In early 2009, RKS founder and CEO, Ravi Sawhney took a team of his most talented female designers and set them loose to explore blue-sky headphone concepts.  The multi-disciplinary team included Soyun Kim, Leah Thomas, Young Bang, and Hojin Choi.

The team first mapped competitor products, which were largely sporty or technology-driven designs.  Realizing that a woman’s sense of style was clearly missing from these offerings, the designers saw a strategic opportunity to bring higher fashion to the headphone market.

The team presented the concept to Vestalife and Vestalife asked RKS to tackle earbud designs. “What we really wanted to do was create designs that looked more like earrings than earbuds,” Soyun explains.  And they didn’t focus on just the earbuds themselves.

“With more traditional earbuds, the design stops at the body,” explains Leah.  “We chose to bring attention to the cord, treating it, too, like jewelry that was meant to be displayed, not hidden.”  Soyun agrees, “By wrapping the cord in fabric, it is transformed from ordinary of electronics into something that evokes the look and feel of a necklace.”

In collaboration with Vestalife executives, the team settled on three designs.  The first, Bumblebee (shown above in red) includes refined geometric shapes and defined radius details.

Scarab (directly above) evokes the rich history of the iconic Egyptian symbol of renewal and rebirth with a thoroughly modern feel.

Boa (directly above) revealed its name when the wrap-around cord gently “squeezed” the housing.  With its elegant, understated design and the natural fabric look of the cord, it has a classic, casual feel.

Once the designs were completed, Hojin came in to help complete things with packaging design.  The packages themselves would have to complement the fashion statement being made by the earbuds and headphones.  “The package designs have a modern vintage feeling to connect with the more sophisticated audience,” says Hojin.  First a die-cut was used to create the impression of the product floating within a frame wrapped by a gold band, while keeping costs and materials use within specifications. The feel of jewelry packaging was even brought to the hangtags!

In previews, the designs have already piqued press interest and garnered retailer pre-orders far in excess of expectations. The Bumblebee, Scarab, and Boa earbuds debuted at CES this week, and they were just awarded Good Design Awards by the Chicago Athenaeum and the “Best in Show” Award for 2010 by iLounge today at CES.

These earbuds should be available for consumers soon. More info at www.rksdesign.com and www.vesta-life.com

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