeking for safety and hyper hygienic material solutions to promote public health to stop the pandemic from spreading. We gathered thoughts from our specialists for two articles, their insights to our new ways of working and the market changes.  In this first part we will talk about the impacts in China market and how this situation has affected to product and service design.

How has the COVID-19 changed China market?

Jenny Cui,OMUUS China CEO:

‘The impact for China & Chinese market is huge:

China as the first place of virus outbreak, we were shocked suddenly. The most terrible period was right during the Chinese New Year, which made people’s mood over sad compared with previous peaceful & happy new year atmosphere. The original hopeful New Year felt hopeless, which lead to an overall emotional impact of all local people.

From daily life perspective, everything online like teaching, working and shopping are blooming, while offline economy has had a terrible hit. Especially for restaurants, who had to start finding ways to delivery rather than eat-in options. This caused a huge request on the food packages. Also, many super markets had to start selling semi-finished food rather than raw materials, which creates need for packaging. The material needs behind the increased consumption are huge for both for anti-bacterial & eco friendly materials.

As long as the virus keeps spreading worldwide many local companies, especially the manufacture & foreign trade companies businesses dropped terribly. Many of them quickly changed their business from original into Medical supply manufacturing & trading to ensure their business. A large number of new mask production lines has been built up shortly, and the “Melt-blown fabric” and “Tyvek” materials for mask and medical protective clothes are urgently needed. At the same time the price of these materials is getting higher and higher.

The intent to buy clothes & accessories for regular consumer has changed into materials, that can provide protection, like TPU jacket & PVC gloves for their daily commuting protecting, as well as the resins for goggles.Since people are having more time to stay at home, the pajamas & slippers needs are raising increasingly, as well as the in-house fitness equipment, such as yoga mats. From daily necessities perspective, since people keep washing hands, liquid soap & hand creams needs growth significantly as well as masks & room fragrances.’

How the situation affects to product or service design?

Jarkko Saunamäki, OMUUS Principal Designer:

‘Coronavirus is a dark horse expected to affect on megatrends. Health and wellness were already a strong trend, and in the crisis aftermath it will likely intensify further. A demand for related products and services is expected to continue the growth.

Physical products may approach the requirements of clinical products in materials, cleanability and use cases. Remains to see, if this will affect on the trend of sharing economy, due the fact that social caring has increased. Cleanability and antimicrobialwill become a marketing argument, such as ergonomics, usability and sustainability were.

The usage of digital services boomed in the crisis, and revealed the bottlenecks in usability and reliability. New virus specific applications and services are already launched.

The economy moves in cycles. Research and Development often predicts the upcoming change and budgets are cut down in the economic downturn. The product development may take years, and investing only in the economic upswing may lead to wrong timing with the market entry. In a crisis some freeze, others see opportunities for new products and services. ‘

We want to thank Jenny & Jarkko for sharing their thoughts about current situation and how it has affected to their work. In the second article we will cover the topics of CMF in this changed situation, and material technologies answered by our specialists. Stay safe & tuned!

To get to know how Team OMUUS work during the quarantine, we will share some home office inspiration to our Instagram stories in upcoming days, go check it out!

The innovation voucher is a grant for a new product or service development for Finnish Companies.

It is intended for SMEs (Small and medium-sized enterprises) who have a new product or service idea with international potential, and for which the company needs external expertise. It is worth 5000€ +VAT, incl. 1000€ +VAT self-financing contribution. The innovation voucher is issued by Business Finland.

OMUUS is one of the service providers for innovation voucher. We love to be part of bringing new innovations to market. We can help startups to assess their potential for the innovation voucher and after Business Finland approval we will be there to help you to get the best tools to achieve your company goals. Here is an example of a project we did a few years back for HappyOrNot.

Testimonial HappyOrNot

Easy and measurable customer feedback with Smileys. That’s what the Finnish company HappyOrNot provides for their customers. HappyOrNot services more than 4,000 clients in 117 countries, with over 25 000 physical Smiley Terminals existing around the globe at the airports, offices, shops, etcetera. You have most likely pressed one of the four Smiley faces. Very simple and quick!

The first Smiley Terminals were installed already in 2010, and they have been well-received by B2B customers ─and their end customers.

Our first co-operation with HappyOrNot was through Business Finland innovation voucher. The assignment covered a market study, portfolio strategy creation and a design vision: CMF (Colors, Material, Finishing), industrial design and user experience vision. This co-operation lead into great long-term partnership. It has been outstanding to follow HappyOrNot’s journey to global markets.

David Zautasvili, Product Development Manager of HappyOrNottestimonial on the Innovation voucher project:

“When making investment decisions it is often the case that due to the costs involved preferred, already used suppliers/partners are used. Known, safe vs. unknown and risky. The innovation voucher lowered this barrier and helped us try something new with smaller investment risk. It is a great tool to feed fresh ideas and views to projects at a lower cost.

When hearing about the innovation voucher the first reaction was it might be a lot of work and complicated process to benefit from it. There is some paperwork that was a bit scary at first, but it was actually quite easy to handle. Good online tool to submit all documents required, and it was eventually a lot less effort than expected.

With Omuus the experience was really great and smooth – right from the start. Already when selecting the design company, the time and effort invested by Omuus was outstanding. We got an excellent design brief, to be honest it was a lot more than expected at that phase. Omuus team took the effort, listened to us, took our ideas and developed further, taking a risk of proposing a different approach to our idea. The proposal was impressive and convincing, so we took the proposed path for our design. It is great to work with designers who think for you, taking a step back and coming up with something unexpected. Omuus did just that!

