PORTFOLIO
2018
INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER
MIKAEL NÄS
CONTENT 01 WIRELESS HEADPHONES 0 2 D R I V E R L E S S F R E I G H T T R A N S P O R T 0 3 N E X T G E N E R AT I O N S M A R T P H O N E S 0 4 B E A C H C H A I R F O R S U R F E R S ”To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.” - Leonard Bernstein
W H O I S M I K A E L? I just finished my bachelor in Industrial Design at Mid Sweden University in Sundsvall. My biggest passion in life is learning and I am always looking for new opportunities to learn new fascinating things. I embrace the new and always try to optimize my workflow and methods. I love to work with design as a process or strategy in a holistic perspective, for greatest effect. I strongly believe that the design process can be used to solve any problem, no matter how big or small. As a person I am driven and have confidence in that the best result comes from curious and questioning groups. I always stay up to date on the latest trends in technology and how we humans use it. Right now I’m excited about the big shift to autonomous vehicles and mostly how this will affect our society and way of life.
THE ELEMENTO WIRESLESS HEADPHONES compu te r aide d design / 10 2nd year indus trial design A course in computer aided industrial design, with the main focus is to learn Rhinoceros 3D and secondary to learn Keyshot. The exanimating task was to create a set of wireless headphones, rendered whit different materials and with a embezzled logo. This we had to do in 10 days.
days
The Elemento wireless headphones are high-end over-ear open-back wireless headphones created for the ultimate solo-listening experience.
TWO
TWO
DIRECTIONS
STYLES
For the choice between in-ear and over-ear I choose to go with the over-ear solution for the superior sound quality and therefore making them more suitable for private use.
Regarding closed-back or open-back design i choose the open-back for its wider soundstage and natural sound.
A N A LY S I S / I D E AT I O N
DESIGN
L ANGUAGE
Exhibiting uncompromising dynamics from the very first glance I wanted the headphones to appeal to the high-end solo listener.
The Elemento headphones are created for the highend solo-listener. They are designed primarily as openback headphones but has the ability to change into closedback simply by switching the caps on the ears. They have 50 mm drivers for maximum sound quality. Soft leather cuisines for comfort. When bringing them on a trip they easily fold for travel ease. When the electromagnetic element vibrates the sound creates waves that makes the membrane rotate with the speed of the music.
R E S U LT / B R E A K D O W N
DRIVERLESS FREIGHT TRANSPORT thesis projec t / 10 week s 3rd year industrial design Thesis project in Industrial Design done in collaboration with Cliff Design, PostNord and DHR.
Today the driver’s tasks extend far beyond just maneuvering the vehicle. In order for us to have driverless vehicles in the future, these tasks need to be solved autonomously. In this project, a new concept for a completely autonomous freight transport chain has been explored. With the help of a new way of looking at package handling, transports can be done with a capacity never before seen.
N E X T G E N E R AT I O N S M A R T P H O N E S eco design / 2 days 3rd year industrial design The task was to re-design a existing product and make it more eco friendly with the help of ecodesign methodology.
The Infinite∞ Phone Concept Smartphone concept for 2025. A cloud-based smartphone with longer lifespan and uncompromised technoloy for a sustainable future.
Todays smartphone
Today’s smartphones are computers in small form factors. They are priced like computers and have a lifespan of 1-5 years.
Components
In the phone you basically have the same components as you have in a normal computer, only in a smaller form factor.
Evolution of Technology
One of the biggest reason the lifespan of a smartphone is so short is because of planned obsolescence. The evolution of technology is raising exponentially and is showing no sign of slowing down. This means a phone will become obsolete only after a few years when new phones are significantly better.
The Vision
My vision for this short project is to create a smartphone with significantly longer life span. Instead of 1-5 years i want my product to have a lifespan of maybe 10-50 years, if not more. This i want to accomplish without sacrificing having the best available technology.
