Social Storage What makes Transporter truly unique is the ability to communicate and share files in a peer-to-peer fashion with computers and other Transporter devices located anywhere in the world. This ability eliminates privacy concerns, recurring fees, and all complexity associated with syncing files over the Internet. In other words, a storage solution finally designed to match our modern, social lifestyles. Transporter is an online but off-cloud storage solution for privately accessing, sharing and backing up files. The Transporter is a networked hard drive that is available in a 1TB, 2TB or no drive (user installed) versions.

- To help Connected Data build their new company through a thoughtful, functional and fresh design approach to the physical device. - To create a design that expresses the fluid nature of today's connected social relationships. - To create an appearance that doesn’t look like every other hard drive. - Create a stable product that uses minimal footprint. - Express Connected Data’s charter of social storage in the design.

- Create a new icon that felt as comfortable in an office or in the home as our work / home life boundaries continue to blur. - Create a design that is stealthy, serious, mysterious and secure looking. - The client had the requirements of showing various states such as idle, transferring, drive capacity full, or no internet connection in a series of LED lights. We thought making a continuous glowing ring represents, in a very conceptual sense, a slice through the protected data that exposes the Transporter's state of being. The ring has a magical feel and elicits comments such as "how did they do that?". - No additional criteria was added to the brief but we did enjoy creating the Connected Data and Transporter logos during the design process of the device.

- When designing for a company in their start-up mode, part of a designer's responsibility is to balance the requirements of getting the first product into the market on time and at cost with creating credibility for a company through the perception of the physical form. First impressions are crucial to believability in a new product and a new company. - We and our client are familiar with the data storage space but they provided an new opportunity with their concept of easily connected and private devices. We surveyed the product landscape but thought it was more important to imagine where it will live in homes and offices then based the design around those findings. Specifically the trophy or sculptural qualities of the form. - Materials Exploration; The glowing ring that wraps around the entire device created a challenge to illuminate. Several prototype iterations were made by the engineers to spread the light evenly. - Connected Data was founded in 2011 by four friends who were frustrated that there was no way to easily share large files. They set out to create a hardware solution that would make sharing with others as easy as accessing your own files. The result of this effort is the Transporter.

- Transporter's value is it is a simpler way for consumers, professionals, and small businesses to share, access, and protect their data. A couple other points include: 100% Private Most cloud solutions store your files on servers that are shared with other customers and have terms allowing the service provider to access, review, distribute and delete your files at any time. Transporter is a product you own and control, with all files stored directly on the device and only shared with people you specify. Anytime you share or access files stored on your Transporter, all information is transferred directly from the device, is always encrypted during transit, and is never stored in the cloud. Unlimited Sharing With cloud storage providers, the more you store, the more you pay and most have restrictions on the size and type of files. With Transporter, you pay one time and can share thousands of files of any size or type with anyone. If you ever run out of space on your Transporter, you can swap in a larger drive or simply buy another Transporter. Global Access We’ve all been in situations where we needed to access a file remotely. All files stored on Transporter devices are available anywhere in the world from any computer or mobile device that has access to the Internet. You can also sync specific files on your computer so they’re available even when you are disconnected from the Internet.