Guava meets 3D Printing 

This is the result of my Final Master Project - Master in Business Design at Domus Academy. 

The project consisted in the development of a of an Innovative Production and Brand Strategy for a Portuguese Accessories’ Brand named Guava. 

 

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GUAVA is a Portuguese shoes brand launched in 2011 by a talented young Designer called Inês Caleiro.

http://www.guava.pt/
https://www.facebook.com/guava.essentials
http://www.pinterest.com/GUAVAshoes/

 

Exquisite heel’s shapes and colors that are different from the usual easily identify Guava’s high quality handmade shoes. To be able to produce these wonderful shoes marked by their different heels, Guava needs to use injection molding as part of the production process of their collections. This process is expensive and slow for Guava’s company size and limits the range of available solutions to be considered by the designer during her creation process. Moreover it doesn’t allow the possibility of alterations or adjustments in the initial design of the heel, which results in a restraint of the innovation in the heel once there’s no margin for mistake.

The aim is to apply the design thinking approach to Guava, “creating breakthrough ideas that are inspired by a deep understanding of consumer’s lives and use the principles of design to innovate and build value”.1 The product innovation through a new production process based on a new emerging technology makes possible to bring together the users’ and the company/brand’s needs. The identified problem may unfold into a business opportunity, which derives from putting together the traditional way of producing shoes and the modern disruptive 3D printing technology. With the merge of these two techniques, it is possible to solve a brand weakness and at the same time to generate a strong communication strategy that will fit the brand’s existing DNA and enhance brand awareness.

The expected result is to seduce customers offering them a new emotion-based experience, instead of selling them just a utility.

 

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It is important to mention that this project regards an academic work representing just a potential proposal to the brand. A special thanks to Inês Caleiro, Caroline Fraser and Manuel Gameiro. 

The references are presented in the end of the video and in the writen report.