MOOD HELMET

MOOD HELMET

The Mood Helmet is a social bicycle helmet, with a reference to danish design.

“Danes are pretty relaxed and laid back, the hardest part is getting an invitation to their home...”

Sofie. Student, 25

The Mood Helmet shows the carrier’s mood based on head temperature and surrounding factors such as weather, colors and other people’s Mood Helmets.

The Mood Helmet (2008) is the result of a project called “Digital Culture” at the Interaction Design Master at Malmö University. The project was exhibited at in Malmö, Sweden, at FORM/DESIGN CENTER during Christmas ’08.

The purpose of the project was to create a product that commented our home culture, in my case the Danish culture.

GETTING THE IDEA

Initially I sent out probes to get Danes’ views on different areas. A few respondents' descriptions of their behavior in public spaces sparkled some ideas. Several mentioned their need to be left alone in public spaces. A favorite quote is:

“People with babies in strollers think they own the whole sidewalk...  That really pisses me off.”

I did not want to simply take something obviously Danish and make fun of it - I wanted an extra layer of sophistication, a double twist.

The original concept was to literally turn the “burden” of Danish design from the 1950’s upside down, by putting a miniature edition of Arne Jacobsen’s The Egg on the head of Danish cyclists. Not only does it reuse the Danish design tradition in a new way, it also fits into modern Danish bicycling culture and encourages Danes to be more open to strangers in public situations.