The Design Brief
In mid-October, 2014, the global houseware design company known as Umbra approached four North American universities and asked their design students to design back to school items for Umbra as part of the Umbra Design Challenge. Out of over 120 design students across these four universities, Umbra would award the top three spots with cash prizes and title "Umbra Design Challenge Winner".
In conjunction with the Umbra Design Challenge, Umbra would also select the top 10-12 designs overall from the competition (Including the 3 winners) and pitch them to Target to be sold in their 2015 back to school line-up in a campaign known as Umbra + Target for Students by Students. The story of this project goes as follows:
Concept Development Phase
Hundreds of sketches and six main concepts were taken forward, developed, and dismissed before Cacti was conceived. The first concept sketches and renderings, below, are just a few of the ideas that came before Cacti. These concepts ranged from modular picture frames and phone stands to customizable shelving units.
Developing Cacti
The graphic below depicts the final month's worth of development that went into making Cacti a reality. Throughout the entire design process, I was able to directly communicate with the design team at Umbra through a blog that was set up for students to post their progress in. This allowed me to receive instant feedback on my works and help steer me in the right direction as the project moved along.
Cacti - The Finished Prototype
Cacti is a desktop organizer that gives users a convenient place to keep their phone, wallet, keys, their pens and pencils, or whatever else they find the center storage slot useful for! Cacti acts a charging stand for your phone as well, allowing users to fully appreciate all the functionality of their phones in a convenient up-right position.
The rationale behind Cacti stemmed from the lack of unity we have among the most important objects we carry in and out with us, such as our keys, wallets, and phones. I therefore wanted to bring them together through a minimalist form which communicated the function in a clear and seamless fashion.
The first fully functional prototype was 3-D printed. A total of four iterations were printed, three at Philadelphia University and one at Umbra's Studio in Toronto Canada. The final iteration of the 3-D printed piece, pictured above and below, was sanded and painted to achieve a near finished product look. A concept packaging was also developed.
As the project came to a close, Umbra announced that it would take 10-12 designs total from the four universities that participated and present them to Target to be sold as part of their back to school campaign. Of the 10-12 designs Umbra chose, six of them were from my school, Philadelphia University, and my design, Cacti, was one of the chosen designs.
As one of the top designs chosen to be presented, my 3-D printed prototype and packaging was sent off to Umbra's studio so that they could present my physical prototype to Target. A few weeks later, it was revealed that Target chose Cacti and eight other designs to be taken foward into the pre-production stages. My 3-D printed prototype was then shipped off to China for further development.
Come early December, I got to see the first manufactured model of Cacti via skype call with the CEO of Umbra, Paul Rowan. For manufacturing reasons, the final aesthetics of the product changed slightly. A circular base was added for stability and the cut-outs for holding your keys, phone, and wallet were now bent angles. Overall, however, Umbra was able to adhere almost exactly to my original design.
Sale Run
Cacti was sold nationwide in every Target store in the United States from June 2015 - August 2016. Cacti retailed for $9.99, and was available in Turquoise, Orange, Charcoal, and White. For it's second run during back to school 2016, it was available in a more vibrant Turquoise, darker Charcoal, Navy Blue, and White.
Umbra Design Challenge 2nd Place
In conjunction with the Umbra | Target for Students by Students project, Umbra, independent of Target, was also holding the Umbra Design Challenge. The Umbra Design Challenge was a competition among the four schools and all of their designers to see who could come up with the best overall design. Out of over 120 students, Cacti finished in 2nd place!
Project Fun Facts
- Cacti was not originally named Cacti. It was orginally named "Cactus". The "T" in "Cactus" was designed to resemble the product's arms, which also resemble a cactus. At first, Umbra asked that the name be changed. I therefore changed the name to "Delta Desktop Orangizer". This is how it was presented to Target, however, Target asked that name be changed back. The name Cacti was then settled upon.
- The first 3-D printed prototype caught fire as I was giving it an acetone steam bath in my Philadelphia apartment kitchen, a process used to smooth ABS plastic after printing. Needless to say, the 3-D printed piece came out extremely smoothed, but quite deformed. I kept this prototype as a reminder that in the face of failure you can still come out on top.
Project Media Coverage/Stories
Yahoo News - http://news.yahoo.com/video/target-selects-philadelphia-university-students-212704447.html
Elmira Star Gazette - http://www.stargazette.com/story/news/local/2015/08/21/big-flats-cacti-design-winner/32113793/
6ABC Philadelphia - http://6abc.com/shopping/target-selects-philadelphia-students-ideas-to-sell-in-stores/922039/
NBC10 Philadelphia - http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/business/PBJ-Target-to-Sell-Products-Designed-by-Philadelphia-University-Students-320477832.html
CBS Philly - http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2015/08/02/philly-u-students-create-school-products-designed-to-help-their-peers/
Philadelphia Business Journal - http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/morning_roundup/2015/08/target-philadelphia-university-back-school-product.html
Montgomery Media - http://www.montgomerynews.com/articles/2015/04/15/roxborough_review/news/doc552d9e05d5ded553286904.txt
Jefferson University - http://wordpress.philau.edu/today/2015/07/23/philau-industrial-design-students-design-back-to-school-products-for-target/
Mashable.com - http://mashable.com/2015/07/22/target-social-media-dorm/
