14
Brand Extension Project
By studying successful brands, I’ve learned the importance of having a clear design identity. My goal is to develop a unique style that people will instantly recognize as mine.
Choose an existing brand and conduct in-depth research into its design language, values, and product ecosystem. Using these insights, design a new line of products that the brand does not currently offer, but that authentically extends and enhances its identity.
Process
The project started by doing some research on the brand of my choosing, which was Oncept. Oncept is a sustainable footwear brand, whose main approach to sustainability is designing by intention. This means they have a focus on craftsmanship and making things that last to lengthen the product’s lifetime.
I also did some research on the designers’ inspiration for the brand as a whole, which included things such as minimalism, nature, streetwear culture and cuisine from all over the world, and quality leatherwork.
Lastly, I looked at the range of different products they sell to get a sense of the design language.
Once I made that initial research, I moved on towards looking at inspiration for what possible routes I could take as an expansion of the brand.
As seen from my research, a main inspiration for the brand is quality leatherwork, so I explored the idea of a line of leather goods. The line would extend from wearables, such as gloves, to traveling goods, to drink coasters
Oncept has a unique manufacturing technique for their soles called “re-speckled”, which uses recycled rubber for the soles and has a speckled look to it. So in the minimalist theme, as well as cuisine, I contemplated creating a line of tableware objects in that same “re-speckled” process.
Once I thought about both routes and received feedback from the class, I decided to go ahead with the line of tableware objects as an extension of the brand.
Now that I chose this as my topic, I did some market research about some other fashion brands that have also expanded into this direction.
Each of the brands had their own design identity, which then I looked at Oncept and summarized what identity they have from their shoes and how it may transfer to tableware. For this reason, I decided to stay away from luxury tableware that may use metal or glass, and stayed in the theme of sporty and flexible and chose to use the “re-speckled” material.
Now that I had the direction I wanted to go figured out, then came the ideation sketches. I wanted to create a family of tableware products: spoons, plates, cups, carafes, and plant pots.
The first round of ideation consisted of very quick quick form drawings, just to test out all the different shapes I could approach, while keeping the design language of minimalist, yet flexible, throughout.
From the quick sketches, I chose my favorite of each product and drew a bigger, more detailed sketch, to have a more real sense of what the object will actually look like.
The next week I moved ahead and created quick CAD renders using Photoshop to give the objects the right colors, materials, as well as in-context looks to make my idea more clear.
The material would be the “re-speckled” rubber, which I tried to portray through the texture. As for color, I drew inspiration from the color palettes I created in my moodboard based on the brand, as well as the curved lines that are so prevalent in the shoes. For that reason I decided that every object should have that curved line to unite the family of objects and create coherence between all of them.
A week later, I created some quick 3D models to get a sense of size for each product. This process really helped as during the making process of these models I found that some of my estimates for the sizes were either too big or too small, which I made changes accordingly.
The week prior I also got a lot of comments regarding the carafe as it was the main object which people felt did not fit well with the rest of the family. For that reason I went back to the drawing board and created three different carafe designs that I felt might be more fitting. I discarded the original carafe and moved forward with a different design.
Now in the last week before making the products, I had to present the final round of edits.
A big change was that I reimagined the objects from being specific to tableware to serving more as household objects. The main reason for this was that people felt weird about having food or drinks on an object made of recycled rubber soles.
I also united the family further by taking a curve from the overall shape and applying it to every object.
I created some renders in Rhino, as well as images of what the products would look like at home.
