Sometimes, the simplest solutions are the best ones. Case in point: turning up the volume. For decades, audio geeks have been perfecting the art of noise, connecting wires to one another and figuring out that sweet spot where bass, treble and midrange coalesce perfectly together and volume control becomes completely intuitive. But all it took to make the coolest speaker ever was a bit of glass and simple physics. Paul Cocksedge, a British designer who studied under the revered Ron Arad (who’s no stranger to Furniture Fashion himself), has mimicked the high school megaphones of yesteryear (and, in a way, the old glass-to-the-door eavesdropping trick) to create Volume, a glass iPhone speaker that’s kind of a forehead slapper. Much like yesterday’s magnetic breakfast tray, when we saw it, we thought, “Why in the world hasn’t anyone else thought of this before?” A perfect party centerpiece and rather artful object even when enjoying its sounds alone, the “speaker” varies in capability based on the way in which you insert your smartphone: if you want ambient sound, you aim it upward, suspending it parallel to the opening; for streaming in a single direction, you angle the phone for a bit of bounce and reflection back out of the cylinder in a straight line. It’s a clever bit of transparency indeed, and we’re excited to hear more (pun intended) from what’s between this London-based designer’s ears in the future.
Photo credits: Paul Cocksedge