Packaging design

This is my first piece of packaging design and it came in a hurry. I got an email asking me to rework a box design and produce a prototype. I had just a few days to do it and I all ready had a busy work schedule that i had to work around. Not being one to turn down work, I took the job on.

The brief was for me increase the capacity from six to nine of an existing point of sale box, displaying cakes for a social enterprise that prides itself on using and organic local sourced ingredients and to be as environmental sound as possible. The existing design was a conventional cheese wedge shape with three ascending tiers. When redesigning the net I found that making an increase in both height and width had a dramatic effect upon the area of the net due to angled sides of the box. The box itself was huge which would take up too much shelf space and dwarf the product in side. This type of design was a really inefficient in terms use of cardboard and I felt completely off brand for the company.

I had a meeting with the client and explained the problems with the conventional design. It was agreed rather than modify an existing design I should produce a new design I had thought of. The new design was to be a flat tray with a zigzag inner replacing the tiers. This design would not only use less card but also as the cakes were positioned at an angle they were presented to the customer. Due the efficiency of the box another layer of cake could but place inside increasing the capacity up to 18. I also managed to redesign the box and produce a working prototype in less than four hours. The box is currently with the box manufactures and once made I shall post some nice pictures, meanwhile here’s some pictures of the prototype.

Mourning and Progression

Unfortunately I had to say good bye to an old friend this week, my Black and Decker Quattro, we had been through a lot together, we had first met at university were “Blackie” had helped make many a design project, many evenings we would stay up together to the wee small hours drilling, cutting and sanding. Blackie’s heart (a 12 volt Nickel Cadmium battery) had been weak for some time now, on Monday whilst trying to cut 18mm ply, it gave up. Although not entirely dead, the days of hard labour for Blackie are over and shall spend the rest of his life relaxing in a cupboard for old tools, doing the occasional bit of work around the house.

On a more serious note, this week I have been progressing by addressing the problem of the lateral stiffness of the chairs. I have focused upon the outer chair as this is the least stiff. I made new side panels out of 18mm ply using the same profile as the originals. The result is a significant improvement upon the prototype whilst still maintaining the slender aesthetics. There is however still some improvement to be made as I’ve only tested it with myself and seeing I weigh about 75kg the stiffness needs to be improved for heavier people and for misuse. Further improvements could be made by reducing the force acting upon the side panels and increasing the side panel stiffness by increasing the leading leg thickness and possibly changing the radius of the legs. Hopefully I can tweak the design using some structural analysis software.

Thank you Lizzy for the Loan of your jigsaw.

Back to mine for the afterparty

So the London Design Festival is over, shows have been taken down, floppy red signs have been stowed away and London settles back into reality. For me this means the hard work has only just began.

The show was a big success, giving my furniture exposure, vital feedback and renewing my interest in the project. Thank you to Sarah for organising the show, Alex for the loan of the shop and everyone one who helped set up and man the show. It was lovely to see some old faces and meet some new ones too. Also, thank you to everyone who has given me feedback either verbally, by email, or blog.

The Teanest has now taken up residency in my flat, ready for my obsessive scrutiny. Over the next few days I shall be a midnight CAD monkey and work on some 3D visuals of the redesign in the evenings after work. Next week I shall be making a new physical model to test the strength and asses the aesthetics. I shall keep you all posted every few days on my progress. Thank you and bye for now.

Day 5: Designeritus

It was a good day in the shop with a quite a few people coming in who had specifically hunted down the show and a few interesting passers by.

As far the design process is going its been a day of rational triumphing over *designeritus. I’ve made some decisions the first being a obvious one, to change the 12mm ply to 18mm thus improving the stiffness of the furniture and also to increase the thickness of the leading legs of the chairs, increasing the cross sectional area resulting in further increased stiffness and strength.

Im also going to remove or reduce the radius from the outside edge of the chairs as this will reduce the danger of the chairs tilting backwards.

The main decision today is to reduce the height of the table this will solve a number of problems, improving the ergonomics, Improving the table and chairs stability and reducing the amount of material used thus reducing the cost and the weight.

This rationalisation process is all good, but I have to careful not to go too far and keep the furniture’s quirks and charm.

*Designeritus: Comes in many forms, but in this context, being totally blinkered about a decision you have emotionally invested in and being completely bloody minded about it. A remedy for such an affliction is dam good rational telling off, this normal results in a period of sulking and eventually the patent will come to their senses and will wonder what all the fuss was about.

Day 4: Overall Evaluation

So here we are, several months have passed since I made the Teanest, and the dust has well and truly settled. Life has been busy, but at least this period of time has allowed me to distance myself from the project giving me the prospective to be self critical about my baby, myself and my process.

With hindsight I can say the design process was a bit rushed and I could of made things better, in hindsight. The process was quite aesthetically and gut led, although not entirely. The process was energetic and of the school of thought of get it out there and get it done, rather the calm considered approach, not ideal but it delivered on time. The project was also more complicated than I thought with how three separate pieces all interrelated to one another. My biggest regret is that I didn’t make more models, nothing beats a physical model, but given constraints of lead time, time and cash, i just made the prototype. Do you think I’ve pulled it off?

Overall my concept has been well received, it fulfilled its brief of providing a place to sit, drink and talk, in a confined space. People also love the way it looks, so its aspirational too. The chairs are comfortable and fit neatly within the table.

There are however a number of problems

Stiffness of the sides: This for me is the biggest problem, the last minute substitution of materials is a factor, but also the small cross sectional area.

Resistance of the chairs to tipping: This due to the high centre of gravity, the chairs geometry and the radius at the bottom of the chair.

Manufacturing: A lot of material (3 Sheets of ply) and low yield form each sheet.

Weight: their dam heavy, but in kind of nice way.

Fit of the chairs: there needs to be a bigger gap between each piece

Seat height is a bit on the low side and for some a bit narrow.

Table height: The jury is out on this one, what do you think?

For

An interesting and unconventional height

Works well as a work surface and nice height to put things on, like the person who put a wine glass on it at my private view.

Provides a nice roof/cap for the chairs and brings the pieces together as a unit.

Against

An conventional height

Is there a danger of when objects are on the table they interfere with eye contact?

Too high to eat food off of or use a lap top. But shouldn’t you be just drinking and talking?

Should I really try to dictate what people should do with this furniture?

It also makes people who think the Measure of Man is a bible cry.

Problems are good, because it meens we can move forward.

Tomorrow I’m in the shop so the in depth evaluation and problem solving beings.