With our materials-based design approach we are always thinking about what a material can do and designing towards those capabilities. An honest approach to materials and process is characteristic of our design.
Peter Griffiths describes how this honest approach to materials reflects a wider design ethos for Microsoft Mobile:

 

“This is about understanding what is the best material we can make an object from and what is the best we can do with it. I have a Tapio Wirkkala quote that is very useful: ‘Material always entails opportunities. It’s as if it urges one to create something out of it.’ He had a way of conversing with a material and understanding its properties. There are some things a material lends itself to and some things it doesn’t. And if you work with this you will get a beautiful result.”

One of the most fundamental constraints for mobile devices is antenna performance. So, when we set out to find the best material to work with radio antennas, our designers turned to polycarbonate. The material is integral to designing an efficient and innovative product. Griffiths offers that this naturally led to the CMYK color palette that makes our devices so recognizable:

“When Color and Materials Design did a study, they found that CMYK colors worked best because they are the process colors. It has become an important expression of our family of products. We used color in this way for the first time with the N9 and the Lumia 800.”

Inherent color polycarbonate means that the material is the color, rather than a coating of paint on top, so if you scratch or drop your device, the color doesn’t chip off; resulting in a stronger product. “We pioneered the material innovation of inherent color polycarbonate, making us leaders in this material in our field.”

In the past we focused on ‘layering’, a technique where we combine layers of clear and colored resin. With the Lumia 620, we have advanced this idea by building layering into a monobody construction.
Then we introduced this combination of layers and monobody to the latest Asha family of devices. We found that this transparency brings a lightness to the form and a vibrancy to the color. The color is sealed beneath an outer layer. With this outer layer, we thickened the material at the corners, exaggerating the sensation of depth. These deep, glass like corners beautifully capture the colored light inside.

Now, with the Lumia 830, we are marrying an aluminium body with polycarbonate covers for our thinnest and lightest handsets yet – ever evolving and refining our ideas and material combinations so that we continue to craft products that people are drawn to and love to own.