Mundane
tasks like data backup
and image archiving aren’t
as exciting as working
with your images on the
computer. It may be essential
to protect our irreplaceable
photos, and the time and
creative effort we put
into perfecting them, but
as I write these words—“external
hard drives”—I
imagine your eyes are glossing
over in boredom. Though
necessary, backup storage
devices aren’t the
kind of equipment typically
associated with “fun.”
LaCie
(www.lacie.com) is trying
to change your perception
of the external hard drive.
Rather than cluttering
your desk or gadget bag
with yet another drab cube,
LaCie has of late been
designing personal storage
with personality. Why not
try to make dull, routine
tasks, or at least the
hardware associated with
them, more amusing?
Working with name-droppable
designers like F. A. Porsche,
Karim Rashid, Ora-Ïto
and Neil Poulton, LaCie
has completely remolded
the external hard drive
into an objet d’art.
Take Ora-Ïto’s
whimsical LaCie Brick drives.
Playing on the idea of
data as building blocks,
Ora-Ïto styled these
drives to resemble an icon
of childhood—the
Lego. Available in red,
white and blue, the LaCie
Brick drives are designed
to remind you that all
work and no play makes
Jack a dull boy. Capacity
ranges from up to 500 GB
for the desktop drive to
120 GB for the mobile version.
Feeling adventurous? Neil
Poulton’s LaCie Rugged
hard drive is dubbed a “durable,
all-terrain” device
for portable storage. To
be sure that the drive
is ready for any trail
or travail, it’s
clad in scratch-protected
aluminum, with a big, bright
orange bumper to ward off
knocks, drops and dings.
Get capacities from 80
GB to 120 GB in these mobile
drives.
A perfect match for your
Prada pocketbook, the LaCie
Skwarim by Karim Rashid
comes in two hues, pink
and blue, with capacities
of 30 GB and 60 GB, respectively.
These ultra-portable mobile
drives have a soft-feel
shell and a built-in USB
cable that discreetly tucks
into one side.
For the man who has everything
except a shiny, F. A. Porsche-designed
mobile hard drive that
resembles an ingot of silver,
LaCie has that covered,
too, with the Data Bank,
pun intended. Slip the
slim design into your pocket
or flash it about to incite
envy in those whose portable
storage doesn’t resemble
the contents of Fort Knox.
Who says your personal
storage can’t have
personality?
