CORSAIR
AT THE FOREFRONT
OF GAMING
A timeless design language that can be applied to all future products as well as the software user interface
Background
As one of the world leading companies providing premium memory modules, Corsair wanted to expand its market and develop high-end gaming peripherals. CRE8 was invited to be its design partner and co-create Corsair’s initial gaming input device series from the ground up. Per Corsair’s request, we wanted to come up with a timeless design language that could be applied to all future products as well as the software user interface.
Challenges
The gaming hardware market was already quite mature, and well-informed consumers were encouraged to look for more exciting and refined gear. Our designers needed to come up with breakthrough ideas and innovations that would raise the bar. Solving pain-points through innovation would make the brand believable to serious gamers from the get-go.
The brand also required an overarching and consistent design strategy which could be fully translated throughout the whole product portfolio and across different categories, sizes, and shapes.
Solutions
Our designers endeavored to build a design language inheriting the brand’s spirit: “MAKE TOOLS, NOT TOYS”. Instead of adding more to design, we decided to take out unnecessary distractions and scale it down. We took off the top lid of the keyboard and disclosed its unique metal inner structure; while the mouse was designed with all parts mounted onto a similar sturdy aluminum unibody.
We gave this “features-exposed” strategy a name: “exoskeleton”, and implemented it on all the products in the lineup, from keyboards, mice, headsets, DRAMs, to the software GUI.
Eight years later and counting, over 30 products of the family are derived from the same “exoskeleton” design language. This consistency in design is an ultra-efficient and cost-effective tool to communicate quality with product users.
