Product design is what we do. We take an idea, some functionality, a brand identity and a lot of creativity and we bring it all together to make real products that have real purpose.
We use our blog to document our process for some projects to give a more in-depth look into how we arrived at a particular design or idea. We also include interesting design stories from from around the web and the various talks and interviews that we do from time to time.
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Good Design is Good Business Ever since its inception in 1959 Altas Axilia (Ceylon Pencil Company) has been a trusted company with its flagship brand Atlas synonymous with excellence in Sri Lanka, and proved its strong presence in the market by having recently been acquired by Hemas Holdings PLC. Colombo Design Studio, an Industrial Design and Innovations Consultancy, has continuously worked with Atlas Axilia over the past five years to create a range of water drinking bottles and other stationery products to compete in the highly competitive entry to mid-level market in Sri Lanka. The purpose of the long term
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Earlier this month we took the opportunity to go and visit the Business of Design Week exhibition and Forum in Hong Kong. Speakers included renowned architects, bridge builders, transport and product designers. Paul Priestman of PriestmanGoode gave an interesting talk on the future of transport in cities, including exclusive reveal of their new work for the MRT system in Hong Kong. Some of the more interesting aspects of his talk focused on their concept work for multifunctional seating layouts for public transport, such as seats that convert to perches and standing areas depending on the usage requirements. This all felt
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Jar Mockup From tea bud to tea pot, Davora Tea is a product that comes from many people working together as a community to create a unique flavour across all the varieties. We were asked to create a logo that encapsulates the journey of the single origin teas that contain no additives or blending and is harvested by families from small ‘home garden’ estates in Sri Lanka. Along with the logo, we created a minimal display rack made out of birch wood that allows customers to smell and test touch the loose tea before a purchase is made.
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Ceylon Pencil Company or now better known as Atlas Axilia have been a part of our customer portfolio since inception of CDS. They approached us to refresh their range of water bottles for school kids. We sketched for days and weeks until we were seeing bottles in our sleep, and finally narrowed down a few hundred candidates down to two ergonomic, funky, eye catching water sipping bottles for children to enjoy everyday. Currently in production and available at your nearest store! [caption id="attachment_1299" align="aligncenter" width="600"] A few of the sketches[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1298" align="aligncenter" width="715"] Selected Bottles -
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Our good friends at The Spice Trails hotel in Arugam Bay on the East Coast of Sri Lanka approached us to help them design and realise a cafe and a bar to be built into some shipping containers on their land. While the brief was fairly loose, there were a few elements they were very keen on pursuing, such as using reclaimed materials, and also creating some design cues that would visually tie the two spaces together, despite them being separated by physical space and also different brand identities. It just so happens that on the way to our favourite
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"The tech world is jumping on the design world at the moment because they see opportunities – and not just financial ones," said Ross. "Technology is now here to stay and we've got more comfortable with it." …...digital products could seamlessly integrate with workplaces and homes by adopting the visual language and material palette of interior objects. "We talk a lot about craft versus technology," she said. "Technology won't eclipse craft. You don't have to make that choice. It would have been easier for us to make black metal boxes that would contain our technology, but that's not what we
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Lee was invited to speak at the Ngage forum hosted by Dialog a month or so ago on the subject of ideas, innovation and design realization : from initial spark to real products. You can watch the full talk online here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsnyJrK7INQ&list=PLn-W3FwIVEwaHNln4BX1_pfZrssw0dcf4&index=6
Beira Group also known as BPPL approached us to design a range of household cleaning products to allow them to break into the sophisticated European domestic market. Our job was to research and understand the market, in particular competition such as Vileda who dominate the space with a range of well designed and innovative products, and then create a range of products to break in and disrupt the space as a new premium brand. The project consisted of a number of phases of work including concept design and idea generation, refinement, production models and prototypes, and finally the creation of
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We're very excited to finally have some real-life sunglasses in our hands made from waste polypropylene plastic left over from Rice&Carry's bag making process. From the time we began discussing products with Henry and Susi we had sunglasses in our minds, but knew that it would be a long road before we would be able to finally hold some in our hands. Not into reading? You can watch the video then: https://youtu.be/_GnoHUmmNa4 As usual we began by sketching up sunglasses shapes, our aim to be to arrive at a pair of sunglasses as uni-sex and appealing as possible, but still with some character
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Ok, we're super excited and proud about this one, and it's been a long time coming! We were approached by The Fabulous Getaway to help them come up with a brand name and identity for a new company within their group that would cater to experiences in order to capture the growing market of tourists already in Sri Lanka who are looking for something to do. Our aim with this project was to find a brand that would convey the idea of adding some adventure or activity to a vacation. However, the activities would be very broad in their scope, from a
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