MOEN SPONSORED PROJECT
Our team was approached by Moen, The Martin Agency, and Traditional Home Magazine. Working with these three companies, we designed products for use within the home. These products all put themselves away like Moen’s faucets, making life easier for the consumer. Moen’s existing campaigns had two distinct sides, which we took into consideration during our process. We looked at the original ad campaign, which was a whimsical approach to the task. We also looked at the Inventor Series, a more realistic and down to earth version of the same idea. Using these strategies helped us to create a variety of ideas, with concepts ranging from fantastical to feasible and everything
in between. At the commencement of the project we were introduced to Moen’s Reflex Technology, which effectively allows a faucet to put itself away with little help from the user. Using the faucet as inspiration, we were asked to create thoughtful designs for other items around the home that could put themselves away like Moen’s faucet. These designs would be featured in Moen’s ad campaign to demonstrate the ease this faucet can bring into everyday tasks and activities. Throughout the design process, we wanted to focus on concepts that were within the home, and drew direct inspiration in both concept and physical technology from Moen’s Reflex Faucets.
REFLEX TECHNOLOGY Moen’s Reflex Technology is a revolutionary innovation that allows the retractable faucet head to put itself away. The technology uses a weight at the end of the hose, as well as a frictionless material along the inside of the faucet. With these two elements working together, the faucet slides seamlessly back into its resting position. The technology eliminates the pesky gap that other retractable faucets often face between the head and the housing. This gap can make a spotless kitchen look untidy or unkempt. Reflex technology solves this issue without an extra step on the user’s part. Reflex is designed to put itself away. Everything has its place, especially in the kitchen. With Reflex, the faucet user receives all the benefits of a flexible hose, plus the convenience of a spray head that retracts fully and securely, without an unsightly gap that other retracting faucets often have. It is designed with any kitchen style in mind.
W H AT D O Y O U W I S H C O U L D P U T I T S E L F A W AY LIKE REFLEX?
Images from Moen’s Reflex Campaign
R E F L E X C A M PA I G N Moen’s first ad campaign exists in a whimsical world where household items come to life to put themselves back where they belong. The videos have a dream-like quality and a fanciful feel. The three ads released by The Martin Agency, on Moen’s behalf, feature: dishes from a dishwasher, tools from a workbench,
and clothes from a laundry basket. All of these items incorporate the ideas behind Reflex technology to accomplish these tasks. The aim of this campaign was to surprise and delight the viewers and to inspire them to imagine what items in their own home could put themselves away.
INSPIRED BY A FA U C E T T H AT P U T S I T S E L F A W AY Images from Moen’s Inventor Series
REFLEX INVENTOR SERIES The first ad campaign inspired the Inventor Series. Moen approached designers, engineers, and students to create products that could put themselves away like Moen’s faucets. These designs were executed and brought to life. The process was recorded in a short series of documentary-style videos.
They started with establishing a need or niche to fill. For some, this was specific to their own interests. For others, the problems were more generalized. The videos followed the process of creating these designs, drawing inspiration from Reflex, and eventually creating a final working model.
P R O C E S S & I D E AT I O N To begin this project, we used various methods of creative problem solving to brainstorm. We felt that in the earlier stages we had to insert ourselves into the problem to get a better understanding of the prompt. From there, we focused on lists and sketches to further propel our designs.
SKETCHES Initially, to answer the question, “what in your home do you wish could put itself away like Reflex™?” we took a walk through our own homes and made note of all of the items we came into contact with. After looking at all the items we wished could put themselves away, we each selected four topics we felt
strongly about and drew thirty ideas for each. The aim was to create a vast number of ideas that could fuel the entire project. It took two weeks to go from a hundred and fifty concepts down to ten, and from there we continued to test our creative boundaries while starting to think of the concepts as functioning products.
PROBLEM & SOLUTION During week five, we held a presentation for some of the key players from The Martin Agency. At that time, we presented the work we had completed during the preceding weeks by introducing the concept of problem items around the home and how they could be put away.
PROBLEM - SPICES When cooking, a variety of spices are involved. In a standard kitchen, these small items are used regularly, and are inconsistently put away. Whether these spices belong in a cabinet or spice rack, they tend to end up on the counter. When left out, spice containers can lead to crowded and cluttered counters. This leaves the kitchen looking disorderly.
