Describe your design philosophy?
We try through each of our projects, to propose solutions that bring the Aesthetes and the Man in the street back together. Far from focusing only on shaping objects, we force ourselves to a conceptual rigor and a permanent questioning on what the designer status is. Therefore, we are standing in each of our creation for honest and accessible consumption alternatives, which imply a truly will to sublimate the ordinary. 

Who are some of your design influences?
We take a leaf out of people more than design world. It is their customs, their manias, their reflexes, their superstitions, and their obsessive compulsive disorder that are often the point of departure of a creation. We have an ethno-centered vision of conception, putting the human aspect before all technical aspect and performance.

What does the 5.5 in your name stand for?
Our name’s origin is quite anecdotal: at the very beginning of the studio, we were 5 people and a half working together. One was a part time. The success of this name is maybe due to the fact, as it is a number, it is unclassified. We are thinking of changing for the 6.0 version!

How did you come up with the idea for the line of USB keys you designed for LaCie?
LaCie came with the idea of designing a range of usb flash keys. We have had to admit that many different models were already on the market and prices were getting very competitive. LaCie could not follow the others, it had to be different, and maybe that is why LaCie had chosen 5.5. We’d like the concept of designing a collection and not a single product; it allows to propose different stories to satisfy the largest public.

Why do you like working with LaCie?
We like working with LaCie, first because it is a French company! Their staff is really reactive and bet a lot on design to make the difference, which is a real success. For designers it is a pleasure to feel listened and involved in the company global strategy.

What items have you designed that you¹re the most proud of?
Iamakey and hopefully it is a truly best seller, a future icon maybe? The most gratified is to succeed in designing a product we are proud of and that people buy.  Too often we have the impress that ugliness sell much better than good product. It is simple idea: a key in shape of a key…an obvious idea and one could easily wonder why no one had the idea before.

Who else have you worked with, and what have been some of the results?
We work as much for Luxury brands such as Baccarat or Bernardaud as for Mass Market brands like Moulinex or Scotch-Brite (la Maison en éponge, 2008, a set of sponges which shapes correspond to their use). We are a “jack of all trades” and we don’t want to become specialist in a particular field, because we believe that naivety is one of the key of creativity. We have just designed 3 products for Chocolat Factory. One is a trip in the heart of chocolate: a set of dish-covers to learn gradually how to appreciate a chocolate with high level of cacao.

Do you have any future plans with LaCie to go beyond designing USB flash keys?
We are into new programs and challenges. Unfortunately, it is too early to communicate about it because ideas circulate very quickly. We believe that it is a sign of confidence and quality to continue collaboration; too many brands collaborate with designers for a media cover whereas a good design policy must be made in the long run.

CurrenKey

Currenkey is a usb flash drive key in the shape of a coin. The coin facing value indicates the storage capacity.The Bronze version offers 4GB of memory and the Silver one 8GB. To reveal the usb connector, just rotate the key.

Beyond its practical side which allows to store it in the purse or to slide it in the pocket, CurrenKey is a reflection on the value we grant to our data and on the price to pay to put in safety its IT capital. USB keys are more and more numerous on the market. Inescapable promotional presents of lately, it does not cost often more than the price of the amount of its storage memory. What design for this constantly evolving object the monetary value of which is inseparable of the storage capacity?

Realized in a coin shape and not without humor, the USB key becomes a real currency which can see devaluing or undergoing the inflation according to the stock market prices of the memory Flash. In the middle of a crisis financier, this object reminds us the excessive capitalization on consumer goods which exercise the main actors and the analysts of the market. A speculation influencing and disrupting our appreciation of the things value.

Small investors will get the 4GB Currenkey for 21€, the richest will prefer the 8GB for 34€.

IamaKey, ItsaKey et PassKey

Small aerodynamic UFO, wooden, leather, phosphorescent, brilliant, with pastes and diamonds, the key usb can take all kind of shape: sushi, hamburger, miniature bottle, even bottle-opener, miniature surfboard, as small as a trombone, built on a credit card, a pen, a watch … Some are tinkered at home and introduced into small bits of fluff, figurines, dolls, tokens of casino or the bricks of Lego. Certain models are more feminine, hidden in lipstick, on a ring, a bracelet or a necklace, in the form of heart for the most romantic or in the form of crucifies and even of virgin for the most religious which hope to protect their data …

Without considering usb keys advertising, with the logo of your company. Keys usb declines in shape, colors and material without limit. Finally, for what we expect from a key usb, it is that it stores our data safely. Then not to enter this formal debate and to try to reconcile this object with its image, we decided to concentrate on its naming and to propose a key in the form of key: the key-key. A quite stupid idea but the designer’s job is not to think of objects for which we wonder why we did not think of it before!

DATA/SHARE

DataShare is a usb reader for SD cards and microSD cards. Our first aspiration was to create an object for data storage that people could lend easily because no one could access to personnal datas. It is true that a usb stick is an object which we share easily with a circle of acquaintances even if it contains numerous confidential data. It is on this idea that we’ve imagined DataShare with two separate sides: one for your private data and one for your shared data.

With the new LaCie DataShare, you can easily recycle your former SD cards and MicroSD to make Flash USB, what allows you to choose the capacity of your USB stick and to let it evolve on the long run. Usually, the memory of a classic flashdrive is closed what makes it quickly obsolete. By imagining this new generation of stick which are above all card readers, we are closer to the fountain pen with cartridge or the gas lighter rather than the ball-point pen or still the disposable lighter. This flash drive indeed becomes long-lasting while until now they were all disposable. This approach of the object, with a removable capacity memory, allows to envisage more long-lasting one of life of the product and its use by its owner, consequently we can envisage it more precious. This way is doubtless a good means to fight against the permanent renewal of our objects in particular that of the advertising USB sticks that swarm.

The LaCie DataShare is supplied with connectors Push / Push SD and MicroSD, what makes of it one of the most reliable options of the market. It is also retro compatible with USB 1.1. Naturally, DataShare is compatible with the most recent and the fastest SD cards of the market (including SD High Capacity).