Alessi Mobile Phone
2010
KDDI/IIDA – Alessi
The project stems from a collaboration between Alessi and the Japanese telephone network KDDI through one of its brands, IIDA. The briefing required to characterize the mobile phone through the relationship with its accessories. The expected type was a double shell with central hinge and double display, smaller on the outside and larger on the inside. The prototypes of Mr Eye and accessories were presented in October 2010 at Tokyo Design Week. Unfortunately, despite the great appreciation of the public, the iPhone had been released a few months earlier, so KDDI, like other companies around the world, stopped the production of double shell phones. The purpose of Mr Eye is to be able to reinterpret the mobile phone and its accessories in an unconventional way, and to rethink them with an evident characterization.
Thus was born Mr Eye, a delightful character characterized by a large round eye in motion (external display) and a slight curvature of the profile that hints at his nose. Mr Eye interacts with his imaginary world (made up of other accessory objects of the mobile phone) as if it were in a theatrical scene. Once we find Mr Eye, intent on fishing for a small fish / charger, on the other hand the fishing rod turns into a leash and the charger into a black dog, while the earphones are romantically materialized in small hearts. But there is also the charger in the form of a red fox together with the trunk of a tree / dock station complete with a strap with a leaf and a bird. Finally we find Mr Eye in a cot to rest next to a small lamp / charger.
