One of my final - year university projects was a live brief with homeware company Habitat. In this project, we were tasked with designing for the rental market. The project ran for 20 weeks, encapsulating research, ideation, prototyping and consideration into commercial viability and manufacturing.
The product that I designed was a stackable herb storage unit, designed for the kitchen. This idea was driven by research and insights into the impact of green space on mental health, as well as encouraging people to be healthier through education and proximity to healthy food options.
My initial brainstorming helped me to identify problems and opportunities within the rental market and design for the home. Ultimately, I identified four areas, which I then researched in further depth and narrowed down to one. My question at this stage was:
How can a kitchen become a more relaxing, sustainable, and functional green space?
I began with a selection of different concepts, which were then narrowed down to this bamboo - inspired design. Then, I started sketching, exploring different ways in which the product could hold the supermarket herbs. The design with the full pot was most popular.
Following the formative client presentation, one of my pieces of feedback was to lean more into the educational aspect of the product's function, which is what inspired the 'stamped in' information on the pots.
I wanted to explore different colour ways for the product, and landed on beige, white, terracotta and green. These were chosen based on existing products and consideration for design schemes in people's homes and kitchens.
I also started looking into the packaging for the product, and the customer experience of taking the piece home. I was inspired by some concept designs online, and explored a range of more traditional packaging, and how I could innovate in this market.
