A Berlin-based designer believes that cancelling the ‘visual noise’ is as important as the unwanted sound. For this, he has created a simple accessory called the Focus Cap. People who work in open workspaces have seen its benefits, but it also has a drawback of offering a lot of visual distraction to the employees. When there are so many people around, and so much is going on, keeping yourself focused on whats important and not getting overwhelmed by the information overload is very important. This is where the focus cap comes into play.
As the name suggests, it is a cap, but it also has a folding visor on it which allows the users to block out the peripheral vision distractions within seconds. This is similar to the horse blinders. The German designer Hannes Greblin, who invented the cap said, “As we are still cavemen or mammals kept in an unnatural environment. I believe that only by reclaiming the normal, stress-free human state through simple tools and techniques we can finally unleash our actual creative potential and create our meaningful work for a brighter future.”
After considering other products designed at minimising visual distractions from Hugo Gernsback’s 1925 ‘The Isolator’ to last year’s ‘Helmfon’ helmet, Greblin concluded that these are either too expensive or too uncomfortable to become mainstream. So he decided to go with something simple and ended up with a cap with retractable visor.
Greblin’s Focus Cap is very straightforward. It is like a regular cap with the sides of the visor retracted. You can collapse the sides whenever you need to focus on what is ahead of you. Just like horse blinders. When you are trying to focus on a task in an open work office, trying to study at university, practising yoga in a park and trying to ignore those stares from strangers, the focus cap will help you do all this. Similarly, if you are looking to block out all the distractions, the founder of the cap recommends to wear a pair of noise-cancelling headphones as well.
The whole project sounds a lot like a joke. The Focus Cap also has a website of its own where people who want to get this unique accessory can sign up for updates about the cap’s sale. Greblin says that the cap will cost almost 30 euros ($37) plus the shipping. The cap will be available in black and translucent versions.
