J09

Group: 4's
Erica
Jonathan 
Lindsay
me.

Our group had a lot of ideas about how to bring Coleman into the home.  Originally we thought of making some kind of portable energy device, then a solar table, and even fabric that can be powered and heat and cool surfaces, but eventually we decided on solar curtains that powered a portable outlet.  I personally really like the idea of solar curtains and if they existed and I had my own house, I would probably look into buying them.  I think in design, the best products are probably ones that the designers themselves would use, because if the designer won't use the product why should anyone else? I think that's one reason why our project turned out so well, we all actually liked the idea and thought of it as something we would be using.

Another reason why our project went so well was because everyone put a lot of work into it.  We all designed 4 possible curtains and looked into how the solar power could be wirelessly transported to the box.  We also messed around a lot with the branding and packaging, coming up with a name that was relevant but also creative and working out how to keep packaging ecofriendly but cheap.  We finally settled on one set of curtains, the name "Solar Shades", a circular package and a design for the box.  After that I sketched out a lot of logo options and we decided on one and I incorporated that into a package for the customer.

In the beginning phases of the project I think I was probably the person who was most concerned with making sure the product was enough of a "home good" to avoid any confusion.  It was really easy to think of ideas for how to make a product for Coleman that could be both indoor and outdoor, but I wanted our group to try to make something that was clearly a home good.  After we came up with our idea though, we had a lot of fun being creative with it and researching realistic ways it could be made.  I personally really liked our product and presentation (but I guess I'm a little biased).