I Love My Smartwrap! |
" For such a simple thing, it can do
quite a lot and you don’t really need to learn how to use it..."
"This has to be the coolest invention yet ..."
"...it's available in eight funky colours so you can find one to match your
lifestyle!"
"I would recommend it to just about anyone who uses a portable music player.."
"Thats a great product. I want one!"
"...this product is awesome for storing your headphones..."
"I would say the blue one looks the coolest... it complements my Blue Nylon Sports
Case."
"i like mine alot, and i think that when i get my next set of earbuds ill use the
smartwrap as opposed to the geigh cases they come with..."
"I love my Smartwrap!!! I just wanted to point out some things I experienced with my
Smartwrap. I use it everyday. I hardly unwind it, and I've grown accustomed to the extra
weight. It really is very small and hardly noticeable."
"...it's just a smart, simple way to take the extra length out of any thin cord,
especially those that are on headphones."
"...a simple alternative to tedious hand adjustment."
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| Awards & Recognition |
Courtesy of Alias UserCommunity
Singapore Industrial Design Firm Uses Alias StudioTools to Create Simple,
Elegant Form
Wrap it, snap it and your head phone wire is easily adjusted to your personal length
preference. Smart Wrap, a small piece of elastic polymer, comes in a variety of playful
colors and is a simple alternative to tedious hand adjustment. Use it for MP3 players,
mobile phones, office phone headsets, portable CD players - any small appliance that needs
a tuck in its connecting cord.
"It's small, easy to use and has no moving parts, but what looks simple is actually
quite complicated to design," explains Marcus Ting, industrial designer at Sumajin,
which is based in Singapore. "Smart Wrap has very clean lines and to achieve that
look I used Alias™ StudioToolsÔ computer-aided industrial design software to create
a free-flowing, organic structure with a lot of complicated, curving surfaces."
The skill required to create Ting's design was appreciated by the judges of the I.D.
Magazine Annual Design Review, the premier international industrial design competition.
They presented Ting with a Design Distinction award in 2002.
Surfacing Challenge
"The shape at the ends was the most critical and the biggest design issue," says
Ting. "I needed to increase the amount of silicone material at the ends so that the
product properly grips the ends of the cord and holds it in." That requirement caused
Ting to approach the Smart Wrap design from a different perspective.
Usually a shape this complex would be comprised of several different surfaces which are
matched up by blending the edges. For Ting, that process was not exact enough to create
the flowing, elegant shape he wanted. Instead, he created one line and used the
StudioTools revolve tool on the "y" axis. He scaled down or vertically
compressed the profile in the middle to create the basic body shape.
The feel of this product is the most important factor so I needed to do a lot of testing
with prototypes. I was able to experiment quickly by using the data directly from
StudioTools," says Ting. After testing several prototypes, the shape with the
compressed middle turned out to be the strongest and most tactile in terms of how a person
grasped or gripped the product.
Manufacturing Challenge
Most designers create plastic products that will be mass-produced by injection molding,
but Ting felt this would compromise the simple design of Smart Wrap. "The injection
method leaves marks on the body, from the injector pins pushing the piece out from the
core," explains Ting. "The pin marks would compromise the organic design on so
small a part, so I used compression molding instead."
The compression process, which works like a waffle iron, lends itself perfectly to the
Smart Wrap design because the top and bottom of the product are identical in shape. What
comes out at the end of the manufacturing process is a single piece of silicone rubber
with no part lines. "That's unique in the category of cable management
products," claims Ting.
Expanding the Market
Sumajin has also used StudioTools to help sell the Smart Wrap concept to distributors.
"We use renderings to show potential buyers how the product looks from different
angles and what colors it can be produced in. We can also resurface and render a product
variation in just a few hours, showing a buyer how a different version of Smart Wrap can
be used in a different market," says Ting. For instance, Sumajin has recently looked
at producing the cord adjuster in medium and large sizes for use on laptops, USB
connectors, TVs and kitchen appliances.
"Smart Wrap has great potential," says Ting. "For such a simple thing, it
can do quite a lot and you don't really need to learn how to use it. It meets the goal I
use for every design project - get the maximum product appeal by pairing visual pleasure
with utility."
Full Story »
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