Teenage Engineering and the “Game and Watch” of synthesizers.
How the company created a perfect synthesizer for broke enthusiasts.
http://www.kitmonsters.com/blog/teenage-engineering-x-prototypa
Teenage Engineering is a small music tech company founded on a CNC machine and the passion to create the perfect portable synthesizer. Their first prototypes started as a brick with buttons essentially. It turned into the OP-1, a small synthesizer and sequencer. Later on, they needed to address the problem of people who couldn’t afford their premium devices.
“It’s an organic process..”
Thomas Howard, head of mechanic engineering for Teenage Engineering, states that their process begins with simply having fun and messing around with the elements they have. Imagine a room full of geeks/engineers soldering, painting, and cutting up things in the same room; they start every process hands-on.
Each synthesizer starts out bare-bones and is designed from the inside out. The function must be perfect as well as the form, but the inside matters first.
Each synthesizer is prototyped over and over, they even have jam sessions along the way to get a feel for each device.
In addition to rigorously testing their devices with each prototype, they also listen to their fans, fellow enthusiasts. Thomas Howard says that one of their greatest ideas for a software update on their OP-1 came from a video sent in by a 7 year old Swedish boy.
The Pocket Operator, specifically, is an answer to their fans more than anything, because it’s affordable. Additionally, they listen to many different fans and celebrity advice on how to make it even more of a dream machine.
A pocket synthesizer for 49… well, 59 dollars.
The team at Teenage Engineering realized they made two main products and both were far above a hundred dollars. They sought to change this by making the ultimate all-in-one pocket sized synth for only 49 dollars. Inspired heavily by Game and Watch and other old hand held gaming devices, they had a lot of fun with this concept. The end result was built from raw old materials; exposed PCB boards and bare switch buttons. They weren’t able to achieve their original price goal however, so it’s the ultimate dream synth for fifty-nine dollars instead.
Teenage Engineering’s process described in a linear fashion:
- Play around with your resources until something clicks.
- Prototype.
- Play with it some more.
- Prototype some more.
- Create the “final” product.
- Update things as fans send in their ideas.
Takeaways from Teenage Engineering’s process.
Learning about the process of this small music tech company was fun and exhilarating in a way. Seeing that such beautiful, polished products came from such down-to-earth people was nice to realize. I think this is what makes any brand/corporation’s process effective and comfortable to their audience. Being connected to your audience is one thing, but when you seek out advice and the needs of your clients, you make them feel like they are an essential part of the process as well (which they should!). All in all, I love any small brand that is run by a bunch of crazy enthusiasts. Should that brand get really big and successful like Google or Nike, it’s important to try and hold on to the same morals.
