PS 5 Reveal: Industrial Design Analysis

anytime people have a polarizing reaction towards your design it means you're onto something indifference or apathy towards a product is rarely a good thing so in that regard the PlayStation 5 console is a success when the PS 5 console was revealed people had strong reactions to it the design makes a really bold statement and a lot of people really love the way it looks while others really hated it now I have a lot of respect for the design team at Sony for taking that risk and we're gonna look at the PS 5s industrial design to figure out what's working what isn't working and why that is the case now to start we need to understand sony's aim for this product the tagline for PS 5 is play has no limits gaming in essence is an escape write the industrial design hints at this idea that this device can transport you to another world so there are other ways to express this idea other gaming consoles stick to a more minimal design that blends into the background so the focus is on the actual gaming experience you're not distracted by any sort of physical artifact Sony did the opposite their strategy was to make this design look like an imposing artifact from an alternate dimension or something so how did Sony do it I think there are a few words that describe this design well and I'll dissect how this design expresses those ideals so there are three main descriptors I associate with this design striking expressive and neo futuristic or neo futurism so the first thing I noticed about this design is how striking and imposing it is the two white surfaces almost appear to be floating off from the main body which is probably functionally necessary for ventilation but it also creates a really strong visual signature so these gentle white curved surfaces contrast starkly against the dark monolithic body now this color and material contrast is also big you have this glossy shiny black surface nested inside of a matte white shell now of course the human eye is attracted to contrast the darkest dark against the lightest light so this color contrasts in this material contrast really draws the eye in quite a bit the design also looks really space-age or almost alien so first of all it's a very unusual form to begin with right I haven't seen really any product shaped like this but they also did it by taking attention away from all the functional aspects of the design so the buttons and inputs are all blended in with the main body so we're used to seeing buttons and inputs on our electronic devices right if they were more visible it would sort of give us a frame of reference for something that we're familiar with but by hiding the buttons it makes the design seem unfamiliar giving it that striking look so the next thing I see is really how expressive this design is these curved lines create movement now with the exception of the disk drive there doesn't seem to be a single straight line on this entire product this creates a dynamic visual movement now in order to avoid going crazy these lines point down into the ground the lines converge inward to sort of create this arrow effect giving your eye a nice resting place I think if they hadn't done this the design would have just looked a little bit too crazy I think one of the most expressive and iconic aspects of the ps5 design are the fins that extend outward past the edges of the main enclosure so the fins feel really expressive to me because they kind of remind me of little antennae or some sort of lifelike appendage it just feels almost like a little character or something another thing that makes the design feel expressive is in the venting so the vents feel really organic rather than these man-made rigid symmetrical grids which is more common or more typical the pattern also looks to be non-uniform almost as if each event has a slightly different curve or shape to it to match the surfacing of the outer shell the last thing that this design reminds me of is related to neo futurism and this is seen through the really complex surfacing so when I talk about neo futurism I'm specifically talking about the architectural medium in a nutshell neo futurism represents the idea that advanced technology and computational design can create a better life Zaha Hadid is probably the most well known architect that utilized the style in the present day now neo futurism relies heavily on generative designs and computer algorithms to create advanced structures as a result of that the designs often feel hyper advanced and almost alien in their complexity the ps5 almost certainly derives inspiration from this neo futuristic highly complex surfacing now I'm not exactly sure what's happening with the ps5 surfacing simply because I don't have the ability to see it in person right now but I can definitely tell that there's some really complex compound curvature happening here it's almost inspired by some sort of hyper complex automotive design or something now a lot of people criticize the industrial design of the ps5 because they feel that the form doesn't follow any kind of function they say that it reminds them of late 90s or early 2000 industrial design and they mean this is a bad thing now I agree with the critics to an extent or at the very least I understand where they're coming from but to me the surfacing of the ps5 looks much more refined than its late 90s counterparts most of the objects from the late 90s and early 2000s felt very bulbous and almost kind of droopy but the PlayStation fives lines and surfaces are really tense and tight almost like a little sports car it actually reminds me a lot of the BMW i8 both in terms of the way that they handled the surfacing as well as the choice of colors materials and finishes another major critique that I consistently hear about the ps5 design is that it doesn't fit in the home now normally I'd agree with you on this having your designs fit within the context of where they're going to be used is critical to good industrial design that's why Google homes devices are so great they feel like they fit in the home but I don't think that a gaming console needs to blend in in the same way yes I get it it does spend its time sitting in your houses Entertainment System I get it but it has a completely different use case when compared to a smart home product a smart home product blends into the experience of living a gaming console is an escape from your everyday life so it can be a bit more expressive in my opinion now I don't think that this design is perfect I think that the disk drive being placed on the side is a little bit odd this was almost certainly due to engineering and manufacturing constraints and it would make more sense to have the disk drive be in the center of the device with all the other functional components and I even hesitated to critique this simply because I don't know what kinds of constraints the design team was working with I think it's undeniable that the digital edition looks much cleaner though the last thing I want to mention is that these organic surfaces and forms are not easy to analyze and images things like cubes and other rectilinear forms are just way easier to understand in 2d photographs and they just look better in images we're used to seeing them there's simpler shapes so it's easier to sort of wrap our head around what it might look like in three-dimensional space and this just isn't the case with these organic surfaces if you've ever designed any sort of highly complex organic objects like faucets or cars or something you'll know that a sketch or a two-dimensional representation of that object looks completely different from when you actually model it in 3d or build a physical prototype so with all that said I think that the ps5 is a really interesting design it's really striking it's expressive and it embraces neo futurism in a novel way I always respect any design team or company that champions something new and unique there are just so many products out there that are just really derivative or simply play it safe and once again the PS 5 is not a perfect design by any means but I'll reserve my final opinion for when I actually see it in person let me know what you think about the PS 5 in the comments thanks for checking us out guys don't forget to leave a like and subscribe

