New Urban Icon

Electric vehicle charging point

Electric driving is a hot topic these days. A lot of car companies are introducing one electric car after the other and more and more public charging points are popping up in the landscape.
These development mean that Energy-providers have to play their part as well. That was one of the reasons for Liander (a Dutch energyprovider) to join hands with;  Syntens (Dutch innovation platform), the City of Arnhem, O.P.A (design platform Arnhem) and Made in Arnhem. Together they initiated a national designcompetition asking for innovative, iconic designs making their charging points unique and recognizable.

Pilots Product Design entered the competition with the New Urban Icon-concept. Urban icons are not generally seen as beautiful or ugly, they are seen as icons because they got their charcateristics through context and therefore work well in their environment.
We were looking for a holistic approach and we came up with a concept that integrates three levels;
1. The EV charging point is part of an urban system with green streetnames and graphics on the EV parking lots. This will great overall recognition and city promotion (the more 'green' street, more environmental consciousness)
2. The interface is easy to use, without any unnecessary lcd-displays, and works with products we already know (like the iPhone, tomtom or googlemaps). The LED-light ring around the plug entry-point gives logical feedback on the status of charging and availability.
3. The Urban Icon is designed as a 'plug&play' product and is build out of sustainable materials. By placing two sockets in the top, rather than one, the charge spot can serve two EV cars (which means less physical objects in the street) All this adds to the overall experience.

With the actual design language we aimed at making it as clean and solid looking as possible with hints of other infrastructural products (like hydrants or gas pumps). The two plug-in points are deliberately placed slightly upwards to give the product a bit of a smile (in front view).
The final design is a strong looking but detailed product that would fit in any environment (city, village or office park) and can withhold the test of time.

The Jury agreed and selected us among the 4 finalists.
Congratulations to Floris Schoonderbeek, Dirk Claessens en Maarten Verweij for winning with their concept 'Loloo'.
The finalists and jury-report can be seen on the syntens website

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IsoMatch Tellus

Farming extraordinaire

When you think of farming you might not immediately think about computers and software. But farming has become a high end industry that uses the latest technologies in their advantage
Kverneland Group Mechatronics is a company that understands this need like no-one else and combines the latest agriculture software with state of the art control systems.
They created a new product-line called IsoMatch to suit the farmers needs. The first product in the series is the IsoMatch Tellus an easy to use touchscreen terminal that helps you monitor and control all processes with a single terminal in the tractor.

The design of the IsoMatch series was done by Pilots Product Design and I had a mayor part developing the design language and designing the IsoMatch Tellus and the Isomatch Global (a GPS unit, not released yet.)
The Isomatch series are characterized bij the use of brushed aluminum, plastics and a colorfull (OEM costumizable) seal. It's rugged, honest in material use, and provides grip where needed. We felt the need to take the IsoMatch series to a higher level by making it more contemporary and giving it a quality feel with refined detailing. The combination of high-end software and matching design will give the competitors a run for their money!

The IsoMatch Tellus was successfully launched at the Agritechnica 2009.

You can also visit the Kverneland Group Mechatronics website for more information.



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HockeyNL iPhone App

Dutch app by Roeland Weve

The iPhone application business is booming and it is fascinating and disturbing at the same time how fast things are moving/developing.
In the Netherlands the iPhone is slowly but surely becoming a mainstream product and people are starting to rely on 24hr internet access.

Roeland Weve is an iPhone developer and thought, because of his background as fieldhockey player, that fieldhockeyers would like a iPhone app to keep track of their team and competition.
I was happy to help him out (being an ex-fieldhockeyer myself!) on some of the interface and user interaction issues. This App is the first fieldhockey app that we know of and we are looking forward to see how the fieldhockey people will react. It sure has potential in more sport/competition areas and this app. could lead to much more!

Roeland also worked on stuff for ngmoco :) and Rough Cookie


HockeyNL will be released in januari 2010 (Dutch version only)
 

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BasicKnives

Kitchentools

Our world is over technologized and we tend to forget and enjoy daily things in life. Evidence can be found in our kitchen where blenders and food processors are taking over our place.
BasicKnives reinterperteds one of our most basic kitchen tools, the knife. It incorporates different (cutting) tools within the blade surface, making other tools in the kitchen drawer redundant.

The BK set contains;
6” cooks knife with grater/crusher and herb-scoop
4” paring knife with vegetable peeler
3.5” paring knife with zest/decorating tool

The BasicKnives project was a result of a collaboration project between the RCA and BrAun.
The knives were also shown at the 50 year BrAun exhibition.


