Cellphone Design: Synthesis, Submission to LG Design Contest Options

[Andrew Kim]

Hello, this is my newest design project, the LG Synthesis. You may remember me from the "Butterfly" and the "neoKlassic" phones. Anyways, please post some constructive criticisms!

By the way, this is for a LG design competition that ended last month.

[benz_id]

First of all those renderings are really stunning.

Layout is very clean and easy to understand and follow. the last page is very interesting/// but it would be nice if you provide us a scale of your phone and other stuffs for ex. compare it with human scale or show the picture when user using it. And you miss-spell "Unbelievable" . . .

BUT those are OK

the only major flaw in here
is it's too "iphone-isque" both on the appearance-wise and interface-wise it still has a apple look
the problem with LG right now is their designs lately is too rely on Mr. Steve's iphone if you look at the recently LG-Viewty and also your phone too.

Comment on concept

Concept is very innovative but yet practical

while your concept talking about the power and existance of the nature i can only see just only 2 things that really based on your concept which are
docking system(of course it's a tree shape)
and the solar-powered bluetooth(this one is really nice!!!!)

but still it looke like apple's bluetooth but just have a solar cell on it

i still wonder why you don't push the self-powered concept into your mobile and let it energize itself like the real tree does?
because you did talk about freedom in your concept but i think it's too much constraint that user have to charge their phone with that dock only (like you can use your iphone with AT&T only that's not a good idea at all)
with self-solar powered like the bluetooth, people can charge their phone anyway as they go without the constraints of add-on devices like user must carrying the charger(dock) when they're travelling all the time, socket hole that difference in each countries etc.

Comment on styling

your styling and how you present it is really nice but still, it looks like the thing that LG would do in the next 2-3 years i don't know the rule of this competition(eg. design a phone that the technology should exist in next few year....blahblahblah) but it's not something that the Jury might want to see.
I know it's hard becasue this is also my problem too

I think the bluetooth headset is not going together with the phone
that square button should be something else like circle button
and that maybe will help people link it back to your phone.

while purple does giving me a sense of elegance but somehow it not likely to be a choice of nature color IMO.

Comment on interface
interface looks elegance as your concept describe but still look too static if you look at yoour main menu interface (that one with the message menu) i think it just beacuse there are too many texts here you can group some menu together under one category.

sorry for the long post because this is so interesting project for me so it take time to admire it

[Andrew Kim]

Thanks for the detailed analysis. I'll keep those things in mind next time.

BTW, I fixed the typo for you. lol

[RPdesign]

Rendering and the presentation is very good,

But the design i think that have the IPOD syndrome. I think that is design with a very good taste but isn't new..

But this is only my opinion. Great job.. and i which that you WIN.

Regards

[Cyberdemon]

I think theres some nice stuff happening with the UI and charging, but I agree the form is just a little too plain. Also, would you really want to use a hole as a viewfinder when you have a big screen right there? A circle isn't really an ideal shape for framing a rectangular picture.

Also while I like the charging concept of hanging, - the relative scale of the unit to the base makes it look like the base is 6' tall. The presentation is well done overall, but it'd be nice to see some concepts that are a little more far-out. What do you think phones will be like in 10 years, rather than in 2 or 3? You've got some nice skills, now push them with a more alluring form factor and some crazier ideas.

[toodef1]

I'll be honest - and I know you can handle it, because I've seen great work from you previously Andrew, - but it bores me. Or perhaps, thats better said as - It doesn't excite me.

I hate to sound like "Juniper Rainbow" the enviro hippy, but I'd love to see some enviromental considerations being really addressed in the electronics sector - I think we've all reached a saturation point with mega pixels . . .touch screens . .. and glossy white/black shells.


As always your presentation impresses.

[grasshoper]

I agreed toodef1.

Your presentation skills are very well. Pure, tells everything. just one thing ı dont like. 32 Gb flash disk. It is something cheap way for selling your design. 12 megapixels , ultra sensitive touch screens ... etc. yes these are important for a product but in technological aspect not the design.

If somebody writes 64 gb instead of 32 gb which one is the best?

