CLS freecom mobile drives
photos by julien renault
images courtesy of sylvain willenz


following the success of the XXS mobile drive and other products, german company
freecom commissioned belgian designer sylvain willenz - with project assistant
robbie van nieuwenhove - to develop a new concept for collecting and organizing data.
the result is the CLS external mobile hard drive that incorporates a labeling system on
its side which allows users to organize their data and identify hard drive contents at a glance.





the design concept came from witnessing the growing number of hard drives owned
by individuals for their data (music, films, back-ups...). influenced by the good old
cassette tapes and floppy drives, willenz imagined a drive that could be labeled in a
very simple and personal way. labels are kept behind a removable window set in the side
of the drive. the CLS comes in a stackable see-through case accompanied by spare colored
labels and a small USB cable. there is also a dock which allows three drives and 1 extra
peripheral to be connected to the computer simultaneously.



there is a dock which accommodates three drives and one extra peripheral to be connected to a computer simultaneously


the CLS is made from injection moulded plastics and a 2.5" hard drive.
it measures 109.8 x 79.5 x 13.5 mm in size.



the overall design draws on casette tapes and floppy drives



each drive can be labeled making it easy to identify and organize



the labels are protected by a removable see-through window



putting the removable see-through window in place






labeled hard drive



each drive is accompanied by extra colored labels



freecom CLS mobile drive overview