A conversation with Surface and Marimekko designers on the intersection of customization, design, and tech

Surface announces new accessories. New Type Cover, Surface Arc Mouse, and Surface Penwill join the full collection of accessories from Finnish fashion design company, Marimekko on October 17. Visit Microsoft.com to purchase your favorite Marimekko accessory today, and check back on October 17 for new aqua accessories.

 Since our very beginning, Surface has set out to inspire a generation of creators to do more, create more, be more productive, and have more fun. This is the heart of our mission in Surface; it started five years ago to create the most productive devices on the planet, to empower people to create. And now we believe nothing should stand in the way of bringing your ideas to life.

Surface has continued to evolve to bring customers even more of what they love in their next laptop. Beyond new magical experiences from Windows, Office, and other app partners that help people create in new ways with our innovative hardware, we want to celebrate the intersection of technology and design. You should feel proud to pull a Surface—the ultimate laptop—from your bag, wherever you are. And the influence of fashion, aesthetics, texture, and color make the technology more personal, an extension of your style and personality, like your favorite sweater, handbag, fragrance, and home accessory.

How did our design team set the strategy for the new intersection of technology and style? And how do global design companies think about the aesthetics and color in ways that can influence Surface? We’ll explore that today with one of our lead Surface designers, Quan Jasinski, and Sami Ruotsalainen, Senior Designer from our newest Surface accessory partner, Marimekko.

I first sat down with Quan who works nearby in our Surface design lab.

Eric: Hello, Quan and thanks for taking the time to speak with us. We all want to know how you decide on the next color or design for an accessory or device?

Quan: Color has many filters and it allows us the opportunity to share the emotional connection and offers a personal experience. Colors and materials are critical to craft this moment.

As designers at Microsoft, we love to use our hands and hearts when creating new products and experiences. We are consistently inspired by everything around us varying from consumer behavior, cultures merging, nature, architecture, art, science, fashion, sports, and the list goes on. Absorbing these experiences, we begin to understand how to create a holistic experience that merges technology into lifestyle.

Aqua is a soft and approachable color. When creating Aqua we drew inspiration from our natural surroundings which helped develop its friendly attributes. This color works beautifully with our materials, from the richness of Alcantara through to the depth and sheen of anodization on our pen. It complements the rest of the existing palette while adding a hint of lightness.

Eric: It really is a stunning tone. How do you come of this this? Where do you seek inspiration?

Quan: Typically, I check my list of various websites, blogs, and feeds to get my “inspirational breakfast”; I need to constantly keep my eye on what’s happening and what’s developing. Travel and new experiences are always inspirational, even something as minor as taking a different road to work can change the way you view the world. And in general, the creative environment at Microsoft allows the designers to share and inspire each other through conversation.

Eric: Can you describe your process from ideation to creation?

Quan: Being inspired by our surroundings is what generates creative thinking. I start with a good understanding of what the essence of the product experience is through research and a collection of inspiring products, images, and materials. From there I translate these collages into a defined color story that envelopes all parts and accessories of a specific product.

I then use the established story and color direction to begin developing the color in physicality, mostly through iterative sampling and prototyping with materials in our model shop. There is a lot of fine-tuning in this process to create the perfect color and finish. Often the biggest challenge is making sure the color is cohesive and crafted to compliment material palette. We work relentlessly with our partners from engineering to manufacturing to master our intent into the materials with a high level of quality and refinement

Eric: Sounds very intensive. Why does hardware aesthetic matter in technology, and how has it evolved?

Quan: Technology is no longer seen as a tool just for data, function, and business use. It has evolved into a much more personal and intimate experience that we integrate into several elements of our lifestyle. We live with our technology, it’s often the first thing you see in the morning and the last thing you see before going to sleep. If we are living with something this much, then we want it to look beautiful, feel inviting, and evoke confidence. Consumers understand that design is now a choice when purchasing products, and they have become savvy to what is considered good design.

Eric: It does seem like customization is so important to people. I’ve personally experienced the desire to make tech personal and unique, which is one of the reasons I love what I do. What excites you most about designing for Surface?

Quan: Surface offers meaningful and powerful devices across their portfolio. It is exciting for me to work through a lens of materials and colors as we build our new products and experiences

I learn so much each day by being part of a team that creates a hybrid of technology, design, materials, art, science, engineering, and information.

Making a fashion statement with tech accessories:

Finnish design house, Marimekko is renowned for its original prints and colors. You’ve probably seen their high-quality clothing, bags, and accessories on fashion runways and in stores. The company has been doing this since 1951, so we were thrilled to partner with their experts on a collection of accessories for Surface. I had a chance to speak with Senior Designer Sami Ruotsalainen to understand how they approached applying their legacy and style to Surface.

Eric: Hello, Sami and thanks for taking the time to speak with us. We’re so excited about this collaboration. Can you tell us a bit about the design process at Marimekko?

Sami: We always start the process with a creative brief that sets the tone for each collection. We have an archive of over 3,500 patterns, sometimes we select a pattern from there and often we also create new ones. Marimekko is a lifestyle brand, and our product portfolio includes home décor items, ready-to-wear, and bags and accessories.

