We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer James Gifford about their original and creative Guitar Amplifier design work. James Gifford is an award-winning industrial designer, that makes our world a better place with their original guitar amplifier works.
James Gifford ("JG") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Fender Acoustic SFX Guitar Amplifier. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
JG : Connecting Acoustic guitar playing to the amplifier in a very organic way. What does Acoustic mean to the player and the audience, and how can this be captured.
JG : Being able to make the connection between the player and amplifier, as well as highlighting some of the natural beauty of the materials used in the creation of acoustic guitar and amplifier. The scope was to create a product that was not only beautiful and sounded rich, but easy to understand and use.
JG : The plan is to take this design language and proliferate it into other product families.
JG : This concept took 2 years from concept to market release.
JG : The idea behind this project was to explore what could be done 'outside of the box' for an acoustic amplifier. Through player insights and observations could we create a better product that provides a higher level of experience for both user player and audience.
JG : We are currently producing this product ourselves.
JG : We specialize in guitar making, and being able to create a world class amplifier that enhanced the acoustic guitar was the main drive.
JG : Bent plywood furniture - Eames
JG : Acoustic guitar players and Acoustic guitar aficionados.
JG : This is not a typical square box covered in vinyl as most of these types of products are. The sonic quality is much higher than most products in this category.
JG : The name of the product is based on a technology that is utilized within - SFX, combined with Acoustic.
JG : Solidworks software and Keyshot software. Common woodworking tools and specific bent plywood tooling was also utilized to make this work.
JG : The bent plywood shell, the use of the subtle angle in the control panel for user access, as well as the unique soft touch handle for ergonomic feel.
JG : The team from IDEO in San Francisco. They assisted in the gathering of valuable user insights and information as well as initial design concepts.
JG : The algorithms used for the sonic quality, and the combination of both plastics manufacturing and bent plywood technology married together.
JG : From the purely user standpoint, a hierarchy of controls was studied via user observations and data to create the best layout on the control panel. Multiple models and prototypes were created to test the sound in different environments as well as test the portability and use of the unique handle.
JG : All of the different materials and processes required to bring this product together in a way
JG : We are very proud of this product and what we have achieved, and we felt it was important to share this with the world.
JG : We learned that we can take chances and experiment to break out of the normal mode.
