Elapse Ville Piippo Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture
Who am I? I am a 22-year-old industrial design student in Aalto University, School of Art, design and Architecture. I was practically raised in a ceramics workshop, which is propably why I chose to try my hand at design in the first place. Growing up in the middle of a small family enterprise has also taught me the meaning of hard work. The one thing I love the most in industrial design, is the freedom to use a vast variety of different kinds of materials. The most rewarding projects for me are the ones that teach me the most. Having said that, this project was probably the most enlightening I’ve ever done. I received valuable help from a couple of experienced cabinet makers along the way. I’m not sure I know how to tell you who I am, but I can tell you this: I now have a lot more knowledge about the behaviour of different materials than I had before this project. And that, for me, is the biggest win I could ever hope for.
What does music mean to me? To me, music is an instrument of thinking. Sometimes listening to striking lyrics and tunes can help me detach myself from the moment and take a wider perspective at ongoing things. These moments are the key at progressing as a designer and of course, as a human being. As music has been a great factor in my development to the person I am now, I wanted to emphasize the natural progression of a mind. The sand in an hourglass represents all the different experiences I have had with music as years have elapsed. Sometimes it only needs one different thought to turn the direction of a whole life. The one coloured spec represents that one thought. It has now changed the frame of the general view. The A9 is sure to offer many of these life changing moments to its listeners. What better way of reflecting these moments, than to make the A9 change along with the user. With my design, the listeners can observe the development of the very thing that has been developing them.
How I got there? It is very common amongst us young design students to over do it a little in the beginning and then simplify the idea to make a good final product. This is exactly what happened here. From the very beginning it was clear to me what I wanted to emphasize with my design, but I couldn’t quite figure out the simplest way of doing it. This is the point where hard work steps in. The main dilemma in this project was how to show all this to other people, and still preserve the simple and refined looks of the original A9.
Can you spot it? As said, the A9 Elapse develops over time. In these five pictures you can see the effect of time. Try to spot it and I’ll explain you how it works in the next spread.
Fabric
Printed three-color artwork representing sand in an hourglass. I didn’t want to make this too dominant, so I chose a very discreet approach. This way the listener really has to stand close to it in order to see and think about the artwork. Therefore the A9 can do its magic at close range.
Ring Aluminium ring anodized in light blue holds the general view intact.
Back parts Plastic painted calm and natural white and lacquered with a matte finish.
Legs Beech Wood with two different finishes separated with a tiny groove. Both finishes come with a silky gloss. This is the heart and soul of my design. The trick to get the same wood behave differently is to play with the woods natural aging. In this picture, the A9 has already seen a few years of aging with dignity. Lighter parts are finished with Carnauba wax to preserve the natural color of beech wood. Actually, the wax will even make the wood even brighter when years go by. Darker parts are finished with linseed oil based wax with a little varnish added to expedite the woods natural aging, causing it to darken. Freshly out of the factory, the two finishes are pretty close to one another, but as the years pass, they mature differently thus making the A9 even more interesting to everyone around it.