Safety and comfort are desires that nearly everyone can relate to. The increasing size of the senior population is creating major needs for their care. Anelto strives to keep elderly people safe with their MPERS system that consists of a single button worn on a pendant or watchband and alerts an operator once pressed during an emergency. The team at Anelto realized the need for a system like this that is structurally sound and attractive enough that it looks like a piece of jewelry or a fitness tracker. That’s where we came in.
I contributed brainstorming, sketching, size research and created several CAD models and renderings. Other than the preliminary concepts, which are not shown here, I created the first concept shown in this presentation.
We created many concepts around how the band would attach. Some core concerns were ease of attachment and large features that were easy to use with limited dexterity. This type of empathetic design is a core competency at Design Edge.
We did research on what bands on the market fit well and used Anelto’s size research for their customer base. We needed to deliver a product in one or two SKUs that would fit virtually anyone.
We developed a few different styles, with a small and large version of each. For the smaller size, we chose a gold and peach theme, which is more on the feminine side, but could be used by either gender. Our research showed that adding a Color Material Finish treatment that had a hint of a precious metal would resonate with the user.
The clasping system on this version uses two male fasteners and several female receptacle slots. We maximized the size of each of this components to make it as easy as possible to attach.
In this concept, we again made a small and large size and applied the same Color and Material considerations. The large version is shown in this rendering with the blue theme. To add some visual interest and jewel-like feel, we created a metal bezel. The transmitter unit itself has a substantial range and our team had to be very careful of disrupting that signal. We worked with electrical engineers to ensure that we would not obstruct it, and found that our metallic pieces could exist around the outside of the button, but not directly on top of it.
The clasping technique in this band was designed to eliminate the “tail” of excess strap created in the standard system. Each end of the strap has a male post and each also has female slots to create a great deal of adjustability without ever having excess.
The final version that we designed was a one-size-fits-all approach. The male and female post and receptacle system is used once again, but with excess strap length. The extra length would be trimmed off once by a caretaker or nurse when setting up the strap.
Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) prototypes were made to be evaluated for size, mechanical fit and aesthetic evaluation. One initial direction will be picked and taken to production.
iFetch Frenzy is a dog toy I designed for iFetch while working at Design Edge. Frenzy uses no motors or batteries and is completely powered by gravity, which is a novel approach in this space. The most fun part of Frenzy is that the dog (and owner) has no idea where the ball will exit. There are three chutes, each with an equal chance of shooting the ball out. This keeps the dog entertained for as long as they have the energy to play.
In the space beneath the chutes is a clever ball holder to keep up to three balls, designed in conjunction with our friends at Pump Studios.
Frenzy won 3rd place in the new dog product category at both SuperZoo and Global Pet Expo, the two largest pet shows in the world. Over 3,000 products compete for prizes in these massive shows.
I also designed the packaging for all of the iFetch products. iFetch and iFetch too were designed previously at Design Edge.
Ronco approached Design Edge to explore a new paradigm in fast convenient cooking. They wanted a compact, rotating oven to replace a toaster oven for the end consumer. The design needed to be elegant, as this could be a product that sets on top of a counter in a high end kitchen.
The oven was primarily intended for cooking pizzas, but has enough versatility to handle many dishes. Special care was taken by d:e to work with the manufacturer on several rounds of prototypes to get the details just right.
Ronco and d:e have developed a relationship over the years building products around two core objectives; elegant aesthetics and solving packaging challenges. The pizza party oven packs a great deal of functionality and moving parts into a very small volume. A broad depth of engineering knowledge and manufacturing experience was utilized in creating the perfect realization of this product.
My role on this project was design lead. I was responsible for all concept sketches, CAD implementation and rendering. Creating an elegant, high quality product with inexpensive materials and processes was the biggest victory of this project.
This is a Photoshop rendering of what the proposed design should look like when manufactured
Here you can see the pizza triven in blue, sliding into channels we've created in the stamped walls. The channels guide the trivet down and out of the way of the pizza tray (purple) which rests on the spider gear (green). When the pizza is pulled out, the trivet acts as a hot plate, keeping the tray elevated off of the counter. All of this happens while leaving room for the pizza, clearance for the open door and while keeping everything appropriate distance from the heating coils.
