Hi, I'm Phnam.
Hi, I'm Mardis.
We're the hosts of Future Future, where two designers talk about the future of everything.
We're in the business of turning science fiction into reality for a better future.
And today, we're going to talk about finishes.
So, finishes is the third installment of a series of videos that we're doing on CMF, as in colors, materials, and finishes.
A lot of the time, all of us experience finishes through the quality of products.
There are certain quality of products that are very cheap, and some that are very expensive.
For example, every time you walk into a dollar store,
the products and packaging that you see are very glossy and cheap
and there's not much attention given to them.
And that's because the designers didn't spend that much time figuring out what it looks like.
When you go into a high-end audio store, for example, every single finish that you see:
a brushed metal, little flakes of metal inside the coating of a surface,
or even the way wood is being treated...
everything is very subtle and very well designed and very rich.
And that is the work of a designer putting their effort into making something more expensive.
We think about how finishes are applied to different products
and how they are applied to a family of products as a whole.
And this is part of what we call our design language.
This helps brands establish their brand look and feel through products,
and how they establish it over time.
What's really interesting: through the application of finishes,
we can effect consumers' buying behaviors and decisions consciously.
They look at a product and they say, "oh, I like how this looks, or how it feels,
how I interact with it."
Or we can do it subconsciously.
Sometimes you pick up a product and you're not quite sure why you really are attracted to it.
You're not quite sure why this is the product for you.
So, close your eyes and then maybe touch that material.
And you might say, "oh wow, this has a very special finish that somehow I connect to."
So there are a lot of things that designers have to keep in mind when they make finish decisions for the products that they design.
First, we have to think about the usability.
Who's going to use it?
When are they going to use it?
How often?
Where is it going to live?
How do we interact with the product?
How do we hold the product, or carry a product?
Let's say...a tool.
[It] might be coated in a rubberized coating so that you don't drop the tool on a job site or whatnot.
Certainly, in an environment like a hospital, you'd want to make sure you have a good grasp of your surgical tool.
So, in those cases, we might use things called, "knurling."
Knurling is actually a mechanical treatment through a milling process that creates little, tiny textures
all over the surface of, say, a handle of a scalpel or exacto-knife.
So, a great example of finishes is a camera.
A high end camera has both a textural grip so you don't drop it,
[and] it usually has rubberized or has a TPU or some sort of elastomer so it's comfortable.
But then oftentimes what they do is they also spray on top of it a really durable textured paint.
And this does a couple of things: you don't drop it, but when you do it still looks fantastic because it's already got a texture.
And when you're talking about shooting pictures, you don't want reflections into the lens.
So, it's less likely for these hard, black materials to knick and then reflect light back.
So it's multi-purposes, multi-usabilities in the camera environment.
There are certain products that are matte or that are glossy.
And that really changes the way people perceive them.
For example, if you look at your car there might be metallic paint on it - nothing special.
And then, you upgrade and perhaps one day you can afford to buy a Ferrari.
And then there, you can have that wet, glossy, thick paint applied to the exterior that makes you feel a certain way.
Or you can go the complete opposite and get a matte black Lamborghini.
The expression of an object can be done through the finish applied to it.
And so next, we can think about how it fits in an environment.
Does it fit in a work environment?
Does it fit in a home environment?
Is it something that stands out?
That you use all the time?
That you're reminded to see very often during the day, like your cell phone or your laptop at work?
Or is it something that disappears in the background, like a piece of furniture?
A few years ago we designed a line of wireless charging devices for Intel.
These devices, we realized, should be disappearing when we're not charging devices.
They should be very prominent when we're using them, or very practical in their geometry.
So we made decisions on the finishes and the material we used based on that.
When you think about brands and how they represent themselves, some of them are calm, right?
They might be using matte finishes or fabrics.
Some other ones are very powerful, with very very aggressive proportions.
Some others may feel luxurious.
For example, a leather bag where the suppleness of the leather feels like butter,
and really reflects the lights and the shadows in a very beautiful way.
Sometimes the finish represents a brand.
You recognize the product before you even see the logo.
And that is the case with a brand like Le Creuset, for example.
It's a cast iron brand of cookware from France.
And they enamel all of their products.
You always recognize that gradient color with that very specific finish.
It feels good. It is very durable.
You pass it onto your children and grandchildren.
And there's something very [high] quality about the way it represents itself.
And for those designers out in the audience today, look beyond your rendering software.
We always default to what's in the library and what we can apply.
What we do here at Nonfiction is we keep a huge library of different materials and finishes and things we can reference all the time.
They're not just swatches and samples - they're actual products.
And it's really inspiring.
It really keeps us looking towards the future, expanding our minds, and we ask that you do the same.
We invite you to come up with ideas of what kinds of finishes
and what kinds of interactions with products you want in the future.
Things that don't exist yet.
Things that are perhaps combining two technologies of today can create for tomorrow.
And we thank you for joining us, and look forward to seeing you again sometime.
Bye.