PONTUS
MERKEL
EDUCATION 2015 - 2017
MA VEHICLE DESIGN
2012 - 2015
BACHELOR OF FINE ARTS
2011 - 2012
ART SCHOOL - ÖLANDS FOLKHÖGSKOLA
2010 - 2011
PREPARATORY DESIGN SCHOOL - FIDU
2006 - 2009
Industrial Design
UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL - POLHEM With focus on industrial design
AWARD 2015
INTERNSHIPS
ROYAL AUTOMOBILE CLUB ANGLO AMERICAN EMERITUS DESIGN COMPETITION WINNER
01/2014 - 03/2014 06/2014 - 08/2014
VISUALISATION DIGITAL
ANALOG
PHOTOSHOP INDESIGN ILLUSTRATOR PREMIERE PRO AFTER EFFECTS
ALIAS MAYA SOLIDWORKS RHINO KEYSHOT SHOWCASE
FREEHAND SKETCHING RENDERING CLAY MODEL MAKING (VARIOUS MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES)
YOVINN AB
Gothenburg
SCANIA BUS
Södertälje Stockholm
Pontus Merkel +(44)7490 215721 +(46)768 721970
merkelpontus@gmail.com pontus.merkel
2025
Anglo-American Emeritus
WINNER
Design competition 2015 The assignment in this annual competition arranged by the Royal Automobile Club, asked us to showcase an ecofriendly connected future car version of one of the British
or American veteran cars in this year’s event, for an imagined 2025 Brighton-London return run. Building upon the American Bicycle Company’s heritage of bicycle manufacturing, I designed a vehicle with a small footprint, for an easy-
to-use, accessible and autonomous transportation service. The context is a highly dense American city of the future, where the next generation of city dwellers is living to a greater extent individually or in micro families.
My choice:
Pope Toledo 1901
One who bought the Pope Toledo in 1901 was a wealthy person. Probably a doctor, using the automobile to travel from farm to farm. Back then, a automobile was a luxury item. But who uses a compact car like the Toledo in 2025?
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e g n a h c g i B 900 = 1 ~ = What will 5 2 0 2 ~autonomous vehicles look like?
C
2025 - Big city life [ Families are splitting up]
According to OECD (Organisation for economic cooperation and development), single person households is the most expanding way of living.
T
Context
In America, 35% of households will be single person house holds in 2025.
= no shared expenses Students and young professionals
= Low income
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Transportation SAME NEED FOR
IDEATION
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Flexible interior
Âť
Wha
2025
at’s the difference,
?
to transport a person or a parcel, when vehicles are autonomous
MODE
INTERIOR
MODE
WINNER
2015
Road safety on London Streets In association with
Road safety affects all road users. In Greater London there are 570,000 cycle journeys daily and six million people walk London’s streets. In 2013 there were 23,066 recorded accidents involving death or injury to 27,199 people. 132 died. Of cyclists hurt or killed, over 50% involved heavy goods vehicles - 4% of the city’s traffic, mostly rigid lorries, many serving the building industry. Road safety matters. The challenge in this project was to look at current truck design, the comfort and convenience of the driver, as well as his relationship to the road. We analysed truck use and truck conduct relative to other road users and came up with a design that shall not rely on mirrors and cameras. Instead, the end result of this project tackles the blind spots around current truck designs. It does so by informing cyclists about the danger of getting too close to the truck, as well as, in a simpler way, making the driver aware of approaching cyclists and pedestrians. My role in this team work was to explore different concepts, to ideate and to visualise the chosen concept in the exterior design. The design shows a truck, that listens to its environment - borrowing the semantics of the ear - and communicates awareness and safety through sound, in a powerful way. This two-way communication establishes a new way of interaction between truck drivers and cyclists as well as pedestrians. Team Brian Black, Anand Assinkar & Pontus Merkel
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So
Navigate through visual overload by utilising
ound as physical communication
z H Tangible
Force Behaviour
IDEATION
Blocking of perceived direct eye-contact with driver Listening to the environment
Âť
Sound That has
Presence of a whale pulsing like a turn signal
During this project, team member Brian Black developed a low frequency sound track, with input from Physicist/ Acoustics specialist Jarno Wolf (University College London) and composer Jan Gorjanc (Royal College of Music). This sound track was played to involved stakeholders during the presentations of this project. The developed sound used patterning, pitch change and energy to:
Inform, pierce
!
and impose
Removing the false assumption of direct eye contact on left hand-side blindspot
Speaker element
EXTERIOR
Exhibiting a vision
At the London Transport Museum A project in association with London Transport Museum designed to test, challenge and develop design understanding, themes, patterns and influences; to generate in-depth intellectual engagement through investigation, discussion and logical conclusions; to understand and improve the interface between designer and society, through rational, innovative and challenging audio-visual and graphic communication. What if the only regulation concerning how vehicles can look like or function, is that they must be a part of a circular economy? In my vision, vehicles built out of flesh and bone are biodegradable and we as users have to nurture them in order for them to survive.