The heart of Marimekko is our in-house printing factory in Helsinki, Finland, where we cherish our art of print making and craftsmanship in design. In fact, the printing mill where over a million meters of fabric is printed annually is located right next to our offices and design studio. We partner very closely with the craftsmen of the printing factory to develop new prints and colorways for our collections. As you can imagine, color is incredibly important to us and we are able to mix new colors together in our color kitchen also located in our printing mill.

Eric: Tell us a bit about the Marimekko for Microsoft Surface collaboration

Sami: Microsoft Surface and Marimekko both present a bold, positive and inclusive approach to design. This collaboration felt like a natural fit and we are so excited about the entire line of accessories.

For the Marimekko for Microsoft Surface products, we chose some of Marimekko’s most iconic prints to bring personality and customization to the Surface family. Some, like Unikko (poppy) and Kaivo (well) were created in the 1960’s and have been an important part of Marimekko’s collections ever since.. Siirtolapuutarha (city garden) and Räsymatto (rag rug) were both created in the last ten years and have become contemporary Marimekko classics.

All four patterns represent the creativity and spirit of Marimekko and give Surface users an opportunity to customize their devices – and since these devices are used on a daily basis, what better way to bring joy and happiness into people’s everyday lives than with an accessories line that brings a pop of colour to your life!

The new aqua Type Cover, Surface Arc Mouse, and Surface Pen will be available at Microsoft Store and Microsoft.com.

The Marimekko for Microsoft Surface collection is available right now. Visit your local Microsoft Store or Microsoft.com to dress up your Surface.

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Microsoft to Build Quantum Computing Ecosystem, Says CEO Nadella

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is now pushing the IT major to build a quantum computing ecosystem, a new revolutionary technology, which would allow scientists to do computations in a fraction of time.

"A quantum computer enables you to encode information, not just as one or zero but as one and zero simultaneously. That means it unlocks amazing parallelism," Nadella said in his keynote address at Microsoft's Ignite conference in Orlando on Monday.

This kind of technology is being used by the most advanced computers today.

"You could take a quantum computer and solve some of these unsolvable problems because they approach it with that amazing parallelism where they'll take every path in the corn maze simultaneously. That's the intuition behind the power of quantum," he said.

Of course, building a quantum computer requires a lot more than just that simple intuition, he conceded.

"We have had to assemble a world-class team. In fact, we've had to take a very novel approach of bringing together breakthroughs in math, fundamental physics, and computer science together, and put a system or get started on a journey to put a system that's going to be a truly scalable general purpose quantum computer," he said.

Appearing with Nadella, Michael Freedman who joined Microsoft's theoretical research group two decades ago, said Microsoft's qubit will be based on a new form of matter called topological matter that also has this property that as the information stored in the matter is stored globally, one can't find the information in any particular place.

Freedman was a renowned math genius known for his fundamental research into an obscure field of math called topology.

According to Allison Linn, his job was simply to keep doing math, no strings attached.

"That broad charter has ended up putting Microsoft on the path to building the first topological qubit, a robust type of quantum bit that Microsoft believes will serve as the basis for a scalable, general purpose quantum computer system - and mark a profound breakthrough in the field of quantum physics," she said.

We're seeing the potential foundation for a new, revolutionary technology," said Todd Holmdahl, the Microsoft corporate vice president in charge of the quantum effort.

"You know, I get goosebumps".

On Monday, Microsoft showcased the progress it has made toward developing both a topological qubit and the ecosystem of hardware and software that will eventually allow a wide range of developers to take advantage of quantum computing's power.

Microsoft's plan to build a quantum computing ecosystem is based on Freedman's field of math and a branch of physics so seemingly mystical, its early pioneers invoked philosophy and spirituality to describe it, and its later disciples attracted funding and support from self-help gurus in the 1970s, Allen said.

What Microsoft has done that's really unique in its approach to quantum computing, which is to first of all recognise that each one of these steps is actually very hard, Freedman said.

"In fact, it may seem like making the chip with the Majoranas is the hard part, or thinking of the idea is the hard part. But actually they're all hard. And everything from the software that we'll hear about in a second to the cryogenic engineering is extremely difficult," he said.

"We've invented new materials that support Majoranas. We've built the chips. They're back in our labs in the refrigerator down at the bottom of the refrigerator with our students and colleagues working hard to check off the list of all the properties that they're supposed to have, to fictionalise the electrons and verify that they're at the two ends of the chip.

And the work is going forward," Freedman said. Computer scientist Krysta Svore said at Microsoft they are building a comprehensive full stack solution so that they can actually run revolutionary applications on this newly revolutionary device.

"So this includes the quantum chip that we've just discussed in this dilution refrigerator. But it also includes a cryogenic classical computer that's also operating in the dilution refrigerator," she told the audience.

"And this is unlike any classical computer we have today. It has to operate at 4 kelvin. That's around minus 452 degrees Fahrenheit. That's pretty darn cold. And we need that to control the quantum computer itself. And then, of course, my favourite part, on top of all of that you need software," she added.

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