Also try to find another interfaces. Touch-screen has a lot of advantage. Touching a smooth surface, yeah it is fine for now. If everybody has it what will be important?

The most thing i like in your design your dock form back of surface.
........

Also while your right is under the sun, your left will be in shadow...like your design.

[jmc]

The presentation is top notch, the renders are breathtaking but some elements annoy me.

- It's hard to understand how exactly the cell-phone is hung on the recharging dock. A schema of the cellphone in its charging position in a realistic environment would have helped to unterstand better.

- The link to nature is a main aspect of your presentation but except the leaf logo, the solar Bluetooth system and the tree-shaped dock, there's not a lot of natural elements. Everything looks high-tech, the shapes are pretty right and not organic, the main color theme is a fuzzy purple which is pretty off-topic for a supposedly natural related item.

- The cohesion of shapes from the phone, the dock and the Bluetooth earplug are not very obvious. The tree-looking dock has sharp edges and a pretty masculine-looking shapes, but the Bluetooth system and the cellphone and more round-shaped with fillets and all that.

- The headgear concept needs more graphical links to the phone and the dock, it looks like it's not part of the same project. Also the concept is maybe a bit too much minimalist and therefore unfunctional. There's absolutely no support link to the ear, so the earplug can fall easily in driving conditions, or it can move dangerously. The microphone on the hearset will never stay at the same place... And the solar-powered system is very innovative but a long use during evening and night would result in the incapacity to use the phone while driving.

- Finally the general look of your phone is pretty much a copy-paste from the iPhone, except for a few elements. Fresh innovative ideas would have seen better critics but it's alright... The hole in the bottom right is pretty original, yet not very eye-pleasing and not practical in any way except for hanging it on the charging dock.

But globally this project is awesome. I can't really talk about your interface since my knowledge in this domain is very limited but it looks close to perfection. Congrats.

[xonegon]

I love it especially if it were blue. Its indeed iphone-cloning with the difference that the resolution is a bit higher

[daewoo]

I like "fly to the sky",my angel.HAH!
nice stuff

[Jay08]

Love the visuals...Really clean? What software?

Styling is nice and clean although quite I pod like but enough has been said on that!

I think its interesting how you ve made the link with nature with the graphics on the phone and the 'docking tree'...Might have missed a trick in using more natural materials or making that link stronger!

Very nice as said before! Let us know how you get on an good luck!

Ps Check spelling on intuitive!!

[47522]

Its lovely too look at... that kind of graphic design is right up my street! Absolutely breath taking!

I don't suppose you could help me with something, that purple squiggle on the right in the second image down, how was that done? I really like it but cant fathom how it was done!?

Thanks for sharing these!

Regards
Matt

[Andrew Kim]

Thanks for all the interest guys. I'll take 100% of your comments into my next project. Here are a few direct comments:

jmc: The real problem in this project is that I had absolutely no planning what so ever. I just let is grow... like a tree (no pun intended). I've learned from this, and now am not only designing my next phone in depth, before rendering, but also planning the presentation before hand.

daewoo: I LOVE FTS!!!! Glad to see someone recognize that. lol

jay08: The entire project was done 100% in Photoshop. Thanks for your comment, and I'll use spell-check next time. lol

47522: It was a brush that a friend gave to me. Not too sure where to get it though... and I've deleted it from my computer. Well, Thanks!

[CyreneQ]

I know this is a year late. But did this design win? It's awesome!

[khans1026]

[font="Tahoma"][/fontCan somebody tell me how i can render like this on photoshop! the visuals are really amazing.

Back to the guys project. I feel that sometimes people are too critical when looking at pieces of work here. This guys visuals, that have only been done on photoshop are breathtaking. Good enough for a marketing campaign IMO!

Its sometimes too easy to say its too i-pod looking ect ect. But when apple bring out a new i-pod or iphone for that matter its not necessarily the physical product their selling, but the capabilities of having your whole music library at your fingertips, or having the latest app.

I know we're designers and looks matter, but at the same time we need to sell the narrative as-well and i feel that this guy has done that in a beautiful way.

Keep up the good work!