When form equals function

If you think smartphones are about as sexy as they can get, you're wrong. Product design in the category will veer towards elegant simplicity over the years to come, according to one industry insider.

"It is our hope to always make things cleaner, simpler and more elegant in terms of design. That is our pursuit," says Todd Wood, SVP for Industrial Design at Research In Motion (RIM), manufacturers of the ubiquitous BlackBerry.

"These devices are so capable and powerful but they do not need more complexity. And designers must work to always reduce complexity. Every year, things just get better and better in terms of technology and design. It is the continuum part of RIM," he tells GN Focus.

Wood was in Dubai recently for the launch of the new Porsche Design P'9981 BlackBerry, which is likely to hit Porsche Design stores in January. "When Porsche Design met BlackBerry, the former brought its own design history of the purist and modern approach," says Wood. "It was true collaboration, a dialogue. When they first contacted us, they wanted to enter the mobile market. We had a lot in common. Especially, Roland Heiler Managing Director of Porsche Design Studio and I, who both agree on the form equals function philosophy. These discussions led to the business agreement between both the companies."

He describes the smartphone as "design in motion", drawing a link to the name of his company. "I prefer to call RIM by its full form Research in Motion. It is a term that speaks to the way we work. Design is an iterative process. Sometimes at the beginning, you start with a big circle. By the end of the project, everything funnels down to this conclusion where the decisions and the process is ultimately crystallised in the product," says Todd.

He believes the product encapsulates a philosophy and direction of the moment. "If we did it a year from now or in 2010, it would be a different product. That is what is super interesting about design — how sensitive it is to the times we live in."

In this case, the design process evolved into a solid piece of forged stainless steel. "Yet the back is soft and supple since it is wrapped in leather. So when you hold the product in your hand, that is the interface. It is a modern expression of luxury."

Wood has worked at Nokia Design, where he was responsible for the art direction, including the design and advertising, of the 8801, the stainless steel luxury slider.

He has also designed equipment for Nortel Networks and Newbridge Networks.

The designer says inspiration can come from any source. "When I was in school, post modernism was happening. There was an interesting debate in school where the modernists shook their head at the post-modernists and said that it was for cake eaters.

"But for me, it was interesting. I really wanted to understand design," he says. "When you are in the middle of it, everything seems normal but when you look back at it, you wonder if people really wore colours like that or dressed like that," he says.

To him, design is life. He explains: "That is why it is interesting in continuum. That is the first part of what we do as designers and companies want to be a big part of people's life. The P'9981 is very much of the times, a global product, very precise in its manufacture in the beauty and purity of materials that are very honest and authentic.

"The leather gives it warmth and the contrast makes it very appetising. We did not ever consider a retro statement," he says, although he admits that it echoes in time to the twenties and the Bauhaus school of thought. "It harkens back to the industrial age. But the soul of the product is very much software and the focus is on it being a social networking product."

Designed by Porsche Design, in collaboration with RIM, the material choices for the smartphone include a forged stainless steel frame, hand-wrapped leather back cover, sculpted Qwerty keyboard, and crystal clear touch display. This phone will come with an exclusive Porsche Design UI and a bespoke Wikitude World Browser augmented reality app experience. It also includes exclusive PINs that help easily identify another P'9981 smartphone user.