CANADIAN TIRE + UMBRA DESIGN CHALLENGE PROCESS DOCUMENT Â JACQUI BUSH
INTRODUCTION The Canadian Tire + Umbra Design Challenge provided a unique opportunity to flex our product design muscles and try something new. The challenge was moderated by Umbra’s Paul Rowan, who met with us weekly via Skype to provide feedback and direct our projects. The brief was to create storage solutions that address the Entryway, Laundry, or Home Office as areas that could use innovative, beautiful organizational tools. The target audience was Canadian Tire’s demographic of young families, primarily mothers, who are seeking a higher level of design from their home decor products. As their research showed, people are willing to pay more for a refined design. We used this information as a jumping off point to begin our research and lead our designs.
PHASE I — RESEARCH The first phase of this project consisted of research and observation; identifying the pain points in our own lives that might indicate an opportunity for a new product. Combined with internet searching about what is already out there, this informed the next phase: ideation.
ENTRYWAY
OFFICE
LAUNDRY
RESEARCH: BRAINSTORMING AND LISTS
INTERNET RESEARCH
PHASE II — IDEATION In this phase, I began turning my initial lists and observations into sketches. Drawing inspiration from the internet research I’d done, I developed a wide range of concepts, putting down anything that I could think of in the hopes that something would stick.
OFFICE SKETCHES AND INSPIRATION FOUND ON PINTEREST
ENTRYWAY SKETCHES AND INSPIRATION PHOTOS FOUND ON PINTEREST AND GOOGLE
LAUNDRY SKETCHES AND INSPIRATION PHOTOS FOUND ON PINTEREST
CRITIQUE I The first round of feedback was extremely informative in terms of what is possible and what Umbra is looking for out of this project. Paul put a great deal of emphasis on beauty, rather than innovation; Umbra’s brand mission is to elevate the functional to the beautiful, creating art out of the everyday. Paul gave me some direction on which ideas might be worth pursuing, indicating that analog office devices were somewhat obsolete, and to really analyze the scale of the product. His favourite ideas were the sculptural approaches to wall hangers, which I continued to develop in the next phase.
PHASE III — DESIGN DEVELOPMENT The next phase of the process involved using a variety of found objects to create sketch models to test the scale and viability of the ideas generated in the previous phase. I used plastic samples and rope to test my curtain of hangers idea, as well as developing a lazy susan office organizer. Inspired by a broken candle holder and some further internet research, I developed a new idea combining hook and cubby storage into a U shaped organizer. SKETCH MODELS
CRITIQUE II In this critique, Paul gave me some very helpful feedback that informed the rest of the project’s direction. He was very interested in the new cubby idea, and suggested making an oval shape to make it more beautiful. He was also drawn to the mid-century vibe of the curtain of hooks, suggesting making them individual hooks that could be sold in sets of 3 or 4. I took this advice, and the next round of development was based on these suggestions.
PHASE IV — DESIGN DEVELOPMENT Development continued in this phase, as I took Paul’s advice to refine and improve my ideas. The sketches below demonstrate the thought process involved in creating appealing shapes for the cubby. I also continued to develop the mid-century inspired hook idea, and created a third hybrid idea, continuing along the lines of a hook and cubby merged into one product.
CRITIQUE III This critique offered a change of pace in that a fresh set of eyes provided feedback. Paul was unable to receive the call, so Tracy and another man from Umbra gave us the critique this week. Their feedback was valuable because their perspective is grounded in the more practical manufacturing side of the challenge. Seeing my three ideas, they settled on the second one, being the oval shaped cubby-hook. I then continued to refined it over the next week’s phase.
PHASE V — DESIGN REFINEMENT This phase, I continued to refine and develop the cubbyhook idea, using paper models and 3D CAD models to test the shape and hook possibilities. I considered the previous critique’s advice to extrude the cubby at an angle from the wall, enhancing the hook properties of the product.
PAPER SKETCH MODELS
3D MODELS
CRITIQUE IV In this critique, it was suggested to me that the loop be partially closed to add strength and provide an opportunity for an interesting take on the hook aspect of the product. There was also talk about scale, suggesting a 12� height for the cubby, which informed the final development of the product, which was presented in the following phase.
PHASE VI — FINAL PRESENTATION This phase involved the technical modeling of the product, refining the design into something that could really be produced. This week, I finalized the dimensions of the product, and using that information, and the help of Donnie Thompson, I vacuum formed a plastic prototype of the design. I also created a final 3D rendering, which ended up being more true to my vision than the plastic model. I used these two versions of the model to create the final presentation that was uploaded to OneNote for evaluation.
3D MODELS REFINED
PROTOTYPE AND PRODUCT IN SITU
FINAL THOUGHTS
CRITIQUE V The final critique offered a little bit of insight into the manufacturing process and Paul gave yet more refinement suggestions. The cutout hook shape could have better reflected the slope of the cubby, but otherwise Paul seemed pleased with the results of this project. In subsequent weeks, my design was chosen as a semifinalist in the challenge, which required mailing the plastic model to Toronto. At the time of creating this process document, I await the next round of results, which would reveal if I placed in the finals. Overall, I’m quite pleased with this project and the opportunity it presented to try my hand at a industrial design.