When you think of NZXT. today, you think of the new Phantom Crafted Series Enclosure. Since launching at COMPUTEX 2010, this case quickly became one of this year’s hottest computer cases. With it, NZXT. has enjoyed a new level of success and prestige. But before the Phantom, there were other signature cases that helped define what NZXT. is today. This article, originally published in 2006 by Futurelooks, takes a look back at the road to this iconic case.
NZXT Corporation was born two and a half years ago, fuelled with a passion to build unique and truly designer computer cases for the “computer gamer” market. Known as “Crafted Gaming Armour” their designs represented a gamer’s need for something unique in a world proliferated by regular “beige boxes” that sit under their desks.
Computer gamers are a different breed of computer user that not only buy the latest hardware to power demanding games, but they also care about what the box looks like that houses them. Many of the most extravagant custom computer case designs have come from gamers themselves and Johnny Hou, NZXT’s Lead Designer and Global Marketing and Product Marketing Manager is not only a gamer himself, but he can be credited with being one of the first to really push the envelope of design.
The Man Behind The Myth
Johnny was born in Taiwan; the hot spot of the computer industry. At the age of ten, Johnny and his family came to the U.S. so that he could fully develop his design skills, creativity, and free thought: Things that are not common in a typical Chinese culture. Through his upbringing, Johnny developed a unique understanding of both the North American market and the Asian market. As a result, Johnny Hou was the perfect weapon to help launch a young Taiwanese company into a competitive computer case market.
Even though Johnny is charged with developing products responsible for NZXT’s growing sales, his youthfulness has revealed some prejudice in the industry. Johnny admits that being called a “Lead Designer and Global Product and Marketing Manager” makes business go a bit smoother in an industry where age and seniority are part of the politics. “The title definitely does help, but regardless of what they think of me personally, they have to work with me in the end”. Although he’s been around for only twenty-three years, he has shown wisdom in letting the work he does speak for itself rather than allowing a few “ripe individuals” to rattle his mettle.
A Day In The Life…
Johnny typically starts his day at nine in the morning, but doesn’t often leave till at least seven in the evening. Yet he still finds time to have fun during the day. “I will always find at least one hour in my day to play games…” These long days involve meetings in several time zones, which is one of the reasons his days end up extended. However, Johnny knows that the career he has chosen is a lifestyle. “I find joy in my work so working long hours is not really a problem because I’m enjoying every bit of it”.
Designing computer cases and playing games may not sound like work, but this is just part of it. His responsibilities also include trying to convince manufacturers to buy into his designs, which can sometimes be a challenge. Johnny remembers a situation where he ran into a creative difference with a manufacturer. The manufacturer had presented Johnny with a piece of hardware that could “display messages and run temperature sensors”, but all Johnny wanted it to do was “control 7 little LEDs…so it’s got a Knight Rider feel…” In other words, all he wanted was a pulsing red light that resembled the one that was attached to the front of a wisecracking “Supercar” named K.I.T.T. belonging to David Hasselhoff. “The guy thought I was mad”, Johnny chuckles.
Changing the Industry One Case at a Time
Wreaking havoc in the industry has paid off for NZXT. As a result, Johnny’s very first NZXT case known as “The Guardian” hit the market as the only mass marketed computer case to ever break the mould of a box with four sides. In fact, “The Guardian” had a three dimensional front panel that looked like the head of a great robot, and has often been called the “Optimus Prime” case referring to the 80’s cartoon show, the “Transformers”. “Every engineer that I’ve met dreads my designs. Nowadays there’s a bunch of shapes and forms but imagine the look on the engineer’s face when he got my design of the Guardian”, says Johnny with a smile.
One of the things that have given his cases a sort of “cult status” was Johnny’s signature on the back of every Guardian case’s front panel. Although it seems like one of those ego-driven designer things to do, Johnny insists that it’s really for his users. “This began with the Guardian, still the only existing model with a ‘Johnny H.’ signature on it. We wanted our customers to feel a close connection with us so we started doing this on every case”.
The Clone Wars
In a market that is filled with clones of products, especially in the Asian markets, it doesn’t take long for imitation to happen. Just a month after the release of NZXT’s signature Guardian case, the design was copied. When we asked Johnny if NZXT found any knock offs that got the copying right down to the “Johnny H. Signature”, he replied, “No, but we were thinking, ‘Nice! Free advertising!’”
