Northumbria Uni design students show off their work

Jun 20 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

DESIGN student Rachel Deller is hoping her music system aimed at changing the throwaway culture is an instant hit.

Rachel, 23, has come up with a sound system to last a lifetime and which can be easily adapted to fit in with the user’s life and interior design changes.

Her Doobri audio cubes are designed with removable shell casings, which can be replaced with alternative colours and patterns to fit in with the changing tastes of the user.

The project was designed as part of her Design for Industry degree course, run by the School of Design at Northumbria University.

It is part of Reveal 09, which is open to the public from 10am-4pm on weekdays until June 26 at the School of Design, on Northumbria’s City Campus East.

The exhibition includes the work of final-year students from 3D Design, Design for Industry, Fashion Design, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Multimedia Design, and Transportation Design.

Rachel said: “I looked at the declining value of consumer electronics and how many products are simply thrown away, creating a landfill problem.

“My design is sustainable, not just environmentally but also socially. The cubes are a home music system that owners would keep for life and develop a relationship with.”

Programme leader and senior lecturer Mark Bailey said: “Rachel’s idea shows an interesting way to challenge the declining value of consumer electrics. The audio cubes are designed to become a long-lasting household product that users would choose to keep.”

Student Mark Law has designed a radio which enables listeners to shape the content of the shows they listen to. Mark, 23, created the Element Radio as a new technology that would attract a younger audience to radio.

The design features a wi-fi radio docking station with a portable touch-screen component that allows listeners to instantly interact with radio shows.

He said: “I noticed that I hardly listened to the radio any more and asked myself why. Radio treats listeners as a passive audience but I wanted to design a radio that would view the audience as participating forces in the media itself. Element Radio enables the user to influence what they are listening to. They can interact with show producers, voting for what song they want to hear next or discussing a celebrity interview and suggesting questions for presenters to ask.

“The screen would also display programme information, weather reports and sports results.”

Mark Bailey said: “The Element Radio is a sleek design, which holds the potential to revolutionise the traditional medium of radio.”