Explanation of the industrial design for Toshiba Bluray player by Giles Mitchell.
Most player devices at that time followed a traditional format of a bent sheet metal box with a moulded plastic front face. And designers were only invited to design the front face. This made sense when players were placed on the shelf of a TV cabinet, but as TVs had become thinner and lighter, there was less need for users to have any special TV furniture at all. I therefore challenged this conventional thinking with a new design principle.
With this 360 design concept, I insisted that the object could be placed anywhere and therefore had to be compact and beautiful from every angle. Inspired by gaming consoles it also could be placed vertically or horizontally.
The aluminium top plate was available in two finishes : black anodised brushed finish and blast silver.
Industrial Design by Giles Mitchell
Image Credits: Toshiba (except last photo collage by Giles Mitchell)