Soft Electronics / A trend you can’t miss.
Today, I want to show you a trend which you should not miss and that you have probably seen many times already on the blog. I called it #Soft Electronics – which is: the implementation of soft textiles on consumer electronic products.
For this, I’ll ask one of our leManoosh collaborators Pedro Gomes from Pedro Gomes Design who has done an outstanding job at implementing it with his project MODU for Tech4Home.
Firstly, can you please tell us a bit about yourself?
As a full-time dreamer and driven by the greatest challenges I founded Pedro Gomes Design (PGD), an unconventional Strategic Design Consultancy where I’m honored to lead, side by side, an amazing international team of 14 (and counting) talented strategists, designers, branding, and marketers.
Driven by great challenges our passion sits in the intersection of design, business, and education. In the last 5 years, Pedro Gomes Design has worked with different clients from all 6 continents and developed a unique holistic development approach that crosses the best of research, strategy, branding, industrial design, communication, and 360 marketing.
We believe that scalable impact starts with education so we are honored for the ongoing exciting opportunity to teach and learn from a multitude of different startups and universities in India, Colombia, USA, Estonia, France, Portugal, Germany, and Singapore.
What is MODU?
MODU is a customizable TV ecosystem that envisions the future for telecoms entertainment systems by merging the latest technology (voice control, air mouse, smart textiles, integrated resonance charging, RFID) and brings together TV, RCU, STB, and mobile phones into a single hub. Sitting at the edge of new experiences, MODU was designed for the environment where it belongs – your home, office or working space.
Where / How did you come across this trend? How did you see it relevant for your project?
The insight that drove this project resulted from our cross innovation research & innovation where we converge the learnings and insight on how other industries have been using textile and soft goods. Anyhow, we don’t see this as a trend. Trends come and go – We see this as the future of customizable interfaces that can elevate the effectiveness and optimization for brands and OEM providers in proving scalable customization and together transform how technology elegantly blends in our daily lives.
These insights allowed us to envision a unique value proposition by placing your entertainment system (remote + STB) at the center of your living room and become the hub for your electronic devices – Something you proudly celebrate vs hiding.
What are the benefits of MODU for the user and the business?
By placing the business and the user at the center of our process we’ve identified to add value by:
● Integrating hub for all electronics and how it answers the
● Induction charged remote removes the need for battery replacement in the remote.
● The Ability for users to easily
● By elegantly blending in the user living environment and providing a unique tactile and sensorial experience, MODU becomes a conversation starter of a story worth sharing, where the relationship between
● Businesses & OEM’s can reduce cost in interface customization for
Was it difficult to find manufacturers with the ability to produce it?
MODU is a patented technology by Tech4home and is now under development.
What were the challenges in the project?
In a project where Design is positioned at the front-end of innovation, the barriers are always high but very interesting. Like other innovation projects we are currently involved at this stage, the real challenge is always to find the right balance between design, engineering, user and business needs, so we can well transition from a future vision into a consumer product with meaningful impact in the users and business.
What was the reaction of your client to this idea? Were they afraid of it or did they jump into it without questions?
Tech4home approached us to help them in envisioning the future of the television experience. The journey of this innovation project was exciting and very collaborative, where together with Tech4Home team, we converge and diverge to better understand the real value of our guiding strategy.
Are there any exciting projects you’re currently working on?
Yes, the present and future are really exciting. We really believe that today building just a great product is not enough – real success is dependent on optimizing complex systems and this is where our passion lies and where we’ve been focusing our energy. From business and brand incubation to strategic holistic programs – we merge the best of research, strategy, branding, industrial design, communication and 360 marketing – to partner with some truly amazing international & Portuguese clients.
Last but not least, next year we’ll be an exciting one as we’re rebranding our studio to truly show the holistic and business extent of our work.
Alright guys? So now that you know about it, let’s implement!
More about:
Pedro Gomes Design
MODU
Tech4Home
More Soft Electronics here:
#Soft Electronics
