Mobile phone design and merchandising

Mobile phones are more than just a communication device, they can echo your personal style. The public presentation of the mobile phone has been carefully crafted, typical of all commercialised products. In the past 2 years, a couture collection of phones has been unveiled. LG have produced the 'Prada' phone and if you are not really a labels type of person you might not be familiar with the brand. Prada is a well- known Italian fashion companywith retail outlets world-wide. Consumer electronics brand, Motorola, have also released a mobile phone, teaming up with another high-end fashion house 'Dolce and Gabbana.' These phones have brought a new level to the mobile phone arena. We must note that fashion is not only interlinked with the mobile phone product itself but its advertising too.

A modern, futuristic design impulse is strongly articulated in advertising campaigns for mobile communication, evident in numerous mobile phone ads. The emphasis on stylish design, elite status and fashion appears to have a central part of marketing. Recent mobile phone ads underscore the continuing importance of fashion in the public presentation of the technology. One of the adverts is a photograph, set in Budapest airport, taken in 2004. It shows a pedestrian passing in front of a lit billboard style ad. The ad depicts two high fashion items: a luxury watch and a designer purse, accompanied by a siemens phone. The equivalence is clear. As the photograph was being taken, a stylish lady, engaged with her own mobile phone, passed in front of the billboard ad and is captured in the foreground. The lateral space of an airport can provide a unique environment within which to promote mobile phones. The long corridors can be used to project extended images of mobile phones as statements of fashion and lifestyle. Fashion remains then an important aspect to mobile phone design and merchandising.