Channel: Design Theory

Views: 29,815

Keywords: industrial design, Design Theory, Design Language, Design, Design Analysis, Design Review, Industrial Design Education, Form Language, Branding, Sketching, Design Education, design school, industrial design school, industrial design tutorial, proportion, form, poduct design, product design language, brand identity, Hierarchy, Visual Proportion, Design Hierarchy, Design Tutorial, Playstation 5, PS5, PS 5, Playstation 5 Design, PS 5 Design, PS5 Design, PS5 Industrial Design

Id: OKAWCxQHzs0

Length: 8min 29sec (509 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 13 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/einsneun91]

Interesting take! I personally think we should be over the 'parametric phase' for buildings sooner rather than later. Look at Zaha Hadid vs Kengo Kuma's Tokyo Olympic Stadium designs.

Buildings that form a relationship with nature and their surroundings rather than a computer will have a lot more staying power. Wait until these parametric buildings start to decay - it will be like the concrete brutalism that led to drab cities all over again.

I feel like rather than automotive there's something almost semi-organic to the PS5's design, like paper, or almost leaf-like. There's a lightness to it, pretty much the antithesis to the Xbox.

It's an interesting design and like you, I'm not at odds with the fact that its 'fins' flange out, but rather how they do it, aesthetically. Maybe it opens up a bit too much to my eye. Do really like the bottom part of the PS5 when standing vertically.

The overall impression might be different in person though, since it's quite a complex shape.

I like that they didn't go along with current trends where you just make a simple shape with some rounded corners and call it a day. (See Apple, Sonos, Google etc.)

Something tells me that the future won't just be 'how objects are curved', which is the PS5's approach, but rather what we do with the materials that make up the products. Maybe we'll see new complex patterns emerge, also 3-dimensionally (hints for that in the new Mac Pro 'grater' design), or a wider spectrum of materials (e.g. Microsoft's Alcatara). Material-wise, the PS5 doesn't look out of the ordinary.

I've read a couple of times already that the PS5's design is what we thought the future would look like in the mid-2000's - maybe it's because we've already seen these trends in architecture, and that provides a certain degree of familiarity with its design language.

It's nice to see them embrace an emotive design though, and being an entertainment system, it will already be entertainment in itself to see these in living rooms... and we're talking about it, that alone must stand for something!

[u/the_spookiest_]

Always enjoy these videos. Informative and talk about the design. Good contrast to all of the other design videos on YouTube.

[u/simpernchong]

Cool video. Thanks.

[u/Fermented_Mucilage]

I disagree that divisive opinions are a good sign. And some people like it but I don't think that many people love it. You could compare it to the cybertruck, but the cybertruck design is mostly driven by function, which isn't the case with the PS5.

I think this is one of those designs that can be easily "solved" by other designers who will take the language and come up with something more cohesive. I'm tempted to have a go myself.

I also think they wanted to go bold but were afraid of going too bold so it ends up sitting in the uncanny valley of behance concepts from 1st year design school students. It's too weird for the living room and not weird enough to pass as an art piece. Basically looks cheap.

[u/EntropyEq]

This is a great in-depth exploration of the PS5 and I think you touched on a lot of really good points here. Thanks for making and sharing this.

While my training and experience in the design field urges me to engage with it in the same way you have here, I literally cannot get over how much I dislike it. In particular the version with a disk drive. I think it's absolutely terrible and I have a very hard time taking it seriously.

I mainly play PC games these days, but PS used to be my console of choice. If I was still more into consoles than PC, this would make me switch to team Xbox. No way I would pay for this tragedy and then force myself to look at it every day whether I'm gaming or not.