Calculator by Alex Hulme
London Design Festival 2010: at the Sunbury Workshops Open Studios in east London next week designer Alex Hulme will present this calculator that has two programmable LCD buttons for storing useful figures.
Having observed calculator users scribbling numbers on scraps of paper for use later in a calculation, Hulme decided to add the LCD screens to two buttons under the main screen.
Users click on the left of a button to allocate its value, then tap the right side to use it in a sum. They can also scroll back to check and edito through the whole calculation.
Sunbury Workshops Open Studios will be open Saturday 18 to Sunday 26 September, 11am to 5pm.
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The information that follows is from Hulme:
CALCULATOR
Alexander Hulme has designed a pocket calculator with a cut-and-paste style memory. Inspired by people scribbling numbers on scraps of paper, it features two extra LCD screens that are used as buttons to store figures.
It also features an in-line display, with the ability to go back and forwards to check and edit calculations.
The project uses several LCD screens as buttons giving an interaction closer to a webpage than a traditional consumer product.
In many ways the calculator is a bit of a forgotten object. Although there are a many designs out there, very few look at more than the exterior casing.
As a result, the pocket calculator hasn't really changed functionally in over 40 years.
By trying to understand an object like this as part of a system (In this case, one working out sums), it’s shortcomings quite quickly become apparent.
Problems like hiding away numbers you really need to see or not being able to go back and change things.
Simple problems that somehow have never been addressed, mainly because the existing archetype is so intrenched.
ALEXANDER HULME
Alexander Hulme is a London based designer with passion for combining conceptual thinking with industrial objects.
Since graduating from the Royal College of Art he has established his own studio in East London where he pursues a combination of his own projects and commissions.
SUNBURY WORKSHOPS OPEN STUDIOS
At the North end of Swanfield Street in the heart of Shoreditch in East London lies a jewel in the crown of London's young creative sector. This small row of Victorian workshops is home to a diverse range of studios practising a scope of disciplines ranging from furniture and product design to architecture, interactive design and illustration. During the London Design Festival 2010 Sunbury Workshops, lead by a host of graduates form London's Royal College of Art, will open its doors as a selection of the inhabitants host open studios events and reveal new collections, hidden processes, and a working environment that truly represents the young creative flair of the London’s up and coming East-end.
The Open Studios will include new works from:
Unit 32
Catherine Kramer
Tommasso Lanza
Ross Cairns
Unit 29
Valentin Vodev
Olivia Descaris
Good Wives and Warriors
Nelly Ben Hayoun
Unit 17
Gilles Miller
Alex Hulme
Dominic Hargreaves
Felix de Pass
Saturday 18th to Sunday 26th September 11am to 5pm.
17, 29 and 32
Sunbury Workshops
Swanfield street
London E2 7LF
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| Electronic Calculator XS by plusminuszero |
Electronic calculator by plusminuszero |
All our stories about the London Design Festival 2010 |