INTRO

Type

Side Project

Year

2015

Team

Lorenz Bauer 

 About

The project started during an internship as a B-Concept I designed and got elaborated by myself later on.

The design concept MERGE M1 is a pair of high-fidelity over-ear headphones. An outstanding feature of the design concept is the novel connection between the headband and the earcup via a hidden hinge, allowing a reduced and unified look.

DESIGN PROCESS

CATEGORY

There are several categories of headphones, fulfilling certain needs for different application scenarios.  The Merge M1 belongs to the category of over-ear headphones. Products from this category are known for very high sound quality due to the physical volume of the drivers and a fully isolating earcup. Those characteristics make over-ear headphones more static and unflexible for use scenarios outside of the house. The wireless Merge M1 are Over-ear headphones specially designed to be used on the go too. For making the user more comfortable wearing the prominent headphones in public, the architecture got aesthetically reduced by letting earcup's additive fork disappear.

MOODBOARD

DESIGN INSPIRATION

IDEATION

DESIGN

An outstanding feature of the headphones is the connection between the headband and the earcup. The headband merges into a slot instead of being connected to the outside of the earcup by an additive hinge. The ‘hidden hinge’ enables all necessary movements for proper adjustment of the headphone. 

TRANSFORMATION

FINAL DESIGN