Shaking Hands with the Zeitgeist. : Influencing trends through strategic design.

Research into cultural dynamics and trend mechanisms has been used to “deconstruct” theinfluence structure of fashion in a way that can be applied to a hypothetical design strategy.The design strategy revolves around designing products with the intension to indirectlycommunicate an idea or ideas and by taking advantage of a products emotional value, toincrease structural and cognitive embeddedness of underlying ideas.The application of the strategy is the design of a smart product called “Gelo”. Gelo is a ‘smartwall’ concept that uses soft robotic actuators to transform its surface to adapt to changinglight conditions, improve room acoustics, and produce dynamic visual displays.By using HASEL soft robot actuators for movement, emerging technology could be exploredthrough the medium a conceptual consumer product while also allowing interestingfunctionality to be implemented to the Gelo concept. The addition of this functionalityallowed for ‘display like’ properties which are used to explore the idea of smart home devicesas a way of provide an enhanced emotional experienced.