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MoveFlow

self-check-out-system

The MoveFlow is a self-check-out-system for supermarkets.
Just put your grocery-basket one side, scan your products and fill your bag on the other side.
The friendly design, is playfull, easy to use and can easily change colors or materials to fit the supermarket's identity
The Graphic User Interface completes the 'easy to use' experience, with a clear lay-out and the option to weigh and price your fruit and vegetables with the built in scanner-scale.

ITAB asked Pilots Product Design to come up with a unique design, totally different from current supermarket self-scan units. Our aim was to give the MoveFlow a more domestic feel and make it flexible enough to fit in any supermarket. The end-result has been a success and even lead to introducing a new subbrand ITAB Scanflow, with more products, and an ongoing collaboration between ITAB and Pilots.
It was great fun to work on this project developing it's designlanguage and redesigning the GUI.

Want to know more about this product? Please visit ITAB Scanflow

 

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Split68

Splitseries in collaboration with Florian Ortkrass

With the “split series” we aim to change the perception and experience of fluorescent lighting. Its system structure encourages interaction with the light, to modify it, to suit changing situations and ones individual needs.
The peg shaped elements can be clipped onto the encapsulated fluorescent light, and rotated into desired direction.
The “split series” has three family members; “split68” the original translucent plastic version, “split68-A” the aluminum version, and “split3” the colorful cast acrylic version.

The split series have been nominated for several awards and published in many magazines (Frame, Blueprint etc.).
In 2005 it won the bronze award and 1st prize internet vote at the Koizumi lighting competition.


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Lucky Girl

The latest Oilily Fragrance

Oilily Lucky Girl is a new fragrance aiming at young and cheerful girls who enjoy life. Lucky Girls are girls who are getting to know themselves and the world around them. They write their secrets in notebooks and confide in their friends...
Their rooms are an empire where they talk about fashion, fragrances, make up and boys...

The felt sleeved bottle and colorfull packaging ar a result of a powerfull colaboration between Pilots Product design and BrandNew design.
We had great time developing the different worlds and scenario's that became the base of the new Lucky girl fragrance line-up (different sizes perfume bottles and body lotion).
The perfume is aimed at girls aged between 10 and 13 years old. A time in their lives where a lot of things are changing. The girls are getting to know themselves and the world around them. They convide in their friends and write their secrets in there diaries. Their rooms are like their empire where they talk about fashion, fragramces, make-up and boys.
The flacons are created on a game of motifs and materials. Joyful colours symbolize luminous world of young girls' feelings. The vibrant colored "dresses" complete with a number of applications are unique. Each of the three differntly sized bottles have their own dress, with different removable elements (star, flower and heart).
The"Lucky Girls" can exchange these elements with their best friends, or use them to decorate their agenda's, pencils or buttons.

Lucky girls is produced and distrubuted by Colorful Licenses and is in store now!

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Split3

Spiltseries in collaboration with Flo

Split3 is the most elaborate kid of the “split series” in which we aim to change the perception and experience of fluorescent lighting. Its system structure encourages interaction with the light, to modify it, to suit changing situations and ones individual needs.

This version of the system as 3mm waterjetcut acrylic pegs that can be playfully 'molded' around the encapsulated fluorescent tube. You can make it smooth like textile or radical and explosive!

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CMC

chair

The ‘Catch Me’ chair is based on our desire to balance on the two back legs of a chair to create a sense of comfort. The chair physically changes its shape under the shifting weight of the user, by bending it's 'knees'. Once left alone the chair will return to its original shape and awaits the next playful person…

I wanted to make a functional prototype without resourcing high-tech materials or high-end engineering. A Chair that looks like a chair, but with a bit of magic! The prototype is made of traditional wood European Ash, renowned for it strength and flexibility, and used in bowmaking. The open laminating technique, in the back legs, acts like a leaf-spring, bending where flexibility is needed. The legs can be build out of more layers, counteracting the weight of its user.

As part of my research for the project I looked different ways of capturing motion and in particularly at chronophotography. Chronophotography (making sequential images) pre-dates cinemaphotography and was used for scientific study of motion in the late 1800’s. I was captured by the simplicity of this technique and used it for research and inspiration.

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JP

in collaboration with Kyla Elliott

On the 9th of Dec. 2003 Philippe Starck gave a one day masterclass at the RCA and set the brief- to design something that ‘we would be proud of’ as designers.
Starck also discussed with us his reason for designing, and therefore the rationale we should use to judge if we should be proud of what we do as designers. One of his tips for creativity was that the most inspirational moment to design is the moment after sex. This is a problem for single designers.

This product allows those interested in design to fuck the iconic celebrity of Starck, and get down to some design that we can be really proud of.

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