Jul 8 2014
Today Ultimate Ears announced that its popular UE BOOM wireless speaker has won a prestigious 2014 Gold Industrial Design Excellence Award (IDEA) in the entertainment category from the Industrial Designers Society of America (ISDA). This is the first IDEA win for the Ultimate Ears brand and fourth design win for UE BOOM since its introduction in May 2013.
UE BOOM (Photo: Business Wire)
“Our goal was to build a speaker that would change standard one-directional sound, so we created a 360-degree experience for people to listen – and share – their music with friends all around them, just how music was meant to be enjoyed,” said Rory Dooley, general manager of Ultimate Ears. “The design of UE BOOM keeps the social aspect of music at the forefront, while allowing people to pick it up and go anywhere without worrying about damaging it. This speaker can take almost anything. We are honored to have received this prestigious design award for UE BOOM.”
UE BOOM is a mobile wireless speaker packed with specific features that set a new standard for listening to music in any environment. Specifically, its versatile go-anywhere shape fits in any backpack or water bottle holder, and it is wrapped in a specially developed acoustic skin that is both water- and stain-resistant. The customizable acoustic skin presents another layer of design, as it acts as a blank canvas that is easily updated to create limited edition UE BOOMs. Additionally, thanks to the speaker’s cylindrical shape, it blasts bold 360-degree sound.
“We designed UE BOOM to be a speaker to truly fit your life – anywhere you go,” said Branko Lukic, founder of NONOBJECT, design firm behind UE BOOM. “Every detail of the design supports this.”
IDEA by ISDA celebrates excellence in product design in terms of sustainability, interaction design, packaging, strategy, research and concepts. In 2014, only 27 out of 2,000 entries received the Gold IDEA.
“[UE BOOM] feels like industrial design 2.0,” said Mike Simonian, an IDEA 2014 juror and co-founder, Mike & Maaike. “[It’s] a progressive and fresh approach to form, detailing and color.”