Designers: RKS Design Inc.
Client: KQuest/Benwin
Contact: Angela Kamm, RKS Design, Inc., 805.370.1200

Though they look more like cheese graters than a sound system, these multimedia speakers use flat-panel technology to reduce the size, vary the shape and create a 'what-is-it-I-want-one' mindset. The hole-filled arch of each speaker has a soft Santoprene top that can widen or narrow the arch, although little adjustment is required with technology that projects sound 360 degrees. Comparable in quality to high-end stereo systems, the speakers compare in price to larger desktop systems.

"This was one of the few entries in the Consumer Electronics category this year that really made me think 'wow'. I was struck by how the design takes advantage of a new flat-panel speaker technology to really push the form beyond the beige-box-on-a-foot look that is typical of small tabletop speaker systems. Other speakers using this same technology are also coming on the market, but the Benwin Executive leaps to the formal refinement level of a second-generation product right out of the gate."
Adam Richardson, IDSA, Praxis Product Design

© 1999 Industrial Designers Society of America