Mandate
To design a product using aluminum in a travelling context. The concept had to be a mass consumer product that was equally accessible and easy to use.
Objectives
Within the contest’s rules, we had to highlight aluminum in a product that would reach a large public to make users aware of the ecological and mechanical advantages of this material. We wanted to reveal its primary assets; its lightness and its resistance through an object that meets consumers patterns and needs. From home or office to the grocery store, we wanted to ease the transportation of small purchases, as numerous as they may be.
Services
- User study
- Competition study
- Trend study
- Gaps and opportunities identification
- Experience reinvention
- Brainstorming
- Storyboards
- Product architecture
- 3D concept modeling
- Soft mock-up
- Validation mock-ups
- Color, Material, Finish
- Photorealistic 3D rendering
Approach
Everyone goes places everyday. Therefore, it was essential to focus on a specific travel mode while promoting aluminum in an application that made sense. We identified the opportunity to reinvent the long neglected wheeled tote and targeted it to a younger audience, injecting it with a cool, modern, and practical flavor. A technical and functional analysis of existing products and their usage gave us the necessary elements to carry out the concept generation phase.
[AL] symbolizes the material evolution into an innovative product, easy to transport and most of all, recyclable. Being less bulky on the way out, it fits easily into any kind of bag. Also, it unfolds in two simple movements for the return trip to the grocery store. It truly highlights the simple and common recyclable bag.
Results
Winner of the People's Choice Award at the 14th edition of the Alcoa contest, [AL] is the ideal companion to help carry the grocery back from the store. Small but strong, [Al] is ambitious! Fortunately, aluminum is the material of choice for this purpose, giving it a sense of durability and nobility. [Al] is a perfect allegory of the eco-responsible industry and our way of life.