Vacuum Cleaner Project One

This is an image of my most successful concept.

This was a 3 month project that the lab was involved with. The task was to offer a face lift to an existing vacuum cleaner to make it more appropriate for an international, namely European, market.

My role was as a design team member and I was primarily involved in the design elements listed below:

1. Concept work: I was a core concept designer and the company liked my concept. However, at this time I injured my foot so I could not make the necessary developments to bring my concept back for the second review. Elemental Design. Our client brought us a basic element set that we needed to keep in tact for the control system of the unit. I worked to explore interface designs and other aspects of the elemental array.
2. Consulting: I was part of this project almost all the way though and because it was intended for a European market they asked me to offer any international experience I had in this area. The main service I provided was in suggesting styles that the European market would be more or less interested in.I burnt my foot during this project so my work was not consistent. After the appropriate amount of healing I returned to the lab to finish my contribution to the project.
   

This is an image of the chosen concept.

The product is now in mass production.

This project may mark a turning point in my design ideology. Before having done this project I had a lot of knowledge about all the practices and methods used to do such things but I had not actually ever put my ideas together to form a full pipeline of this time. At RMIT many of the projects I had been involved with were much more about either technology or concept or theory. This was perhaps the first time where all of these things really came together for me. It should also be made known that, prior to this, I was completely unconvinced that anything I could draw could be useful to anyone. However, when I was told that I needed to make sketches for that afternoon of 3 to 20 vacuum concepts I somehow managed to come though. In fact, they thought I was drawing too accurately and that I should ease up to let the concepts develop more. I did this and my colleagues seemed to see my work as not only acceptable but even worthwhile - something I thought would never happen if I were drawing. I later realised that the degree of professionalism common in China in this sort of environment was not what had been suggested to me. It is not a shell of skill and technical ability without a strong theoretical core but almost the opposite. It came to be obvious that their theory and design studies were so strong that there technical ability just fell into place and, if you look carefully, you can notice this in their outcomes.

I learnt a few things on this project and it opened my mind to what I could do. I think this was perhaps the most confidence inspiring thing I did in China and repercussions of this project have changed the way I look at my work and my future in design.