Tag Archives: Joseph Burrell

This sleek food processor was designed for Gen Z & includes a wireless charging dock!

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Food processors are traditionally bulky and something that we hide away in a cabinet most of the time. This concept reimagines it as a smart, space-saving, sleek kitchen appliance design instead – meet Kenn, a food processor to fit the modern-day home environment.

Apartments continue to get smaller which means kitchen space is also being reduced. The new interior trend blurs the rigid zones into a singular multifuncational space. The pandemic has also encouraged many of us to become avid home chefs. When you combine all of the three factors, it shows us a gap where there is need for appliances that work for the space and the user equally rather than becoming a cumbersome, unattractive objection that ends up in the back of their cabinets. Kenn is specifically designed for the younger generation but its minimal aesthetic gives it a universal appeal in my opinion. The CMF were inspired by modern artwork, ceramics, and soft forms. The handle is one of the main elemets of Keen, it features a curved grip and two pops of orange that align it with the Kenwood brand. It also comes with various accessories and each of them were created to fit into the product.

” I used CAD to ideate and visualize the initial ideas, as well as to find the right proportions of the product. Each model took minutes to make, complementing the fast pace of sketches. 3D printing some of the best initial idea CAD models at 10% of the original size helped finalize the proportions and helped to observe how the light hits the object. Kenn was designed to gently reflect light without drawing too much attention to itself. The texture on its base was inspired by modern ceramics and vases that would be placed around the home,” says Burrell as he describes his proccess.

The funnel faces inwards unlike the current food proccessors on the market in which it faces outwards – this tweak was made to reduce visual impact and help the product retain its soft form. One of the coolest integrations is the wireless charging base and and docking station which can be used for keys, headphones, etc. It not only helps to support the proccessor but also gives the product a new dimension of functions that go beyond food prep – and as you know, we need our phones in the kitchen for the recipes and the cooking music. This added function coupled with its modern form lets you place Kenn anywhere in your home, not just your kitchen.

Designer: Joseph Burrell

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This intelligent distraction-free smartphone is the need of the hour

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Since I work for digital media, I am on my phone a lot, even during work hours. I find myself getting tempted to check notifications fully well knowing that it is not urgent. I am sure even those of you who don’t work online are still distracted by your phones. In this world of constant information bombardment, it is hard to strike the balance – you can’t quit technology but you also need it to not be an obstacle. Concept designs like Companion, a distraction-free smartphone, is what we need.

Companion provides the basic functions of the smartphone, all essentials stripped of the things that send us into a doomscrolling spiral. The portable tech accessory is a smartphone that monitors the user’s environment via in-built sensors to keep them informed. Companion’s form is minimal and organic which is true to its purpose. It includes an earpiece, an E-Ink display (magnetic ink), a microphone, a wide + ultra-wide camera lens with flash, and an air quality sensor. Companion also has a loop at the bottom making it into a wearable tech accessory – in fact, it was specifically modeled to be worn!

“An exploration into current forms and features of products similar to the function of the smartphone helped evaluate the more important aspects of their designs. Soft forms reminiscent of pebbles evoked a more natural and organic feel. After playing with five forms and narrowing it down, a combination of sketching, rapid CAD, card and foam prototyping, and visualization techniques were used to finalize the overall form of the product and its most prominent features,” says Burrell.

The conceptual smartphone is made from a bioplastic that is easily manufactured and equally easy to disassemble which helps to create a closed-loop system where plastic is recycled many times over without ending up in a landfill. Continuing to build on the pebble inspiration, the design’s colors feature a tri-color speckle pattern on top with soft hues like the ones found naturally on pebbles. It also doesn’t have any ports – this frees up internal space and also makes it water-resistant. No ports means that Companion is charged wirelessly. A phone where I don’t get email notifications or have to reply to every DM? I am sold!

Designer: Joseph Burrell

Perfect for Podcasting – this dual-lens tabletop camera concept makes you an ace vlogger!

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The minute the pandemic hit, it became very obvious that a lot of media companies had put a lot of effort into their studio camera setups, but as soon as their journalists and hosts began working from home, the production quality took an absolute beating. Suddenly Jimmy Fallon and Conan O’Brien started looking weird on their iPhone cameras, and the flaws in using AirPods to record audio versus using studio-grade microphones became painfully apparent. While it’s just common sense that nobody can afford a studio-grade camera setup for their home, it doesn’t make sense that they have to rely on their smartphone camera either. The Podcam concept was designed to fill that gap, with a device that’s as small and affordable as a regular smartphone, but as proficient and capable as a studio cam.

Targeted towards the growing podcasting and vlogging movement, the Podcam concept comes in a compact avatar with a telescopic stand for height-adjustment. Its soft, friendly design hopes to eliminate any fear of being ‘in front of a camera’ as the vertically aligned lenses look less like eyes staring at you and more like any other object. Wide-angle and Ultra wide-angle lenses help you seamlessly switch your setup based on the number of guests you have on your show, so everyone is always in frame, and two beam-forming microphones built into the Porcam help clearly capture voices while drowning out any background noise. The Podcam’s soft form comes machined entirely from recycled aluminum, and its single-button recording interface makes it very easy to operate (you could alternatively use Podcam’s app to control recording too). The Podcam comes with an in-built battery, although the USB-C port on its base allows you to charge the camera while in use too. Threading for the Podcam’s stand on the side makes it very easy to unscrew the camera setup and carry along from room to room, while its single-pole stand can easily be used as a selfie stick should you choose… and if branding is really important to you, there’s a nice blank canvas on the opposite side of the threading hole to engrave your podcast’s logo on!

Designer: Joseph Burrell