Acoustic engineering principles from string instruments become flower-shaped speakers when heritage drives innovation.
When a family spends over a hundred years perfecting sound transmission in stringed instruments, the expertise accumulates into something transferable. The Object Series by Sungjae Han demonstrates exactly this principle, transforming acoustic knowledge into speakers where multiple cylindrical soundboxes gather together like flower petals blooming. The shape emerges from physics: cylindrical tubes create fewer irregular reflective corners than rectangular enclosures, allowing sound waves to travel with minimal distortion. Designer Sungjae Han served as Creative Director, collaborating with Raphael Garell from the family that developed the underlying acoustic techniques for Ballon de Paris. The result earned the Golden A' Design Award in Audio and Sound Equipment Design in 2023. Every visual element serves a sonic purpose, making the Object Series a study in form expressing function rather than merely containing it.
The Vicuna technology embedded in the Object Series reveals how deep domain expertise translates into unexpected applications. Louis Garrell discovered in 1921 that Vicuna wool, with its extraordinarily fine fibers and exceptional air-holding capacity, could disperse sound density at extreme frequency ranges without absorbing sonic energy. Translating the Vicuna Method from instrument repair to speaker construction required understanding principles beneath the craft. The Object 6 model positions its tweeter at ear level for seated listeners at one thousand millimeters height. Separate soundboxes for different frequency ranges prevent interference between drivers. When cylindrical elements arrange around a central point, floral geometry emerges almost inevitably. For enterprises seeking to leverage accumulated expertise, the Object Series offers a template: identify the essential principles defining your knowledge, then find design expressions making that distinctiveness visible and emotionally resonant.
Heritage becomes innovation engine rather than anchor when brands understand the principles underlying their expertise. The Object Series demonstrates that generational knowledge can drive product development in unexpected directions, transforming acoustic science into sculptural beauty and making brand narrative tangible through physical form. What accumulated expertise might your organization translate into categories you have not yet imagined?
