Vamp, the cube that brings your old speakers back to life
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Version 0 of 1. So much new technology, particularly in the world of electronics, has obsolescence written into its DNA. You buy a flashy product, use it for a while, and when it breaks – or a flashier model comes along – you throw it away. At first glance the Vamp is another such product, albeit a brilliantly simple one. It is a neat little plastic cube that fits in the palm of your hand; inside is a battery, an amp and a Bluetooth receiver. What separates it from most electronic products is the motivation behind it – and what it prompts people to do. Its inventor Paul Cocksedge, who has a design studio in east London, came up with the idea while walking to work. “I kept seeing Post-it notes on old speakers saying, ‘Please take me home’. I thought, these are beautiful and functional. Their designers cared for them. Why are people throwing them away?” The answer, he realised, is that “people are communicating with technology differently now. We play music through our smartphones. No one has a CD player or record player any more. So how,” he asked himself, “do I design something that links the new to the old?” His solution was this smart little cube, which I get to play with when I visit his studio. The Vamp, which retails at £49.99, can be connected to any speaker that has terminals or a wire. Pair it with your phone and you have a portable Bluetooth speaker that could outperform a Jambox or a Pill. There is no shortage of old speakers lying around – 10,000 of them are sent to UK recycling centres each month, Cocksedge tells me. His design practice encompasses architecture, interiors and fine art; the Vamp is his first electronic product with mass-market potential. His background is in industrial design, so he could prototype in the studio, and he is accustomed to dealing with manufacturers. Cocksedge looked into partnering with electronics companies, but they were put off by the idea of having their brand attached to a competitor’s speaker. So in the end he went to Kickstarter and raised £104,000, nearly three times the stated target. He usually connects with manufacturers via Alibaba, the Chinese business-to-business portal, but on this occasion he employed a middle man in Shenzhen who divided up the work between three factories. Even if you don’t have a design background, he says, don’t be intimidated by the process. “The people doing injection mould designing for us in China, for example, they’re experts. Send them a drawing and chances are they’ll not only do it for you but tweak it to make it better. There are so many people out there who haven’t been taught design but are brilliant designers. They teach themselves.” The internet is an invaluable resource here, he says: “Because a lot of people who work with electronics are very open to sharing. There’s a DIY attitude and a lot of the information you need is open-source.” Before I leave, Cocksedge takes a battered old speaker from the collection that fills one wall of his office. He hooks it up to a Vamp, pairs the Vamp to his phone – the whole process takes about 30 seconds – and plays me a song by Johnny Cash. He picks the speaker up and walks around the room. “I like the way they’re so portable,” he says. “Usually speakers are up against the wall, near the amp. Now they’re free.” |