Tetsu Sumii, the designer of the PlayStation 4’s slick look, wanted the new console to break away from the brand’s past image. He wanted to break away from the console-looking shells of the previous PlayStation machines in a talk with the PlayStation blog.
“I think the PlayStation brand image needs to be changed a little bit, as it’s a new console, and we have to show what we’re pointing towards for he future. So I thought it should be one of the most smart, cool and intelligent products from Sony. Not just fro Sony Computer Entertainment but the company as a whole. This should be one of the best, coolest, most sophisticated products we’ve created. That’s what we were striving for.
“When we started the product design for PS4, we didn’t start by thinking about what the shape would be. It was more about how we were going to create a new brand identity through the product.”
In fact, Sumii admits that the original design for the PlayStation 4 was completely different than what you will see on store shelves. However, the core philosophy behind how he wanted the case to look he remained the same.
“I just wanted to make a simple object for the living room. Sometimes products are a little too exaggerated. It should be simple. That’s my thinking.”
Despite being just the outer shell, the look of something can influence a person’s behavior to it. The PlayStation 4 manages to subtly imply power and sophistication. I think Mr. Sumii succeeded on that front at least.