Norra Norr Heads

Norra Norr is a Stockholm-based industrial design consultancy made up of Andreas Enqvist, Erik Petersèn and Marcus Rudbäck. The three co-founders joined forces in August 2008 because they wanted to make industrial design products relevant to a new generation. Their latest project is a range of bespoke headphones for Swedish street fashion brand WeSC. Maraca was inspired by the headphones worn by old school deejays, while Pick-up resembles a turntable arm with hinges and joints aligned to the axis of rotation. Norra Norr's work belongs to the growing field of fashionable technology where fashion companies are looking to the world of industrial design to ensure the functionality of their products. We caught up with Norra Norr creative director Marcus Rudbäck to get the download on the their technological fashion.

Dazed Digital: What is the WeSC project all about?
Marcus Rudbäck: Maraca and Pick-up are designed exclusively for WeSC in terms of both the function and the look. One big inspiration for the design of both headphones was music and vintage music devices such as turntables and old-school DJ headphones. WeSC is a street fashion brand with a lot of connections to musicians, so the music inspiration seemed logical and fun. Both headphones are also collapsible so that you can put them in your jacket pocket when you're not wearing them.

DD: What was your design process?
MR: Well, we started up with a brainstorm with the WeSC team and a lot of wine… WeSC has a very creative and fun attitude about their brand and about fashion in general and we tried to tap into that energy and fly with it. Our strategy was to be less analytic and more personal in the development of the product.

DD: Your work straddles two disciplines: fashion and product design. Is there a changing relationship between the two disciplines, and what is the role of the industrial designer in the field of fashionable technology?
MR: Of course, WeSC is a fashion company that is developing and designing electronics, which traditionally have been the domain of industrial design companies. For us as industrial designers, self-expression and the user experience is far more important then tech specs and we belive this is true for most people. What is very important though is that electronic companies don’t have the credibility or the knowledge to make full-on fashion products. What I want to see more of in the future is fashion brands bringing in their own industrial design partners who do the designs and then futher develop and produce the products together with the electronics companies. Then you get the best of both worlds.

DD: The headphones hit the market at the end of the summer. How does it feel to see people walking around wearing your products?
MR: It's still pretty weird…But it is the best compliment you can get as a designer to see or hear that people appreciate all the hard labour behind the products. Every product we develop is like a child. You see it grow up and finally you see it live on its own.

DD: What else are you working on?
MR: We are currently working on a number of fashion headphones and a really nice time management piece. We are also developing ski goggles for Yniq, a Swedish eyewear company. We are also working on a train interior project, which will be a nice ride if you visit Stockholm in 2010. (Aforementioned ride will be on the Arlanda Express airport train).