Now these are highly objectionable topics actually! But all you (& me) designers, for a while just keep that designer aside and read as a common man (I know how difficult it is!)
I don't remember how it happened exactly, but day before yesterday afternoon I came across this website about new cellphones. It had pictures of new Sony Ericsson radio phone R306i. The name itself was very interesting and the concept even more interesting. They had made a phone which actually looked like a radio with two speakers! A very classic black backelite radio look indeed! It has a brushed aluminium centre display cum control butons placed between the two big speaker nets. I was very impressed by the styling considering the said low price range. Considering Sony's success in walkman series phones range, I expected this to be a good if not the best option for buyers. Two huge speakers on a phone!!! wowwww...
The same evening on my way back home I searched for a nearby sony showroom and straight away asked if that radio phone is launched or not. It was!!! And just the next moment all my imaginations. assumptions broke to open to the reality. He handed me over a phone dummy which just didn't feel like the one I saw on website! It had the same form, but the speaker net and body looked like a cheap plastic FM radio, the centre brushed aluminium panel was actually a very cheap chrome plated one! and to top it all, it had no external display, which I had assumed can be seen only while functioning! This is not all. I knew it was a clamshell phone, but when I opened it it was as good looking as a slim calculator! I have no words to explain.... Radio phone from Sony Ericsson is a very good idea, the pictures of concept I saw on website were also very good, so much that they actually took me that showroom. But the real phone!!!
Photography is an art, advertising is even bigger art and they certainly take the design to a higher desirable level. Its just that reality is stereoscopic.... :)
Ohh and about the second part of the topic, form v/s function! Now I know that every designer tries his best to integrate both in his design. But zoom out of that particular concept a bit, look at what is available in the market, as a common man/buyer. I did this in that sony showroom, on websites... for a lot of time. But I just couldn't end up liking both form and function in one same phone! If I have to buy one, I will have to force myself to choose either of form or function. When I zoom out even more and look at whar people are doing in this regard, they are happy choosing from whats on display. The problem is just with me.. that I am a designer!!!
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