Tasked with designing a remote control, my initial start point was a traditional style.
I took inspiration from the form of the AIAIAI headphones. The circular elements of the ear piece; the curve and the tapered section of the headband and the textural detailing influenced the early iterations and inspired form.
With AIAIAI positioning themselves as the weapon of choice for DJ's. I tried to imagine what it means to be a DJ and understand the important sociological indicators one might like to display to the world as a DJ.
I see the aspiring DJ with headphones eternally slung upon his neck, part of his identity, he adorns these like a Celtic Torc. Announcing to the world the symbol of his tribe.
From this idea I started to explore different potential avenues of remote control as adornment. Again, with forms and detail taken from the headphones.
Referring back to the design language of AIAIAI, I decided to pare back the design of the bracelet to give it a more minimalist, sophisticated feel.
When seeing the shape of the bracelet in three dimensions, I realised it could potentially be worn as a ring. I also realised that a ring is small and possibly difficult to use as a controller, so I started thinking of different ways you could get the ring to communicate and function.
Part of AIAIAI's brand identity is to be drivers tech and innovation within their industry and to be collaborators. I investigated different technologies, through my research I discovered Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).
Identity is important to people, how might we align ourselves with AIAIAI's design language while creating a product identity that DJ's feel connected to?
The idea of the necklace as identifier (to those who know) helping you to seek out other music mixing enthusiasts, the dark colour palette is inspired by DJ's who come alive at night.
Experimenting with more forms and ideas, using the "A" from AIAIAI's logo as the fast-forward and rewind buttons.
Creating two ports for a male to male jack auxiliary cable in the remote's body, so just in case, a DJ will always have a spare, but also will function as the necklace.
AIAIAI's sound engineer, described the type of balanced sound, they try to achieve with their headphones, so I experimented with the idea of balance in shape and form.
Material selection and the idea of play are investigated. What kind of tools could I create that would be useful or fun to play with for musicians and DJ's?
A tuning fork design? A new way for aspiring DJ's to practice and experiment with a low price point entry into the DJ-ing sphere. A docking port for your phone, or some kind of controller which you could use to learn the basics of mixing music.
Modularity is a big part of AIAIAI's identity, individual parts, that can be bought singularly, to repair, replace or improve as the customer grows on their music listening journey with the brand as a long-time customer.
Could I create a modular piece, that could be used as a gamification tool? Something similar to the medallion design, or would it require a total redesign? What might that look like?
What does a set of Dj decks, a tiny hand held gaming device and a Star Trek badge have in common? Nothing really to be honest... yet! Here I tried to play around with the idea of giving our hand held Dj device a recognizable identity, a face that could work both on its own and part of a set.
I also explored how a modular element could attach to a necklace piece in different ways and then how each formation could open up new possible functionality to the user.
You have one modular element and it could be used as a traditional remote control. However if you have two, either with a friend or if you decide to buy a second yourself, you can use an AIAIAI music mixer app to play and mix music on the go.
The clipping mechanism used for attaching and disassembling AIAIAI's modular elements is ball and socket and so that design language is reflected here.
The singular button attachment was used by AIAIAI on one of their original Walkman style headphones and I thought it could again, be useful here given the size and minimal feel of the of the remote I was trying to create.
Reminding myself of the brand identity, design language, desire for collaboration and ambitions of AIAIAI to become tech leaders in their industry, I combined several elements devised within the ideation process to create a new type of DJing tool. One that used Bluetooth Low Energy technology to act as a new type of digital Theremin, distorting music through the movement of the body.