SOLUTION - SPICES Using our proposed solution, spices would immediately return to their home base after use. These bases could be wall mounted, placed on the counter, or hidden in the walls or ceiling. We experimented with rebounding tethers, magnetic surfaces and even a yo-yo mechanism as means to put spices away.
PROBLEM - DESK LAMP When working at a desk or table, the amount of clear surface area directly impacts the user. Bulky desk and table lamps take up valuable space, and it can be difficult to control their lighting. These lights come in a variety of shapes and sizes that can take up space that could be used when the light is not needed.
SOLUTION - DESK LAMP Desk lamps originated through the ideation of candle concepts that could put themselves away. These items transformed into office items that could complete the same task. Our team ideated a desk lamp that could retract and put itself away, when not needed, to save desk space. The mechanisms we experimented with used retracting tethers and telescoping stems.
PROBLEM - CHAIRS One of the most common pieces of freestanding furniture is the chair. To put away a chair, you push it into a desk or table. However, they can be forgotten and sometimes do not fit the table which they are paired with. When chairs are not pushed in, they take up floor space, look messy, and create a safety hazard.
SOLUTION - CHAIRS Our team aimed to create a chair that effortlessly tucked itself back under or into its table. Methods of putting away chairs that we envisioned employed chairs that folded down from the actual table surface, chairs that rode on a track back under the table, and chairs that could roll themselves back under their table.
PROBLEM - STRING LIGHTS String lights are usually a seasonal item that you put up and take down for specific holidays and events. Both setting up and taking down these lights can be a physically strenuous and dangerous task because these decorations have a tendency to tangle and break.
SOLUTION - STRING LIGHTS Lastly, our team approached the problem of mounting and then storing string lights. Some of our proposed concepts included retracting barrels and a mounting mechanism on the roof or walls of a house that could recoil the lights into containers.
FINAL DELIVERABLES After deciding on four solutions, we completed another round of ideation and development to work towards creating a final prototype for each concept.
DON’T YOU WISH YOUR SPICES C O U L D P U T T H E M S E LV E S A W A Y ?
DEVELOPMENT - SPICES
Our final spice deliverable features tethered spice containers that are fastened to a modular garage. The garage can then hang on a wall near an oven or stove. The containers have grooved accents to improve grip and a simple push lid for easy opening. After use, the retracting system pulls the spice container back into the dock.
PROTOTYPE
D O N ’ T Y O U W I S H Y O U R W O R K S PA C E C O U L D P U T I T S E L F A W AY ?
D E V E L O P M E N T - W O R K S PA C E
The final lamp and chair deliverables are combined into a transforming workstation in the form of a desk with a light. Both the LED light and seat are housed in the table. The light rises from the top corner of the table when the seat is pushed down. It returns when the seat rises up into its original position. This transforming workstation puts itself away to create a workspace that conserves space.
PROTOTYPE
DON’T YOU WISH YOUR STRING LIGHTS C O U L D P U T T H E M S E LV E S A W A Y ?
DEVELOPMENT - STRING LIGHTS
The final deliverable for string lights is a crank mechanism similar to that of a fabric measuring tape. It is comprised of a 3D printed housing and an LED light tape. The user holds the housing system and walks around various obstacles using the crank to quickly collect and store lights without hassle. When the lights are off the tree, you’re done!
PROTOTYPE
CONCLUSION “What do you wish could put itself away like Reflex?” Moen, The Martin Agency, and Traditional Home magazine presented our class with this question at the beginning of the project. We took inspiration from Moen’s Inventor Series and our own homes to generate a large
body of answers. These ideas were narrowed down to ten key problems and suggested solutions for a midterm presentation to The Martin Agency. The Martin Agency selected four ideas that they deemed the most inventive and representative of Reflex technology.
CONCLUSION The chosen problems were spices, lamps, chairs, and string lights. Ultimately, lamps and chairs were combined into a transforming workstation. Our final deliverables are renderings and working prototypes of spices that retract on a tether, a workstation whose attached
seat and lamp put themselves away, and string lights that could easily be rolled up into a container. These deliverables represent how Reflex inspires us to create solutions to the question - “Don’t you wish everything could put itself away?”