LG Display is exploring some fascinating new OLED display concepts after announcing the winners of its inaugural OLEDs Go! competition that was held in association with the UK design website Deezen.
The contest gave professional designers the opportunity to scratch their heads and go beyond some of the extravagant OLED design concepts we’ve already seen, such as transparent OLED displays on subway windows and even office doors. Designers were tasked with exploring their creativity through the light, slim, rollable, bendable and transparent nature of OLED to come up with new display use cases that could potentially be commercialised.
The participants came up with some pretty radical ideas with five finalists chosen from a total of 220 entries. The most compelling design from the perspective of LG Display’s judges was Richard Bone’s and Jisu Yun’s “Scroll” (pictured above), which came in first place and takes advantage of the slimness and bendable characteristics of OLED. Scroll is a wall attached OLED display that curves at the bottom, essentially providing a kind of shelf just below the display. It also uses a transparent OLED screen to subtly blend into the wall, in an effort to harmonise with their interior rather than grab all of the attention, the designers explained. Judges praised the Scroll for its new idea on how interior spaces can look when using a futuristic display in a limited space.
Second place went to the “Signal”, a flexible OLED display that folds up into a lamp when not in use. In lamp-mode it closes up just like a book, providing ambient, mood-setting lighting, then opens up to serve as a convenient monitor when needed. Judges said Jean-Michel Rochette’s design demonstrates an inventive way to make the most of limited space in a room by taking advantage of OLED’s bendable characteristics.
Next up was a new take on the rollable OLED screen – a TV that unfurls from left to right like a flag to reveal a display that can display content in any aspect ratio. The “Flag R”, as it’s called, is the creation of South Korean designer Doyeon Shin.
"Flag.R is a rollable screen unit and audio speaker all in one," she told Deezen last month, explaining that it's designed to work as an attractive speaker when completely rolled up. It can also display just one fifth of the screen to show information such as track listings and lyrics.
A much more bizarre concept called the “Console” by the Italian designer Gianfranco Vasselli took fourth place. The Console is a tall, wooden-legged table design with an OLED screen built into the bottom of the base. The idea is that users stand it over their bed, so they can watch movies on the big screen or surf the web before they go to sleep. The console can also be used as a night light by book lovers.
Last but not least was Yunchik Lee’s and Bomi Kim’s “Trollie” design, which is a kind of workout display on wheels that can easily be moved around and adjusted to a desired height, so fitness freaks can follow video workout routines easily in any part of the house. The Trollie also doubles as a functional piece of furniture, so users could hang a towel or perhaps clip a basket onto it to hold smaller objects like a smartphone.
For their winning Scroll design Bone and Yun took home a €15,000 cash prize, with the other finalists sharing €31,000 in prize money between them.
LG Display said that its engineering and design teams will now consider the five concepts for commercialisation, starting by conducting a review of their market potential. So as radical as these ideas may seem, there’s a good chance that some of them might well end up as physical, real-world products.
