- The CDC recommends masks in public
to help prevent you from spreading COVID-19.
- We have a face mask problem.
They're uncomfortable.
They hide our expressions
and they're political.
- And I'm not doing it
because I woke up in a free country.
- This is Francois.
He's in the middle of designing
a next generation face mask to solve these problems,
and he knows something about designing wearables.
He was the lead designer of the original Beats by Dre.
- In this news release from Apple,
they cite the price for Beats at $3 billion.
- So how much money did you make on that $3 billion sale?
- The total sum of my paycheck, which was 42 grand a year.
- While making Beats,
Francois learned that one of the most important parts
of redesigning our wearables is redesigning our culture.
(light music)
Changing the culture around wearable tech
starts with making a design
that challenges what we know, but still feels familiar.
- There's that word a lot of people say, it's intuitive.
When they say, "Hey, this tablet, you can write on it,
and it's intuitive, like writing on a piece of paper
with a pencil."
Well, a pencil and paper didn't always exist.
There was a time when that had to be created.
One thing always kind of segues into the other
- Glasses used to be a strange object to put on your face,
but now we don't flinch to put on VR glasses
Masks are still strange to us,
and it could be years before they feel normal.
So what did Francois do with Beats
that could be instructive for the future of masks?
- 2005, I was working
as a junior mid-level designer at Pentagram.
My boss, Robert Bruner,
he came in one day and he said,
"I got this interesting opportunity.
The VP of an audio company would like to
design some headphones for this artist, Dr. Dre.
Have you heard of him?"
And I said, "Of course."
♪ Da da da da da ♪
♪ It's the one and only D-R-E ♪
♪ Dr. Dre, lil buck. ♪
♪ Da da da da da ♪
And, and so we also were looking to like find a way
to embody Dre's personality into these headphones.
He's this big, larger than life personality.
His headphones have to reflect that.
A lot of headphones, you could see how it pivots,
it's like kind of a C shaped cup.
We said, okay, we're going to go with a full circle.
No one else has done that yet.
And that's going to be a very iconic, bold statement.
One of the advantages we had is we were building the brand
at the same time,
and so myself and my friend, Brian,
he designed a lot of Beats logos.
Working together, we found a way to lock
that circular break and then his B logo,
which had these concentric circles together perfectly.
We made sure that all the design elements,
not only were they iconic and memorable,
but you can scale them.
These concentric circles of the B logo inside
became the definitive signature element
that gave rise to all the design language
of Beats, subsequently.
♪ I'm all gassed up. ♪
Creating an iconic look is crucial
for influencing wearable culture.
Apple watches, Fitbits, and other wearables
have achieved that.
People wear those products proudly,
but face masks, even for people
who believe in their health benefits,
still haven't reached that level of acceptance or comfort,
but can they?
- Right now, masks obviously are being used
purely on a pragmatic level
and is a nuisance for most people,
but good design 100% can transform this experience
to a more delightful one
and to becoming a proud badge also of identity
in addition to serving its functionality.
We were asked by this startup company, Theranova,
to help design a mask.
We wanted to make something that was able to reveal
more of your face for expressiveness,
something that didn't feel so claustrophobic,
and also something that was easy to put on and off.
We made hard decisions around like, okay,
this thing is gonna pump air,
but we didn't want a tube going to it
because that association of a tube
going to something already,
people start thinking about the hospital,
and so there are things that we said, okay,
too strong of an association,
we've got to cross this off the list.
So in part of the prototyping process,
as we were doing Just Air, ultimately,
we decided that rather than having a hose,
it would be direct to the device.
That's what gave rise to the current design.
- The Just Air mask works by blowing air
down the wearer's mouth,
creating a shield that blows away particulate matter.
With this design, the wearer can stay safe
while keeping their mouth visible to others.
Francois hopes that will go a long way
towards popularizing the Just Air.
- If I could design an air mask that regardless
of people's opinions or beliefs about science,
they like it so much that they wear it all the time.
Then I feel like I've succeeded.
- Though more and more companies are making
next generation PPE,
it will still be awhile before they feel comfortable
and look normal, and that makes sense.
They're such a new part of our lives,
but will good design be enough
to sell these futuristic masks to the masses?
For Beats by Dre,
good design was only one part of the story.
(light music)
- I feel very thankful to have contributed
the part of the design.
Ultimately, the success of Beats
was because this was a badge of identity.
- The marketing for Beats,
directed by an Interscope Record CEO
and Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine
was hugely influential in their success.
- Jimmy asked a lot of artists specifically,
when you go and you're out in the public limelight,
you need to have these on.
You saw these on every music video.
will.i.am was on Larry King Show
and he had the Beats headphones around his neck
the whole interview.
The Beats headphones by itself as an object,
does it continue to play music well and work well?
100%.
But in terms of that feeling you get,
knowing that Dre has approved of these,
that Gwen Stefani is listening to these,
that's how you get a 3.2 billion dollar brand.
- Will the next generation of face masks
require a celebrity or political endorsement
to take hold in society?
Even if their effectiveness is clear, can they be cool?
Whether or not people will wear them remains to be seen,
but we know that Francois and other designers
are going to do their part to make them look good.
(upbeat music)
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