Tanmay J.
Industrial Designer
Professional Exercise | Re-skin Design
May 2017 | 01 Week
Whistle Design Group + Porter Cable
Aesthetic refresh of the Porter Cable product range for 2020.
VISUAL BRAND LANGUAGE
for collaboration:
for an evolving demographic:
To address the needs of an evolving target demographic, Porter Cable's Design Language must evolve to help increase their market share and thus grow the bottom line. Listed here are the key considerations in this effort:
- Convey a sense of high performance, precision and efficiency.
- Appear robust, dependable and long-lasting.
- Embrace visual aspirational cues from the DeWalt end of the spectrum, and away from the Black+Decker end.
- Have an approachable appearance.
- Simplify the visual clutter of inconsistent design elements.
- Discard redundant "manly" design elements.
- Visually reflect the functional ease-of-use and enable intuitive handling.
a visual summary:
Design Language Attributes: A shared vocabulary for design across the product range.
TOUGH | ROBUST | DEPENDABLE | PRECISE | LIGHT | EFFICIENT | COMPACT | FAST
CMF.
a prescriptive approach:
Functional CMF + Emotional CMF
CMF Design unifying the design elements for a successful and consistent user experience. With this approach, recommendations are made for the Touch Points to be functionally obvious. CMF Design serves as a key avenue for the interpretation and implementation of Trend Forecasting findings.
1. Distinguish between Operational and Supportive Touch Points
2. Make touch point appearance consistent with expected use.
3. Prescribe CMF Details consistent with the Visual Brand Language.
- Highly polished surface treatment for all the chamfers (transitional chamfers serving as part/feature break).
- Relevant Knurling as well as Herringbone patterned textures for the appropriate touch points.
- Suitable "grainy" Mold Tech surface etch for all the various components (Grey body + key Red components).
- Suitable "bump" Mold Tech surface finish for all the Black overmold parts.
- Highly polished surface treatment for the vent openings.
for a shared colour vision sensory experience:
CMF that accomodates individuals with Colour Vision Deficiency
Every 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have the common form of red-green colour blindness. Using a colour blindness simulator, the effectiveness of CMF recommendations for the form factor along with its part breaks, was evaluated.
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT.
The findings from Trend Forecasting were successfully interpreted and implemented into the Design Language attributes as well as CMF Design recommendations. Using these design drivers in conjunction with Porter Cable's brand ID, concept development for the next generation Porter Cable lineup was initiated with the cordless drill.
WHAT'S NEXT?
repeat business:
Possible, Proposed Deliverables
- PRODUCT RANGE SIMULATION | A Visual Mock-up of the Transferable Design Elements on the other products in the Porter Cable family.
- CMF + TECH PACKS | A detailed presentation and technical document covering the proposed Bottom Line Growth along with technical execution details.
- TREND FORECASTING | For the next Product Refresh Cycle (Years 2023 - 2027 - 2030)
- TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP | Technological developments tied-in with Trend Forecasting to inform the future design choices.