[LIVING MACHINE]
[ORGANISM]
[SYMBIOSIS]
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Pre
2015
BACHELOR DEGREE PROJECT -�Can existing bus networks be used as the branch work in a city distribution system?“ Sponsored by
VOLVO TRUCKS
Optimizing city logistics is a topic of great importance for big cities today. Even though the environmentaland economical consequences of the increasing goods transportation fleet has been present for quite some time, actions from affected stakeholders has not been taken until just recently. In this brief 9 week project the aim has been to, from a design point-of-view, in this complex topic, give a suggestion and raise a discussion onto how goods transportation in cities can be made in the future. The basic idea is to get the consignments as close to the consignees and their travel patterns as possible. Public transportation net- works are an existing grid where people are moving around and can potentially be used for combined transport of goods and people. The outcome of this concept is focusing on light parcel delivery towards private consignees, due to the increasing e-commerce trend. By using small transporter vehicles connected to buses, light parcels can be distributed throughout a city and easily accessible for consignees at the bus stops. The transporter vehicle developed through this project aims to conceptualize connectivity and integration between mobility and parcel delivery services, to ease the every day life of urban citizens as well as decrease the environmental- and economical impacts which the distribution vehicle fleet of today entails. The design of the transporter vehicle is an interpretation of how a autonomous distribution vehicle can look like in a future city environment where the integration, of publicutility-vehicles, is of greater importance.
Âť
- “The basic idea is to get the consignments as close to the consignees and their travel patterns as possible.�
Paket (1)
4 000 000
INCREASING E-COMMERCE 3 000 000
! !
Statistics from all major carriers clearly showcases a drastically increasing distribution of consignments to 2 000 000 the private sector. And that is a result of the increasing e-commerce. Only in Gothenburg, the reference city during this project,1 000 000 the e-commerce increased by 17% during 2013 and had a turn over of 37 billion kronor, according to Gothenburg Traders Association 0 (Göteborgs Köpmannaförbund). 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009
Paket skickade
PARCELS TO PRIVATE CONSIGNEES
PROBLEM
Brev, adresserade tidningar och reklam Oadresserad reklam och gruppreklam
2011
The increasing e-commerce trends are a product of this generations consumption behavior. -
The new generation growing up today, which will be entering adult life within the coming decade, will be the first generation to have been born into this world with smart technology and constant connectivity from the very start. As much as 95% of them own a computer and 80% own a smart device. What if delivery services implied more customization to the customers? -
When a individual from generation C is looking for information, the source for information is their smart
MODIF
90 000
67 500
45 000
22 500
0 1995
2013
1999
2001
2003
2005
2007
2009
2011
2013
Fig. (2) Statistics (x1000) from SCB on the development of parcel delivery to private consignees done by the Swedish postal service from 1995 to 2013.
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device. The search engines are always easy accessible in their pocket, wherever they go. There is no need to stop your daily routine or work task to go somewhere to retrieve the desired information. As on-demand home deliveries are a reaction to this generations expectation of quick access, would it not be logical to provide delivery services that implies customization to where the order can be picked up or when? The parcel might be picked up e.g on the way to work or when leaving the gym in the evening. If the parcels travel route from the consignors address, to the consignee’s would be pre-planned to intersect with the consignee on the way, that would result in fewer travels made, just to pick up shipments.
Y MONITOR
1997
NOTIFY
CONNECTED
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VISION
IDEATI PROTECTIVE SURFACES
REVEALING SURFACES
ION
BOXY SIDE PANEL TEXTURE
X24 X2
PICK-UP POINT
AVERAGE 30 PARCELS/DAY
MEASUREMENTS & PROPORTIONS
COLOUR
PACKAGE
LOADING WITHIN CONSOLIDATION CENTER When a parcel that is ordered online, arrives at the consolidation terminal in the outskirts of a city, it is loaded according to the delivery point chosen by the consignee, which is dependent on how consolidation can be made. If a parcel is being sent, the process is performed in reverse order. Parcels being transported within the same city is either transported to the distribution terminal for redirection or transported with redirected vehicles within the city, all depending on what is efficient for the system as a whole.
INTEGRATION WITH TRANSPORT SYSTEM After the consignments have been loaded into the vehicle, the integration with the transport system commence. The transporters follow the buses and will change which bus to follow, to be able to reach its final destination. When the transporters are closely linked to the public transport network, it does not only provide merger between consignments, consignees and consignors of light parcels. But also a consolidation of traffic and transportation modes within a city.
