Dell Design Studio Opens Its Doors

Note from Lionel: Last month, BusinessWeek interviewed Ed Boyd, our VP of design for our Consumer products. Personalization has been a strategy for us for a while now, but we’re looking to push things further on this front. In that story, Ed made it clear that design isn’t just important in our products… it also can be used to improve the online shopping experience on Dell.com and beyond.

Dell Design Studio is a step toward this. You might have already seen reactions on sites like  CNET’s Crave and the New York Times Gadgetwise blog, so even though I’m a bit late in getting this posted, I thought some Direct2Dell readers might be interested in digging a bit deeper into this.

Below is a blog post and video from Stuart Wallock from the Dell Global Consumer team. If customization is your thing, read on.

Thanks,

Lionel

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The next step in Dell’s long history of allowing customers to personalize their PCs has arrived.  Dell has always been about choices on the inside of the box, but now it is offering people a unique way to make the outside of their laptops a bit more personal.  The way I like to describe it is like a tattoo for the lid of your laptop.  Imagine the opportunity to discover a cool piece of art from over 100 choices and have it “tattooed” onto YOUR laptop.  Now when I carry my laptop around or lay it on my desk or coffee table, I can have this unique piece of art to admire versus a cold gray box. 

The designs and art choices are quite diverse with offerings from some new and upcoming artist and caused-based art around (PRODUCT) RED.  My favorites are by Tristan Eaton – (Stickers)  and Jason Bacon (Flight 4234 in Blue).  Both of these pieces are something that you would never imagine on the lid of a laptop.  Think about a rich indigo blue design populated with Asian inspired pop art or an image with a 1970’s Chevy El Camino coming out of the corner with whole bunch of other race inspired icons.  Very different to say the least.

The Design Studio itself is also a bit different than the normal Dell.com site.  Stylized like a downtown art studio, visitors can easily browse by filtering through the three categories of (PRODUCT) RED, Artists and Colors.  Once you find the image you want, you can then get a close up with a zoom view, share with a friend through a host of social networking sites or even learn a bit more about the artist. 

Tristan Eaton (Stickers Blue) 

I think my favorite part is playing with designs that are “Series.”  Once you click on a “Series” image, it takes you through a collection of related images automatically and then allows you to move a slider bar giving you the full effect of adding volume, changing the color or fine tuning the design.

Here’s a video where I walk you through the Design Studio process.

Check it out @ Dell.com/designstudio and then come back here and rate, review and comment on your favorite designs.  You can also check out more of the artwork options at Dell’s Official Flickr page.

About the Author: Lionel Menchaca