Doris Design

Counterpart

Counterpart is an innovative new 35W charger with a retractable USB-C cord. The charger is designed to remove cord-clutter and replace it with something sculptural and useful. A simple push of the semi-soft central ring will retract the cord and the plug can fold out of the way as well for travel and taking on-the-go. The design uses a ripple like form that echoes the coiling mechanism inside, it also tells you where to push to retract the cord from view. It’s a functional form that has a particular sculpted character. On a visual level, the ripples draw your eye in deliberately, inviting you to notice the often overlooked humble charger.

Doris’ design team and the engineering teams collaborated to make a charger that was small, powerful and with a slick mechanism built inside with a clever user interaction. It was an exciting engineering and design challenge to pack as much functionality as possible into minimal and compact form. The result is a playful and easy to use design that provides functional feedback as well as inviting an emotional connection. It also has enough power to charge your laptop, phone and other USB-C devices.

Counterpart has 35W of power, which will even keep your laptop charged.

A light push of the center ring will retract the rectangular cord with ease, much like a tape measurer.

While the direction for the product's features were clear, the form went through many iterations. Finding the right blend of texture, expressiveness and sophistication required a balanced approach with plenty of prototypes.

Materials

PC, Silicone

Dimensions

75mm x 75mm x 50mm

Year

2024

Client

Counterpart

Type
Hardware, Home

Photography by Leah Verwey
Prop Styling by Anne Parker

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