An editor for a national magazine that helps define and dictate the next big trends in interior design has it in her own well-accoutered home. Top interior designers on both coasts have placed it alongside gorgeous Hermes throws, custom furnishings and exotic floorcoverings. Beverly Ellsley, a leading interior designer who boasts a roster of A-list clientele from Hollywood to Paris, even had it in her six-figure, state-of-the-art kitchen in the preeminent Kips Bay Decorator Show House in Manhattan this May
It is reactions such as these from those at the top of the design hierarchy that have lifted a seemingly common household appliance into the realm of glamour. The aforementioned “it” is Electrolux’s new Trilobite, the world’s first self-propelled robotic vacuum cleaner. Launched for the first time in North America this June, Trilobite is designed with a keen sense of style that has many displaying it within their homes as a fashion statement and showpiece rather than relegating it to the hallway closet.
“It’s a prestige product,” explains Eric Cohler, founder of Eric Cohler Design and named amongst the nation’s top 100 interior designers. “It’s like a top-of-the-line cigar, the rarest wine or the latest luxury automobile.” In fact, Cohler placed the Trilobite amid high-end furnishings and one-of-a-kind designer pieces in his aptly named “Her Favorite Things” woman’s dressing room at the Kips Bay Decorator Show House.
Randall Sandlin, director of consumer design for Electrolux Home Care Products, the manufacturer and marketer of the state-of-the-art Trilobite, had a hand in bringing the design to the North American marketplace. “We’re not selling a gimmick and we’re not selling just any vacuum; we’re selling an experience and a lifestyle. It’s about the luxury of living, the luxury of having more time to enjoy the people and the things you love.”
Back in the ’80s, Electrolux, the global pioneer of vacuum cleaners, was one of the first major appliance companies to dabble in automatic vacuum concepts. More than 20 years of product development were spent to get it “just right” and the intense process involved more than 100 experts in disciplines ranging from acoustics and mathematics to national defense. Though clunky and technologically simplistic, the original designs set the company on its path to inventing and introducing the world’s first self-propelled vacuum cleaner in 1997.
After more than 200 prototypes the final Trilobite was a celebrated revolution in product design. A cross between a high-style automobile, a space-age rocket, a high-performance vacuum and a compact household appliance, Trilobite consists of more than 1,000 components and embodies the highest levels of engineering and craftsmanship. The technologically advanced innovation offers some exclusive perks, namely its ultrasound and infrared navigation system, which allow it to calculate the dimensions of a room and the best cleaning path as well as to travel within millimeters of an object without bumping into it or knocking it to the floor.
Electrolux’s Trilobite is changing the way people relate to automatic vacuum technology, which is still relatively new in the United States. Over and above the technology requirements, Trilobite was designed to elicit an emotional response. By incorporating humanizing technology, for instance, its charming “whistle” which engages each time Trilobite is powered on, the vacuum cleaner has distinct personality characteristics. This technology has worked, as company research shows that many European owners affectionately nickname their Trilobites and call after them as they would a beloved pet. And, this trend seems to already have caught on stateside, as Ellsley and her design partner and daughter, Rebecca, immediately named theirs ‘Trilly’ after it faithfully cleaned up the messes left by more than 20,000 A-list guests who passed through the Kips Bay Show House during its month-long jaunt.
Aside from its advanced mechanics, Trilobite’s design elicits curiosity with its unusual exterior: it is compact and round with pronounced fin-like markings like the prehistoric arthropod for which it was named; it has a distinct reddish-orange hue with a satin finish; and it features a gold-coated, ribbon-like band along the front of its carousel. The design has received accolades from the London Museum of Science, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York, and the Observeur du Design in Paris among others.
“People don’t want to buy a robotic vacuum simply because it moves on its own; it must deliver on all its promises … to be a vacuum, to be autonomous, to be sophisticated and beyond,” explains Sandlin.
“There’s an inherent difference between a $200 machine and a $1,800 design,” adds Sandlin. “Trilobite isn’t about price. If it were, I’d be surprised that it doesn’t cost more.”