Although Johnny knows that popular designs do get copied, he never expected such a level of support from the NZXT fans in protest of the alleged cloning of one of his designs. Johnny recalls the backlash that came from NZXT’s user community. Members of the NZXT community actually organized email campaigns to the manufacturers in question to stop their copying of his designs. At the time, NZXT was the only case manufacturer with an open user forum allowing customers to talk about their products. Since then, it has become one of the largest company sponsored communities on the web. It was such a good idea, a month later, a very large and prominent case manufacturer by the name of CoolerMaster also decided to launch an online community. Johnny was very flattered when he heard that.
Through the forum, NZXT has gotten an unprecedented level of feedback in new designs and products. NZXT values the community so much that they have even used ideas from their members to develop products and even name them. “The Lexa name was actually a result of a community contest to win an initial production Lexa chassis”, recalls Johnny in regards to the name of one of NZXT’s newer chassis designs.
What is an NZXT?
Although the name NZXT is now synonymous with great robot headed computer cases and the infamous “Johnny H. signature”, Johnny confessed that the company name, NZXT, ironically, doesn’t actually mean anything at all. “The name was derived from a simple ‘NEXT’ for ‘next generation’, but we wanted a name that would stick in peoples heads as unique so we switched out E for Z; the letter that resembles E the most.”
Though Johnny admits that this effectively made the name unpronounceable, it did give their brand some added mystery and flair, making the name memorable. His favourite meaning of the name actually comes from one of their original NZXT community members. “I think one fan described NZXT as “Next generation Zion Xenon Technology. Interesting…”
Always Inspired. Always looking to the Future.
When Johnny isn’t in a meeting, or playing video games, or trying to get pulsing LED’s put into a design, he makes certain that he and his design team are never without creative materials to derive inspiration from. “When I designed the Nemesis and Guardian I was watching Gundam Seed episodes over and over. I even imported some books from Japan. Sticking to our mission statement, we looked for everything gamers liked to do and implemented that feel into our case designs. You can never lose touch with your audience”. Even with his added job responsibilities, Johnny also spends time ensuring that his creativity is consistently stretched. “On weekends, I try to hone in my design skills by reading sketch and design books”.
While Johnny is a computer gamer at heart, he’s also quite the console gamer on the Microsoft Xbox 360. Since NZXT derives influence from gamers, I had to ask if NZXT was going to be pursuing the console gaming market in the future. “People are sending us emails all the time to develop monitors, speakers, keyboards, and other accessories. We’re looking at all possibilities but we want to make sure everything we do is right so we’re taking one step at a time.”
The computer hardware market is fairly volatile, so I asked him where he would see himself if NZXT was no longer an option. “It would probably be Antec or Silverstone. Antec’s got an incredible marketing team, I have always admired the way they present their products, and I think I would be able to grow a lot there. Silverstone is also another company that has shown they are not afraid to put out expensive cases as long as the demand was there. They gave a lot of other manufacturers’ (including NZXT) confidence to sell products at that level too.”
A Young Gun in the Old East
At twenty-three years of age, Johnny Hou is not only one of the youngest designers, but he carries the burden of promoting the products that keep NZXT profitable. For such a young individual, Johnny has not only shown wisdom beyond his years, but has also shown reckless abandon for established norms; a signature of any successful designer. As history would tell us, it has definitely paid off. While it would be easy, to cultivate a large ego, Johnny still remembers the people that have gotten him there. “All of our products are developed by a great team of people and I’m just happy that our customers are satisfied with our designs”.
We’d like to thank Johnny Hou of NZXT for allowing us the opportunity to sneak into his busy schedule. You can view all of Johnny’s hard work on the NZXT website at www.nzxt.com
Today, Johnny Hou, who is now older, wiser and twenty-seven years of age, has not had to take a job with ANTEC or Silverstone. In fact, the company is on a huge growth spurt thanks to its recent success with the new Phantom enclosures. But the road to the daring Phantom design was not an easy one; an experience he is well accustomed to with many of his signature designs. Johnny told us that it took over three years just to get buy in to give this case a shot. He definitely hit the bullseye with this one.