Appearance Design: Design Concept Revealed By Designing Engineer - Kenwood TS-590SG Manual

06 APPEARANCE DESIGN: DESIGN CONCEPT REVEALED BY
DESIGNING ENGINEER
The design development of the TS-590S was started by asking myself What are the characteristics that make KENWOOD s
HF transceivers just what they are? Among the key words adopted to describe the characteristics were innovativeness ,
high quality and sharpness , based on which I pursued a design that captures the trends of the times.
On the development of TS-590S, I exchanged lively discussions with my colleagues and finally settled on the design concept
of deep and heavy . This means a genuine HF transceiver that nobody can make light of or a design that, when it is
placed among other peripheral devices in a shack (which is inevitable due to the nature of the product), does not stand
out distastefully .
The work of designing a transceiver does not end with just creating an outer shape, but includes a wide variety of tasks
ranging from scrutinizing colors, materials, character fonts, etc., to examining the size, thickness and balance of characters
displayed on the LCD.
A horizontal line penetrating the front panel describes the sharpness and the DNA of KENWOOD s HF transceivers that
has been handed down from generation to generation.
When it comes to the main knob that a user touches most often, I have devised a design that never makes a user tired from
long hours of operation or slips out of the hand while handling. Also, for the material I have employed fluorine-containing
rubber that does not attract dirt and dust.
As for the color of the body, I have selected matte-black finish to give it a typical look of a transceiver and to prevent the
reflection of light as much as possible when a user operates from a portable station.
Much attention is also paid to the printing of the characters and graphics to express the typical preciseness of KENWOOD s
HF transceivers and to deliver better visibility to enable intuitive operations and eye-friendly views.
TS-990S was released about two years after the TS-590S was launched. While the TS-990S seems to have inherited the
design of the TS-590S, as explained in the in-depth manual for the TS-990S, both models were derived from the same
design concept.
TS-990S has been designed to exude a luxurious feel that befits its name as KENWOOD's flagship model. The TS-590SG
series adopts the elegance of the TS-990S without making changes to the basic design to ensure excellent operability.
Some examples include the surface finish of the main knob, the coating on the outside of the two axis knobs, the silk color of
the front panel, and the paint for the top and bottom covers. While it may not be easy to tell the differences from the photos,
you can tell that the TS-590SG shares more similarities with the TS-990S if the new and old models are placed side by side.
Hints and Tips
● Differentiating TS-590S and TS-590SG
Even if the power is not turned on, you can easily differentiate by the silk printing on the top right corner of the display screen. The
transceiver is a TS-590S if "DSP" is printed, and a TS-590SG if "TS-590" is printed. If you have both the new and old transceiver,
you should be able to tell the different immediately by the shiny main knob.
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