Most people today have more computers than just their smartphone. They have laptops, stationary computers, tablets, smartwatches and other smart devices. This soon becomes very expensive and you essentially pay for the same thing, in different form factors. I want my solution to be a cheaper option. However i dont think it would sell if the manufacturers make less money, so i also want the product to make money.
Cloud Computing
5G
Wireless Charging
Cloud computing is, to put it simple, like remotely controlling another computer. Basicly this means the cumputer the user is interacting with only need different input methods, like a touch screen or a keyboard, very basic component and the ability to streem data from the computer on the other end. The computer on the other end hower can be as big and as powerfull as you need it to be to do the work you want.
3G came in 2001 and had a maximum speed of about 0.4 MB/s. Today we have 4G and we get speeds of up to 100 MB/s.
Today we have wireless charging with for example QI. This technology requires you to put your device directly on top of the charger in order for it to work. But we are starting to see more and more companies working to create chargers that work with a little bit of distance. My hope is that this technology will improve to a point where you can enter a room and charge your phone starts to charge.
In practice the powerful computer on the other end is housed elsewhere, at Microsoft or Apple server halls for example.
In 2020 the next generation internet that will give us 10 GB/s. This technology will also be able to handle more connected devices and aims to be a more scalable option for the future.
In long term however i envision this technology evolving to a point where everywhere you have a internet connection, your phone will charge. This would then be the end of batteries. If you always have access to power you don’t need them anymore. This is in my opinion the last component that ages in a way that prevents smartphones from lasting longer than 5 years. The only item that aged badly is the battery which can be swapped every other year in the absence of this technology.
On the outside i dont think, or is interested, in any significant change. The phones will most likely lose all its ports as wireless technologies becomes more and more evolved. What is interesting however is the inside. A cloud-based smartphone only needs components to run the most basic things, like streaming video, handling input and have a stable internet connection. This unit have components that age in dignity and are not effected by evolving technology, since it streams everything. The phone is connected to a providers servers. Your phone always will be running on the latest hardware, meaning you don’t have to upgrade your phone every year.
You use your phone just like you do today, only now everything is streamed from a supercomputer somewhere else. The easiest way to get away from planned obsolescence is to swith to a subscription based model. Here i could see you
being able to choose from different levels of power in the computer. Simplified this could be like choosing from a i3 to a i9 processor. Every month you pay a fee based on your power level and you are then able to get that power out of an internet enabled device.
This would mean the cloud could be responsible for all your computer usage. You could access the same computer from your phone as you do on your laptop. This would mean the lines between tablets, smartphones, laptops and so on would disappear.
It is always the same computer you access, only from different units designed for different usage situations. Are in your office or on the bus? Are you sitting down or are you running?
Beyond 2025 i think this will result in internet enabled devices being everywhere and you being able to access your computer everywhere. You sign in and it does not matter if you use your TV at home or the window of a car.
BEACH CHAIR FOR SURFERS group projec t / 9 week s 3rd year industrial design The task was to create a beach chair that could be folded into a table and the target group provided was surfers. The project group was made up of three industrial design students and one woodworker. I was the project leader for this project.
THE BEACH
NEST
The Beach Nest is a uniquely designed beach chair focusing on attractive design and smart features. The Beach Nest is a place for comfortable relaxation that provides safe storage and protection for your valuables. With its pure minimalist shape, it enhances each place and makes the moment on the beach an experience beyond the usual.
This journey starts with understanding our provided target group, SURFERS. We started by making interviews with surfers to learn more about their culture. We divided surfers into two subcultures. The first one is the classical old school surfer and the performance surfers.
We wanted a PERSONA to work towards and chose Jon Olsson. Jon fits in to the performance surfer subculture. Then we learned everything about Jon Olsson. Since Jon is a INFLUENSER we also dived in to his followers to learn more about who watches his videos. Then we looked at the existing marked for beach chairs. We divided beach chairs into the three most common categories. We also looked at some nontraditional beach chairs.
