The Mate-Easy Customizing Personal Mono Laser Printer was designed to harmonize with its surrounding environment and break away from the mechanical image of printers that interject a blandness to people’s desks and work areas. Mate’s clever design enables users to easily personalize the printer based on their desired color combination and the mood they want to project into their environment. The exterior printer housing is composed of differently-sized modular panels available in a variety of colors. The modular panels are assembled and integrated with the internal engine unit using a sliding method, removing the need for screws and frustrating, time-consuming assembly work.
Mate-Easy’s functions have been optimized for an ultrasmall printer. The center point of the design is based on the simple connection between the internal engine unit and the exterior shell. For the exterior modular panels with the same specifications the same mold is used for injection molding, leading to innovation in the production process, simplification of the assembly process and a reduction in manufacturing costs.
The Mate-Easy Customizing Personal Mono Laser Printer is different from other printers, which consist of multiple nonuniform elements, have a complex coupling structure, require countless parts and feature a stark presence. Based on a simple refined box form that is free from decorations, Mate-Easy’s proportions are stable, satisfying the basic specifications of a laser printer.
Air-intake holes were repetitively applied in circular form on the left and right side panels to produce a detail that delivers a solid, stable feel. Various colors were applied to both side panels and the paper input and output panels to create a user-friendly design that has been optimized for personal printing. Emphasis was placed on Mate-Easy’s customization aspects that allow the panels to be easily swapped out when users want to change the printer’s look. The designers envisioned a design that communicates and creates experiences with users, rather than an indistinguishable stand-alone printer.