IDMR / Work / Braun Vortex
Project · Industrial · Hair Dryer Concept

Braun Vortex.

A hair-dryer concept in the Braun tradition — a calm, soft-pebble volume with nothing on it that doesn't need to be there. Capacitive touch control, an integrated temperature sensor and a new vortex air path, wrapped in a single gloss-white shell. Surfaced in Rhinoceros and lit in KeyShot.

Year
2020To be confirmed
Sector
IndustrialPersonal Care · Concept
Scope
SoloForm · CMF · UI
Software
RhinocerosKeyShot · Composite
About the project

Less, but better.

Vortex is a personal study of what a Braun hair dryer could be if it were designed today against the principles the brand is known for. The brief I set myself was simple: an everyday object that earns its place on the shelf — quiet, honest, and reduced to the essential — and that still feels like an object of desire.

The body is a single soft-pebble volume. There are no fan-grille flourishes and no decorative seams; the only graphics are the wordmark and a thin warm accent line that lights up in use. A recessed touch panel on the handle replaces the usual cluster of mechanical sliders, and a small temperature sensor sits at the air intake to hold the heat steady rather than just dumping it.

Surfaced in Rhinoceros — NURBS for the primary shell and split-lines, a touch of SubD for the soft nose and handle transitions — with the hero stills lit and rendered in KeyShot. The bathroom scene was composited from the same model into a real interior to test how the object reads in everyday life.

Form & function

Form follows function.

Every line on the body answers to how the dryer is held and used. The handle tucks a soft-touch grip pad where the fingers fall; the controls live in one calm window; and the nozzle was studied in two configurations — a directional concentrator and an open vortex outlet — to compare airflow character without changing the silhouette.

KEYSHOT · STUDIO
Braun Vortex hair dryer, full side profile with black concentrator nozzle
Side profile The complete silhouette — a single soft volume from nose to tail, the warm accent line splitting the gloss shell, and the matte-black concentrator capping the front.
KEYSHOT · STUDIO
Braun Vortex front three-quarter showing the vortex outlet ring
Vortex outlet · Three-quarter The open nozzle variant — a perforated vortex outlet ringed by an illuminated halo that doubles as the status and temperature readout.
KEYSHOT · DETAIL
Braun Vortex control panel detail with touch icons glowing
Touch control A single recessed window on the handle: power, airflow, heat and a cool-shot icon, back-lit only when the dryer is awake. No sliders, no clutter.
KEYSHOT · STUDIO
Two Braun Vortex configurations side by side, concentrator and vortex outlet
Two nozzles · One body The directional concentrator and the open vortex outlet shown together — the same shell serving two airflow characters and two moods of light.
Desire · In context

An object of desire.

An object of everyday life should also be an object of desire. Dropping the same model into a real bathroom backplate was the honest test — does it still look considered when it sits next to the taps, the plants and the morning light, rather than floating on a studio sweep?

The gloss-white finish, the single warm line and the quiet front mask were tuned to read as calm and premium in that setting — at home on the counter, not shouting from it.

COMPOSITE · BATHROOM
Braun Vortex hair dryer in a styled modern bathroom interior
Everyday life The concept composited into a warm, wood-and-marble bathroom — surfaces, finish and the accent line tested against real light and real surroundings.
Concept board

Desire & function, on one page.

A single presentation board pulls the story together — touch control, temperature sensor and the new vortex technology, framed by the two ideas the whole concept hangs on.

PRESENTATION · BOARD
Braun Vortex concept presentation board — Desire and Function
Concept board Feature call-outs, the bathroom hero and the vortex detail composed into one Braun-styled layout.
Pipeline · Summary

Surface, light, context.

Rhinoceros — the shell was built as a clean surface package: NURBS for the primary body and split-lines, SubD for the soft nose and the handle-to-body transition, so the single-volume read stays intact from every angle.

KeyShot — used for the studio hero stills and the turntable. The gloss-white plastic, the soft-touch grip and the illuminated accent line were all set up as physical materials and emissive details rather than post effects.

Compositing — the bathroom scene places the same geometry into a real interior backplate, matched for camera, lighting and grade, so the concept can be judged the way it would actually be encountered.

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