Music Making, For Everyone
To create a line of approachable synthesizers by replacing the learning curve with a make-through-play approach, along with playful forms that reference Swatch’s personality driven design.
Music and sounds are created from passive information the user makes, rather than the user directly interacting with the instrument.
Inspiration
Teenage Engineering designs products that are simple and approachable, but packed with personality.
Current synthesizers can be overwhelming in their complexity, scaring potential new users away.
Why Swatch?
The project revolved around the idea of reviving a fading brand. Swatch made watches accessible to everyone, with products full of personality and individuality.
What if Swatch tackled the growing market of music making gear with their signature approach?
The Big Idea
By creating new ways to create and sequence, you open doors to explore new music spaces that haven’t yet been explored.
I’m looking to explore this idea, with the approach of letting the product output creations based on the user’s passive input. This lowered learning curve means sounds made with unique stories, new backgrounds introduced to the music scene, as well as sparking creativity in existing seasoned artists.
Sounds are based on the user’s individual decision-making, personality, and exploration, rather than their direct input. This ties parameters not by the twisting of knobs, but rather everyday actions in the musicians environment.
By altering the classic machine-user relationship, you create a new formula for creating muisc.
What kind of music will this approach create?
Product Collaboration Potential
My favorite aspect of Swatch is the large amount of collaborations they have had with other artists and brands.
I designed the group with this in mind, creating potential for not just color and materials changes, but also collaborations where collaborators create their own unique ways of making sounds, using the open-ended quirks each product in the group has.
The music group aims to create warmer, more approachable ways of producing sounds, so that anyone can enjoy playing with music.
