USB products - food for thought

11 Apr 2006 Category: Events & Exhibitions, Features, Products, Worldwide

USB products - food for thought

What is most essential in life?

Increasing digitalism often leaves us with an empty feeling: a lack of something “real” to touch. dialog05, a group of 5 German industrial designers put some thought into what connects and bridges the digital with the physical world, and what’s essential for us in terms of storing and accessing data (symbolized by the use of USB connections) in our lives. They turned their ideas into some actual products to touch and play with. Here is our little PingMag showcase about their work.

Written by Uleshka

universal connections model for an USB phone

The model for a USB phone is probably the easiest to understand. Thinking about it practically: we actually really don’t need a physical phone at all. We can easily talk into a head-set or just chat into the mic input when calling our mums through Skype or some similar service. However, it feels kind of odd, doesn’t it!? So when Hulger introduced their nostalgic and stylish phones it made it very obvious, how much physical (and mental) need there is to actually hold something in your hand when you talk - just like in the old days.

USB phones sold on the Skype website

Thinking about this, I was wondering what this group of designers had in mind when introducing some similar “physical” ideas in their universal connections exhibition in Munich.

Markus, how did you guys meet and come up with the idea for “universal connections”?

We happened to work together as fellow industrial designers at designafairs in Munich, a design consultancy where we mainly designed mobile phones and phone concepts for Siemens mobile, LG Electronics and Motorola. Some of them are in production, others still in the concept stage, some might be out soon. dialog05 sort of works for us like a counterpart where we explore design from a different, more conceptual angle. It keeps our ideas fresh thinking about non-commercial concepts without the pressure of them actually having to “work” and “function” right away.

Data Injection: for data junkies or to prevent a virus? Get your daily injection here.

universal connections is a project to turn ideas into physical products and to find out how people react.

Your objects and products are surprising, inspiring and questioning - some of them ironic or even amusing. What was your motivation, and who paid for all this?

All objects were designed and manufactured by us and we also organized the exhibition… We simply wanted to introduce some food for thought.

USB secure data lock - no one can access that without permission for sure!


Log-in: Forgot your password? This universal handle opens doors and gates


Trash-can: an icon regains its physical form

But those products don’t really work yet, do they? If so, I will be the first one to buy that trash-can!!!

So far they are purely aesthetic design models, none of them is functional in its current state. Most of them could easily be turned into working products, though. It wasn’t our main focus to actually make these products. Our main objective was to start a dialogue about the larger topic of: virtual vs. physical or digital vs. analogue and the objects created were mainly a medium to get there.

Now that we got such good feedback, we might decide to do a few of them, though.

at the exhibition

Could this be art? Well - that would depend what’s on the stick, I guess…

Which ones will you build then? Any in particular that you’re thinking about producing?

So far nothing has been decided… It’s more important for us that they “work” on a conceptual level and that they get people talking, rather than generating another mass-produced product - so we’ll see..

Eternal Love: are we made for one another? Are we really compatible? How well do we match? Find out!

French Connection: Un-plug and play!

Aah! Too bad! I was kind of hoping that you were a little bit further with that already. For example, that you already worked out the technology for the trash-can or …. So what are most of these products made out of at the moment?

So far the design models we made are constructed with a mix of materials. Some are almost kind of ready-made’s where we took existing everyday products and changed and adjusted them to express the concept.

Business Class: what is the best way to make business contacts? At a power-meeting or power-napping? Always ready to receive…

For Back-Packers: the digital-money-belt

Well - either way thanks for those quick answers! Hope you will get some of them built at some point soon! If so, please keep us updated!

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72 Comments

  1. Unplug and play your bra? Very funny you guys…

    Posted by: Anime Babe on April 12th, 2006 at 2:14 am

  2. LOL! I love this article, including the note you put underneath the bra picture! ^0^

    Posted by: Gaby on April 12th, 2006 at 4:16 am

  3. [...] Beautiful experiments in USB by dialog05, a group of five German industrial designers. I love the USB lock drive, and their USB phone handset is great, too. [via PingMag] [...]

    Posted by: Links: USB Beauty, Startups, Video Remixing, MySpace Obits at Amit Gupta’s Blog on April 12th, 2006 at 3:26 pm

  4. [...] Dialog05, a group of five German industrial designers experimented with the Universal Serial Bus. I love the USB data injection, and their USB phone handset is really great, too. [via PingMag] [...]

    Posted by: No time >> links >> blogging at Flo.Mo’s Blog on April 12th, 2006 at 4:41 pm

  5. [...] Dialog05, a group of five German industrial designers experimented with the Universal Serial Bus. I love the USB data injection, and their USB phone handset is really great, too. [via PingMag] [...]

    Posted by: No time = links = blogging at Flo.Mo’s Blog on April 12th, 2006 at 4:43 pm

  6. [...] pingmag has food for thought if you like design and think that digital convergence can take shape in and extend to the physical world. I do. The article presents the work and interviews dialog05, a group of German industrial designer. [...]

    Posted by: Zelig » Blog Archive » USB for the masses on April 13th, 2006 at 3:43 pm

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  10. [...] Increasing digitalism often leaves us with an empty feeling: a lack of something “real” to touch. dialog05, a group of 5 German industrial designers put some thought into what connects and bridges the digital with the physical world, and what’s essential for us in terms of storing and accessing data (symbolized by the use of USB connections) in our lives. They turned their ideas into some actual products to touch and play with. Read more from PingMag. Tags: design, Exhibition, ideas [...]

    Posted by: SUMI » Blog Archive » USB products - food for thought on June 15th, 2006 at 7:04 pm

  11. Finally a bra for nerds.

    Posted by: usb-hub on July 29th, 2006 at 5:04 pm

  12. That is indeed wonderful. Especially I love the first photo with the water tap. Although USB is necessary and important for survival of human life on earth (yeah it is! I can’t live without my brand new Takoyaki USB disk which I got from my cute Japanese girlfriend) still I have to put water first.

    USB secure disk is something that really could be made as functional device - that is truly innovation! It could be even made so that without the key, the chip won’t be functional so that it counts off the possibility that someone tries to force it open or something. If there is such in the shop I will buy it.
    USB tie is great too and always handy! Much better than some of those boring “kingston” neckbands

    Posted by: ヤーッコ on August 5th, 2006 at 7:45 am

  13. For chrissakes, spare us from this post-modernist wank!

    Posted by: Steve on August 11th, 2006 at 7:51 pm

  14. The idea of a universal connector may be appealing to some.

    But I think it’s terribly bad design. Not from an aesthetic standpoint but from a usability standpoint.

    A connector should provide visual and tactile information about what that connector is designed for.

    Unless you propose to have connectors so smart that they can route power to a power connector and phone to a phone connector, it’s a terrible idea.

    And aesthetically it’s not too hot either. It’s hip in an iPod sort of way but in five years these will look as dated as avocado green shag carpets.

    Posted by: qerqwer on August 12th, 2006 at 4:20 pm

  15. good idea on the usb bra! a bra that even geeks can undo :P

    Posted by: hughie on August 16th, 2006 at 9:10 pm

  16. heii…very good idea of the USB!!
    I like it very much….and it’s funny also! hahaha ^0^

    Posted by: Cindy on February 7th, 2007 at 11:02 pm

  17. [...] just stumbled across this: Pingmag has a great post about some crazy USB-Devices manufactured by a group of five German industrial designers, dialog5. They also have an interview [...]

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