BELLAR AIR
Microbeau’s breakthrough wireless innovation for the Permanent Make-Up industry, the Bellar Air is aimed at artists looking to establish themselves as beauty trend setters. A well balanced machine for any artist looking for reliability with endless capabilities. Adjustable across all parameters, this wireless machine has an OLED display screen interface, which makes it easy to change your speed, timing, and voltage. The digital interface also gives you access to eGive features, including soft, medium, and hard settings. This PMU machine is also designed to cause less trauma to your client’s skin. It has a lower voltage range, which doesn’t compromise its ability to saturate pigment for optimal healed results. Additionally, this intuitive machine has needle-sensing technology, so it responds to your needle for a more consistent performance.
The Bellar Air was a a meaningful step in the Microbeau product lineup. It was the first machine to be exclusively designed for experienced artists in the PMU market. Previously, the brand would take tattoo machines made from the parent company, FK IRons, and reskin them in different colors and a new grip. The opportunity presented itself to rethink how Microbeau designs machines for the premium PMU market. Talking with artists provided the necessary insights that allowed the team to create a machine to bring in a new generation for Microbeau. The biggest challenge was trying to fit all the new innovations within the machine’s limited architecture. We heavily focused on slimming the product architecture to create an iconic silhouette. This resulted in a beautifully balanced and powerful machine that can easily execute the perfect lip. The product is currently in production and is for sale on the Microbeau website here.
Role: Industrial Design, Design for Manufacturing, CMF, & Product Visualization.
Engineering Team: Fernando Diaz
Artist Driven Design
We pooled around 40 artists that were associated with the Microbeau ProTeam program. These were industry leaders in the PMU space and provided key insights that later helped narrow down the stroke offering and balance of the machine. Interviews were done to get a general feel for what artists needed in terms of stroke offering and their most common procedures. Most procedures were done on the face, with lips and brow being the most asked for.
The artists also provided feedback on current machines in the market and how they suffer from poor hand health from using tattoo machines. These are traditionally too bulky and heavy to use in PMU procedures. Understanding how the industry uses the machines helped see the opportunities for improved hand health. By holding the machine towards the needle cartridge, artists can achieve a simple flicking motion that is commonly used from either brows or lips. It's all in the flick of the wrist!
Designed For Delicate Precision
Form exploration revolved around having a balanced machine in a compact form. The challenge came from having to fit the motor assembly, the PCB, and the inner ratcheting system all in a slim profile. We also took into consideration that having a "slim looking" machine resulted in less anxiety from the client that was having the procedure done. These procedures take place in a very similar environment as dental procedures that are usually very sterile environments with big white over head lighting, so having a machine that does not make a lot of noise and looks aesthetically beautiful, calmed the nerves of the clients.
Different battery packs were explored to see how an artist might be able to easily swap them out in between sessions. The battery pack ultimately needed to feature a plastic face to allow for the Bluetooth Module to connect with accessories and the Microbeau App. Silicone buttons provided a balance of tactile feeling and as a sanitary material that artists could wipe down. The locking system was developed to keep the form slim and can be inserted by pressing down and twisting it in place.
UI / UX Display & Features
Careful consideration was taken to understand how an artist interacts with the battery pack during a session. Ultimately, the team narrowed down the key features to help fine tune the machine. Artist can cycle through the different menu options so that they could refine their machines to their specific needs. The main menu screen desplays the most important dialed settings like Motor Speed and E-Give.
CMF Breakdown:
Encouraging artists in the PMU space to seek out new and exciting opportunities was Microbeau's goal with with color palette. A playful collection that represents our diverse group of creatives that experiment and set trends in the industry. Featuring the Microbeau Blue color as the main standout, the pastel color palette compliments the soft and playful approach to this offering. Trends of that time were showing artists on the move as they travel around the world to learn from different professionals and cultures. They were not only traveling abroad to conferences, but they were going to client's homes for their procedures. Microbeau wanted to stand out from other manufacturers that recycled tattoo machines for PMU.
