Electrolux is a well-known brand of vacuum cleaners in the United States, and they are a very well-known kitchen appliance brand in Europe. In 2008, they aspired to bring that great brand to America. This page presents my work as an industrial designer focusing on cooking appliances for that project.
I believe that before any project can start, the designer has to develop the criteria for success. In this case, it was essential to bring the elegance of Scandinavian design and merge it with the opportunities for platform enhancement. Below are examples of how I documented the emotional feeling the products needed and where we could improve the current product. It’s important to gain alignment with the various cross-functional teams on all these aspects from the beginning.
I was one of a large team of industrial designers working on this program. As the cooking products designer, I determined that the most complicated product was the free-standing range. Because of its complexity, that was the first focus of the design program. My assessment of the current product lead to improvements of the overall fit, feel, and finish (FFF) by bringing into the conversation these opportunities for betterment. Those conversations allowed for a robust scope of work.
Once I had several sketch concepts for the control panel, I moved into CAD Development with SolidWorks. Living on site in the factory at this time allowed me to collaborate with engineering (ENG) to develop the thin style control panel and clean up the gaps. The image on the bottom right illustrates how I conceptualized not just the exterior but how it could be constructed and remain rigid. I worked with ENG to get a good compromise that achieves both the thin aesthetic and structural integrity.
The collaboration lead to solid refinements reflected in the prototypes. Through qualitative testing, we evolved the form to the final intent (seen below on the right).
Final Production
In a big project like the Electrolux project (over 300 products launched at the same time) we are not limited to just one product. I also had to translate the visual language to over-the-range microwaves, built-in microwaves, drop-in cooktops, and slide-in ranges.
