Feature: 'Astro A-Go-Go: Designing The Look of the Xbox 360'

Today's main Gamasutra feature has Brandon Sheffield talking to Astro Studios president Brett Lovelady about his company's work on the physical design of Microsoft's forthcoming Xbox 360 next-generation console. The goal for Astro Studios, the product designers of the iPAQ and the successful Nike watch line, was to make a machine that seemed powerful, vibrant, and aesthetically different from the first Xbox, and Lovelady explains multiple aspects of his company's contribution to the console's aesthetic design, including the concave nature of the Xbox 360, commenting: "There are two or three things that came into play. One, more than anything, is regarding the access point to entertainment - we wanted something that wasn't just a static box, but that reflected the harnessed power. This is something that most of the press has yet to pick up on, but having taken the X off of the top of the system, we also designed it so that no matter what face of the console you looked at, you would still see a subtle X shape, because of the ergonomics of it. We talk about it in terms of the inhale - it's like the console is breathing in, pulling in all of this energy before you release it again. The idea is then that it's become a little denser, a little more compact, with implied motion, rather than just a static thing. Then when you go from horizontal to vertical it has a real functional effect, which is that it [creates] more airflow around the product." You can now read the full interview with Lovelady about designing the aesthetics of the Xbox 360 (no registration required, please feel free to link to the article from external websites).