To understand more what happens around the beach we made four activity analysis. The first one we did was to look at how a traditional beach chair is being used. After that we looked at surfers in tropical conditions. Then we looked at surfers in Nordic conditions. And finally we looked at Jon
Olsson and what happens when he goes surfing. To understand the traditional beach chair we made a function analysis to help us evaluate the functions provided by a beach chair.
equipment of the sand, such as cameras and phones. For Jon the biggest problem we identified was his lack of organization, that often results in going to a store to buy new stuff that he cant find.
The biggest problem we found for in traditional beach chairs was the quality, or lack there of. And the biggest problem we found for surfers was getting valuable
Therefore when it came to the requirement specification the most unexpected requirement we added was that the chair have to help the user store equipment.
We started the creative phase by defining the type of area we wanted the chair to be in. Since Jon just bought a plot in Lombok we quickly landed on making a chair that more likely would stand on a beach club than directly on the beach. For all surfers we found that they liked wood. More specifically wood that is environmentally friendly and locally produced. Therefore we decided on a oak from northern Sweden. Jon Olsson has a very specific design for both his own products and everything he consumes. We looked at everything from his house, cars and bags before we could pinpoint the essence of his form language. After that we made a library of hundreds of products, shapes and color pallets to have references to look att when developing the chair. Since the chair at this point looked like it was going to be stationary on the beach we wanted to make the dimensions as good as possible without compromise. Therefore we made user tests to find the most preferred sitting position possible. We made the tests with surfers of different levels of experience to make sure we got a wide range of thoughts. Here we found a trend that the more experienced the surfer
was the more upright they wanted to sit. They explained that in Sweden you don’t go surfing on days most people go to the beach. It is usually cold and windy and therefore they saw themselves using the chair more to take photos and get their heat up. We printed out and filled a wall with visual references before starting the ideation, so that we always could go back to the wall to see if the design matched the strict design language. We sketched ideas and built small models in order to try out how they worked, we even made some full scale models in order to try som mechanical solutions. We used the proportions provided by the user tests and tried different designs. We quickly landed in a angular design with a fast shape and sharp edges. We made some 1:2 scaled models out of cardboard to be able to feel the product and decide on a final design. The final design we made more sketches of in order to better get a feel for it and tweak it in order for production.
The Beach Nest is a uniquely designed beach chair focusing on attractive design and smart features. The Beach Nest is a place for comfortable relaxation that provides safe storage and protection for your valuables. With its pure minimalist shape, it enhances each place and makes the moment on the beach an experience beyond the usual. When you lift up tha backrest the sitting area sings down to a 5° sitting angle. Everything happens in one smooth motion. The angle of the backrest is defined with a switch hidden under the backrest. When the switch is pit in ”FIXED” position magnets lifts up small stops in order to fix the backrest in the closest position. This makes the rising and sinking of the backrest much smoother than in any other outdoor chair. Hidden under the seat is a compartment where you can store your phone or camera when you are out surfing and when you go home you can leave the fins ans wax so you never lose it again. The chair will be available in black, white and natural oak. Hopefully you can come and look at The Beach Nest at the Furniture Fair in Stockholm in February 2018 at Träakademin and Mid Sweden University Design department booth.
2013 STUDY Engineering at Mid Sweden University in Sundsvall, Sweden 2015 STUDY Industrial design at Mid Sweden University in Sundsvall, Sweden
CONTACT mikael.nas@gmail.com +46 730-49 52 92
2017 WORK Industrial designer at Konceptstudion in Härnösand, Sweden
SEE MORE MikaelNas @ Behance MikaelNas @ LinkedIn MikaelErikNas @ Instagram
2018 CONTRACT Design consultant at The Digital Cirqus AB in Sundsvall, Sweden
FULL PROJECTS: www.mikaelnas.com
2016 CONTRACT Design consultant at SundsvallTimrå Airport in Sundvall
2017 CONTRACT Design consultant at Sundsvall Convention Bureau in Sundvall
”I am looking new exciting challenges”
C U R R I C U L U M V I TA E / C O N TA C T