Since this first design project we have been working with Omuus on all our projects with great results. With the help of Tekes and the innovaatioseteli the first step was easier to take and we got an excellent, long term partner.”

Interested?

Just give us a call and let’s discuss on your idea.

Annina Verkkomäki +358 40 7680127

We offer:

7SEC.^(TM)Startup is a complete service package to get started.

The package will give you a position where you can start implementing your plan.

• An assessment of the potential of innovation voucher.
  Support to fill the innovation voucher application and end report.
  The decision of granting the innovation voucher is made exclusively by Business Finland.
• The package can be tailored to your needs.It is a deep dive into a specific area of design;
  or a lighter and more comprehensive study of multiple design areas.
• A joint design brief and targets to best achieve your goals, and reviews to follow the progress.
• The cost of 5000€ +VAT can be covered by an innovation voucher, or purchased separately.

This time Per Boicel from Omuus, contacted Zina Kranck, Design Director for the Graphic Design Team at LEGO, for an interview. They talked about Zina’s journey to LEGO, what inspires her and has she changed as designer while working for LEGO. Also covering the aspect of how it differs to design products for kids from adults. Enjoy!

Can you tell us about your journey to LEGO?

Zina:

30 years ago, I worked for the Swedish sports fashion designer Eliza. I assisted her in designing for Hang Ten, Progress (Reima), Gulins, etc. This was the time when we formulated a color-combinationthat was more colorful than others, brighter neon than anything else. Eliza taught me that coloris the first aspect of a product that your brain recognizes as you enter a shop. After color, the shape, the quality and eventually the price come into consideration. This instruction stuck with me.

In March 1995 I began my job as a product manager at Nokia for mobilephones in Salo, Finland. I was about to use all previous knowledge on color, design, marketing and even on plastics and paints that I had never heard of since the day I was born. This turned out to be the time, when color really changed my world – and you could argue perhaps even with the rest of the world (in terms of mobile phones).

I didn’t invent the coloredcover as a concept, but I did take part in making it relevant and fashionable. I volunteered to make a range that we could commercialize.I went to Premiere Vision, the textile fair in Paris, as I had done during my fashion career. I listened to the trend gurus, gathered the colors of the next season and delivered them back to the team. We updated first range, then we put color on a few actual phones, then on many. It became coloring millions and millions of phones.

Color really was what drew the needed attention to the product in the very competitive landscape. The fashion-industry also saw us. I made countless interviews and appearances on TV-shows and conferences.I could even see that the trend gurus now featured our phones in their predictions. Of course, Nokia was known to make the best and easiest phones on the market at the time, but color is still what the human brain recognizes first. On a global scale, where millions of people have a mobile phone in their hands, business became easier.

In the meantime, Nokia Design and CMG (Colors, Materials, Graphics) as part of it was founded while Nokia grew to be the third most valuable brand in the world, we had the run of our lives!

2016, I took the job as Design Director for the Graphic Design Team at Lego in Billund, Denmark. Two years later the textile team was added to my group, expanding us to Graphic and Material Design (GMD). We are about 40 people, mostly designers, from 14 different countries. This dream-job puts me, and us, right in the center of design at LEGO. Me and my four teams work cross-functional, meaning across all projects from Duplo and Disney Princesses to Star Wars and LEGO Mindstorms. We say we are ‘putting the smile on the face’, as we actually design all graphics printed on LEGO-bricks and stickers.

The power of play and inspiration

When designing for children what is the major difference compared to designing for grown-ups?

Zina:

Designing is answering questions and finding new ways, inspiring people to see different things and give experiences. At Lego we say: ‘Designing for children is us inspiring builders for tomorrow’.

It’s inspiring small people to do remarkable things, we are not giving them solutions we are giving them tools create something big for themselves. We present them (the children) with a lot of suggestions of course, we have fantastic building instructions and hope they build the set at least once and perhaps rebuild again many more times.

What inspires you?

Zina:

At LEGO we take inspiration from the way children play, children under 12 years old are always welcome to visit us in the office and we play together at work, and thats how we get inspired.

Think of how children are playing at the playground, they don’t think ‘its dinner at 6pm’, they are so into their play and they want to play with someone. They are fully immersed in their story, 100% focused on what they do. I believe children should inspire us in many ways and they already do. Children see monsters and they see elves under stones, they see a lot of things we don’t see. We adults are horrible for telling them its ”just” imaginations when imagination is a good thing, its not only ”just Imaginations”, its the most important thing we have.

Since the children don’t pay for the products, the parents do, what impact does it have on the design and how the product is presented?

Zina:

For the design it doesn’t have that much impact in the fact that the parents are paying for it per se except in the communication and in the packaging, we definitely take it into the account that the parents or the grandparents are the shoppers. But in the end it has to revolve around what the child needs and how we want the child to grow in creativity and confidence.

Have you changed as person and designer after some time at LEGO?

Zina:

I think so, I think I have become much kinder, if you ask my team they might not agree but my family think so. I actually see things with a different lens, I begin to see much more like a child. My family would say I always had a child in me but I pretended like I did not for a long time, but now I feel like it’s ok to be childlike.

We want to Thank Zina Kranck for this interview! For our readers, stay tuned – this was just part 1 with Zina…