This is a product design I created for a drinks bar / DJ booth. This was designed for Event Prop Hire and is available to hire from them for events.
The overall design is inspired by 80’s style ghetto blasters but is very much influenced by the more contemporary neon-retro look. This is hands down one of my most favourite projects and is definitely a product I am very proud of.
The design is stylised and original. I spent the initial stages researching boomboxes, picking out interesting features and exciting areas of their design. I then worked out proportions and sizes for the overall design to work to, ensuring that then end product would be fit for function. Once I had an informed view I started sketching various layouts and designs. This easily created over 20 ideas that I gradually broke down into 3 potential designs. What was most interesting is that the designs felt very original. This was mainly due to the fact that none of them was a copy of an existing ghetto blaster design, they were all a mix, taking inspiration from lots of various places.
Using these basic designs, I moved my ideas into Adobe Illustrator to create a 2D front view for each. It then became clear which of the designs really popped and had that graphic design language that would only become even more amazing once in 3D. I finalised the 2D drawing into a detailed render. At this point, I proposed the ideas in a few different colour schemes. These were debated and it was chosen that 2 products would now be made instead of just 1. We would build one in a classic techno black and another in a neon-retro style blue with bright accent colours. In 2018 we added to these colours with a C-3PO inspired gold and a bright fluorescent scheme.
Once the proportions worked in basic 2D orthographic view I progressed the design into 3D. Using SolidWorks I created a very detailed model which I then used to create production drawings as well as created 2D vectors that were used on various machinery to build the product. The design is a combination of polystyrene, wooden sheet material and cast plastic.
To give the final product that wow factor, I designed an LED lighting system into the product. This allows the insides of the speakers and tweeters, the top lightbox and gaps between the design to illuminate. Better still, I used an LED controller that responds to the vibrations created by surrounding music, this allows it to easily change to the beat of music without any complicated connections or software.
Check it out in action in the that I created video below.
You can hire this Ghetto Blaster DJ Booth from Event Prop Hire.
CHECK IT OUT IN ACTION
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