Nokia L'Amour fashion concepts

Technology-based product design is a highly complex process and can be painstakingly slow. For this reason, designing technological products that seek to address a fashion market presents an immediate conundrum: how to ally a slow moving process with the infamously rapid changes in fashion trends.

Challenge
Finnish mobile manufacturer Nokia's aspirations for the L'Amour collection were premium mobile phones that would physically reflect 'vision statements' from the fashion world. With a creative brief based on some of the broader trends that underpin the faster-changing, more superficial shifts in fashion, Seymourpowell was challenged to produce an industrial design blueprint that would not only remain on-message, but also stay ahead of the fashion curve.

Response
Initially putting technology to one side, our trends and product research helped to create functional objects in an abstract way for both a female and male audience. Each prototype design embodied some of these fashion 'under-trends' through the use of fabrics, patterned graphic design and tactile surfaces. These elements then formed the genetic material for a range of fashion-inspired premium mobile products developed by Nokia.

Result

Through the L'Amour project, Seymourpowell provided Nokia with a design language that led to the development of the 7360, 7270 and 7380 fashion phones, all launched on the market worldwide.

The client says...

"Seymourpowell have worked with Nokia since the early days of the mobile phone. They work comfortably alongside Nokia Design teams, sometimes with strategic projects and research, sometimes just helping us cover the ground...it's been a long and fruitful relationship." - Frank Nuovo, Vice-President of Design, Nokia