Three Important Product Designs that have made a significant Impact on Society Presentation Report 'Communicating to the World'

Presentation Report


Leo Fender, having a passion for electronics and woodwork, began his career in 1938 by setting up a radio repair shop in Fullerton California. In a shed behind the shop fender produced his first electric guitar.
In the period of the 1930s experiments were conducted into increasing the sound level of the guitar by players and instrument makers. They attached magnetic pickups to Spanish hollow body guitars but that only resulted in feedback.
In 1947, Leo fender developed his first solid wood body electric guitar, where the sound came directly from the strings to the amplifier. This resulted in a strong sound without feedback owing to the fact there was no sound box to cause resonance.
Fender also continued to design and develop guitar pickups and amplifiers.
Hilary,McDermott (2002, p,101)


The transistor was developed and prototyped in 1948 by Bill Shockley, who was the team leader at Bell Telephone Laboratories, designated with the challenge to find a technological replacement for the valve.
Valves were principally amplifying vacuum tubes, which were unreliable and used too much power. They were used to amplify signals in audio and radio communications equipment.
Transistors however, are physically smaller, reliable and use a fraction of the power. The transistor relied on the development of the P N junction which involved doping a silicon wafer with antimony to provide an excess of electrons to create a 'n' type material and doping with germanium to create a defiency of electrons in the 'p' type material. When a voltage is applied across the PN junction electrons will flow from the 'n' type material to the 'p' type material and a current will flow.
When the silicon wafer is fabricated into an N P N material configuration, a transistor device is then created allowing electons to be controlled when the transistor is used in an electronic circuit.
The transistor may be used as an electronic switching device in a computer microprocessor system, or as an amplifier in either radio communications and audio applications. Antonelli (2005, p,197)


One of the first products that enabled people to listen to music in a personalised way and allow people to create their own space was the Sony Walkman. Invented in 1978 by the chairman of sony, Akio Morita, the Sony Walkman was a simplification of existing tape players which were used to listen to music in a social setting. The Walkman however was a personalised portable stereophonic cassette player with light -weight headphones, looked functional and colorful and soon became a fashion accessory for young people. The Sony Walkman name was chosen and aimed at a global consumer market. Indeed, the Sony Walkman sold in excess of 50 million units enabling the Walkman name to become a generic term that is testimony to the product's success. Hilary,McDermott (2002, p,129)


These three designs have in their own unique way not only made a significant impact on society but also influenced popular culture;
Fender with his development of the electric guitar, which enabled musicians to express their artistic abilities. The invention of the transistor which opened the pathway for development of electronic products such as the Sony Walkman, which then ultimately enabled the music created by the the electric guitar to be


'communicated to the World'.


References
Hilary, B. McDermott,C. 2002 : Classics of Design.
London. The Brown Reference Group


Antonelli,P. 2005. Humble Mastepieces: 100 Everyday Marvels of Design.
London. Thames and Hudson.




Powerpoint Presentation on CD ROM