CONSIGNOR- / CONSIGNEE SERVICE The consignee or consignor have chosen a particular pickup- or drop-off point, which the transporter vehicle will be parked at for 48 hours. When the consignor or consignee is passing by this location, a smart device-based application is used when in arms reach of the vehicle to open the right hatch where a parcel is to be collected or droped-off. The application manage a que system if several people are using the service simultaneously. This application is not developed during this 9 week project.
PARCEL PICK-UP / DROP-OFF Final scenario showcasing how this light parcel delivery service is utilized.
IN THE FIELD The goal with the concept was, as mentioned earlier in the report, to suggest a flexible and efficient system where transportation of goods and people are linked together. The location of the transporter vehicles will therefor be in direct connection to the bus stops (and as show in the picture on the right, combined bus and tram stop). The layout at each bus stop is different and the implementation of specific parking spaces to the transporter vehicles may be necessary at some bus stops, to keep side walks etc. available for pedestrians. The picture on the left suggests a layout with charging stations at J채rntorget, Gothenburg. Charging stations may be implemented at bigger traffic junctions like J채rntorget, where many people pass every day. These junctions thus suggest a more frequent activity of transporter vehicles.
2014
Scania internship project ”How could bus interiors be designed to allow an increased passenger flow?” What is Bus Rapid Transit? Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is bus-based mass transit system. Its main purpose is to improve infrastructure and remove common causes of delay found in ordinary bus systems. Often spoken about as a “surface subway” it is a flexible alternative for big cities which can’t afford or have the possibility to build their public transportation under ground.
The vehicles used are often double articulated and either 18- or 24 meters long. A true BRT system operates mostly on fully dedicated “bus ways” to avoid all other traffic. Its stations have offboard fare collection and platform level to match bus floors. Any intersections prioritize busses. This to avoid any causes of delay.
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“BRT 2.0�
Project criteria I wanted to create a Bus Rapid Transitinterior 2.0 with increased passenger flow. The visual quality of the interior needs to be emphasized, to make it more attractive for people to use the bus as a mean of transport.
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Passenger flow Since Bus Rapid Transit stations are separated from all other traffic, both sides of the bus can be fitted with doors. By moving the seats into the middle of the bus and thus make it possible to make the doors as big as possible, an increased passenger amount could be handled. All passengers also have easier entryand exit possibilities which further eliminates delay at stations
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LAYOUT TODAY
VISION
IDEATION
SEATING CONFIGURATIONS Several configurations regarding how the passengers are positioned around the center pillars can be imagined. The seats adapt depending on passenger amount and can be used in both upright- or seated position.
MODULAR LAYOUT
FLEXIBLE SEATING
TOTAL AMOUNT OF PASSENGERS IS WHAT COUNTS
!
THE OPERATORS HAS ONE JOB; to take their passengers from point A to point B. It is therefore important, especially during rush hour, to be able to carry as many passengers as possible. THE AMOUNT OF STANDING PASSENGERS is what makes the difference in these situations. And to be standing in a BRT-bus, which is not affected by other traffic, is as easy as in the subway. But if the road is bumpy, the internal organic structure offers plenty of gripping points. OPEN SPACES around the doors makes entryand exit easier for all passengers, even if you are seated. Thus, this concept eliminates the typical causes for delay found in buses with ordinary interior layouts.
Sculpture The result from a model making course held during my first year at Ume책 Institute of Design. I chose to study the gesture of a runners shoe whilst in the middle of the leap and translate this into a sculpture.
CAPTURE MOTION
Brokk demolition DESIGN MANUAL & PROPOSAL Brokk, the original demolition robot, as their slogan goes, is a Swedish company with roots in Skellefteå close to Umeå. During the third year at Umeå Institute of Design, our class was assigned to renew the company’s design guidelines as well as deliver a design proposal on one of their machines, based on the guidlines developed.
The guidelines was developed in groups of three for three weeks. I worked together with Rasmus Bretizholt and Jakob Dawod. The design proposal was individual work during the last, 4th week. To the right, my proposal to Brokk.
CLOTHING NOT SUITABLE FOR
SOCIAL OCCASIONS 1 WEEK WORKSHOP
”What is not acceptable?”
Team
Kim Lidman (UMA) Max-Leonard Rydén (UMA) Tobias Jansson (UMA) Helena Öström (UAA) Pontus Merkel (UID)
In this interdisciplinary workshop tutored by the fashion label House of the very Islands, our teams were to design a clothing piece. The theme for our project came out of the question “What is not acceptable?”. During the project I was responsible for photography and setting as well as some of the design work. The end result received good feed back from the tutors and workshop organizers.
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Pontus Merkel +(44)7490 215721 +(46)768 721970
merkelpontus@gmail.com pontus.merkel