As for the 7a’s light and dark neutrals, you’ve got Snow and Charcoal, while Coral and Sea offer those brighter pops. “Coral is joyful and full of energy. It’s confident,” Isabelle says. “It’s an attention-grabbing color that’s radiant and warm. And Sea has this sort of effervescence — it’s sort of icy, and it’s playful but also elegant.”
The materials
Color isn’t the only thing designers work to get just right — what devices are made of and how they’re built is also incredibly important. For this particular portfolio, the designers focused on “premium” materials — things people would immediately recognize as high quality.
For the Pixel Fold, the team used materials that enabled them to build a thin device that, most importantly, still felt like a phone. “We wanted it to feel familiar at first, and then full of new possibilities when unfolded,” says Claude.
The anchor piece of all this is the Fold’s stainless steel hinge. “The striking polished finish we went with for the hinge just really took it to the next level, it has a luxury feel,” Claude says. “In addition to making it more durable.” Since the hinge will naturally get a lot of use, the team liked that stainless steel would help it avoid wear and tear like scratches, all while keeping its shine. The team wanted to encase the Fold with a sheen of luxury and quality. “You look at the finishes of things you wear often, like your watch or your wedding ring. Your phone is something you carry with you just much, so we wanted them to have that same high-quality look and feel,” Isabelle explains.
