chris kujawski - industrial design

Versatile Series Redesign

While at FITCH I had the opportunity to
work on the redesign Altec Lansing's most
popular line of speakers- the VS or
Versatile Series.

The design brief contained the challenges
of identifying and defining the potential
user, researching various socio-economic
trends and evaluating their impact on the
marketplace, defining what Altec Lansing’s
ownable attributes in the marketplace were
and synthesizing all that input into the
design of a line of powered desktop
speakers to be sold at a very low price
point ($49.99 USD).

The design solution took into account the
competitive landscape and usage
environment, the needs and desires of the
target customer, and the client’s
parameters on size, component layout and
manufacturing capability.

Identifying an increasing adoption of flat
panel monitors at home, we made a
conscious effort to flatten the appearance
of the satellites, dividing up mass into
three sections in profile (what was called
the “sandwich” concept during
development). They tilt back at 10
degrees, what we observed was
approximately the angle of most monitors
and laptop screens.

In response to the ubiquitous need for
effective cable management that we
observed during numerous in-house audits,
a cord wrap was integrated into the rear of
the subwoofer on the VS 2321. It provides
a discreet solution to the excess cable that
inevitably gets tangled around your feet.
Another observation that led to a design
solution was that most desktop speaker
systems offer an additional input and a
headphone jack, but are usually in out of
the way, difficult to access locations like
on the back of the satellite or on the
subwoofer. We moved all the controls and
ports that you need immediate access to
the front of the right satellite. There you
can turn the system on, adjust the volume,
plug in headphones and an mp3 player,
and use the SFX (sound field expander)
feature.

Every design choice we made had to be
carefully balanced against the tight
manufacturing cost restraints the VS line
of speakers had, since they were Altec
Lansing’s entry level offering. We
achieved a higher end looking
appearance through the selective use of
metallic finishes, consistent details across
lines (control placement, feature
alignment, radii) and integrating low cost
additional features such as the cord wrap.