Classic Design: The essence of B&O design
The marriage of functionality, design, and craftsmanship to retain the humanized values inherited from culture and history.
The nearly 100-year-old B&O brand perfectly presents the essence of Danish Design, a continuous innovator of high-end audio products. The founder Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen’s original idea is to combine simple aesthetics with excellent sound quality in the living scene, bringing people magical music enjoyment. We love B&O design, but what’s the spirit of B&O design?
1. Design is not an end in itself but a means.
B&O views design as a medium to convey its values about technology and notion. It means that design work is never isolated but highly integrated with engineering technology, also oriented by meaningful design thought. Highly styled form, practical functions, excellent performance, ease of use, and durability come from its core philosophy: The marriage of functionality, design, and craftsmanship to retain the universal values comes from culture and history.
2. Design must have a solid philosophy
The design would become superficial and transient without profound thought and values. B&O understands design needs a solid concept to support its creation. Its design philosophy is derived from the company’s mission statement and embodies the unique value of creation. The core is pursuing high quality, product durability, environmental protection, etc. B&O also emphasizes its product to bring a high-quality and tasted “lifestyle.” With this concept, B&O product is much ease to arouse the value identity of targeted consumers.
3. Manufactured to the highest standard
When discussing good design, we should consider the quality of design implementation. Without good production technology, good products cannot be cast. The high quality of B&O products is first and foremost due to their manufacturing to the highest standards. For example, the carefully selected materials and the unique treatment of the product surface are the exclusive features of B&O products and part of its competitiveness. The machining, polishing, and anodizing of aluminum is one of their technical capabilities from a strategic view. It invested heavily in material handling research to make this material optimal for decorative purposes.
4. Minimalist/poetic aesthetic language
B&O products have a noticeable and consistent visual language. Jacob Jensen, one of the godfathers of Danish design, shaped B&O’s visual language from the 1960s to the 1990s and laid the fundamental tone of B&O’s aesthetic language. It got rid of the overly monotonous rational aesthetics of the Bauhaus and was committed to finding a fusion of extreme simplicity and poetic expression. “Ideally, poetry is expressed by the products being able to speak for themselves, conveying in a simple way what they contain and what they do.” Designer Henrik Sørig Thomsen worked with B&O for a long time. It well reflects B&O’s pursuit of pure visual language.
Accompanied by this simplicity and lyrical language, material finds a unique role in expressing its aesthetic. B&O favors the aluminum material with a high-tech feel and a neutral light reflection. This material is endowed with a poetic quality drawn on the optimal surface treatment technique.
Their product also looks neutral and restrained since B&O emphasizes product is one part of the live environment and should fit well into the living scene without noise.
5. “The Sound of Nature.”
Natural acoustic restoration and the best sound quality are the core experience of B&O products. B&O is committed to designing high-end/compact-powered speakers, and its goal has always been faithful to reproducing the original sound. Loyal to the “sound of nature” is at the heart of guiding the company’s technical research and development efforts. Its technology continues to set new standards for the spatial sound characteristics of its products. The company has in-house R&D and testing facilities unmatched by other manufacturers. One example is their know-how in producing good bass in a small enclosure for the automotive industry. All driver units of the B&O system use closed cabinets, allowing complete control of acoustic parameters and ensuring the vehicle does not interfere with the surrounding environment, even if the car’s audio system is loud.
Challenges facing Digitizing
B&O attaches great importance to the design concepts. Even so, it must be sensitive to needs and times changes. With the advent of digital technology, the inherent advantages of B&O are no longer prominent. The challenge is not only technological but also lifestyle change. Initially, the B&O stereo symbolized a place where the family would gather and have fun, but the fireplace/large stereo is no longer the centerpiece of the modern home.
Relying on digital technology, we can now easily consume music or video anywhere by mobile. Therefore, before innovations, this classic brand is expected to build a new meaning to integrate into the digital environment by re-interpret the changes of the times and the deep needs of consumers. After all, B&O is unrivaled in quality aesthetics and sound quality, and what it needs is a new innovative concept within the digital context.
Some classic speaker designs from B&O.
