For the second year running, Orange has curated a design competition to promote links between creation and technology. The first edition, called Orange whispers to your ear, was dedicated to making hand-free kits more practical and attractive. This year it was titled Orange gives you the keys, and focused on the relationships with and within the home.
58 students from five leading European design schools spent months working on how digital technologies can improve tomorrow's life at home, and how the inhabitants of a same house, building or neighbourhood can be encouraged to interact and connect more, wherever they may be.
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| Bebee by Francois Lourme and Benjamin Royer |
One of the entries by L'Ecole de Design de Nantes Atlantique (EDNA) is a digital family game. It is composed of an app and several digital pieces that stimulate dialogue between family members. Everyone brings their own digital content to the table, thus creating a larger story and a collective memory.
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| Domum by Yoann Jestin and Alexis Porhiel |
Also by EDNA students, Domum came from the idea of a gathering around a stove. It intends to help people organise time together and make their home a warmer place. The device collects messages left by one member of a household to the others, whether family or flatmates. The message is written with a digital pen and the device sends it to each person by the most appropriate way: phone or social network.
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| Rhea by Cai Jun Yang |
Conceived by one of several participating Central Saint Martin's students, Rhea is a device that collects and stores emotional experiences so they can be shared with others from one's household. Its pocket watch shape comes from the idea of recording a specific time and place.
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| Switch by Simon Lauwerier, Jean-Pierre Hu, Adrian Borsoi, Sandrine Danho and Han Dinh |
From students of the Institut Superieur de Design de Valenciennes (ISD), Switch is a 3D holographic projector. It is loaded with everyone's preferences and suggests content to match their taste: concerts, travel, wildlife, etc.
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| Gustav by Andrea Segato and Viviane Yazdani |
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| Gustav by Andrea Segato and Viviane Yazdani |
Other entries include: a digital box that connects generations by recording the moments of leisure they spend together, through a very simple interface that can be understood by children and old people alike; an idea for a storage company that would scan every single one of one's belongings so that any given items can be sent on order anywhere in the world; and a system of motion-detecting stickers that keep voice messages to enhance communication between housemates or lodgers.
The winners were announced during Paris Design Week and an exhibition will run from 28 September - 9 October at Le Lieu du Design in Paris.
