Young Designers 2011

		Young Designers 2011
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Aditya Somway | mattuji@gmail.com

Children's Furniture in Wood

Furniture and Interior Design | PGDPD
Guide: Gayatri Menon
Sponsor: Theme International, Kolkata

Keywords
School furniture
wood
product range
ergonomic

The brief for my diploma project was to design a range of wooden school furniture for kindergarten and primary classrooms for Theme International, a Kolkata-based furniture manufacturer. The company wanted to expand its product portfolio to include institutional furniture. I had to design a unique range of furniture that would be easily distinguishable from other products in the market. The design solutions had to be robust and durable, without appearing overdesigned or complex and had to appeal to schools and fit their current classroom space and needs.

After studying the infrastructure, manufacturing capabilities and organizational structure of the company, I undertook a detailed market and user survey. This helped me understand the kinds of products available, the needs of the clients and users as well as general market trends. The process of collecting information and interacting with users helped identify the products that would make up the range of furniture including a work-surface solution (table), a seating solution, a storage solution and an activity-related product.

The design process began with concept generation and ideation. Initial concepts were presented to the company officials who shared their technical knowledge and made some suggestions. This helped me take the products from the concept stage to prototyping. A set of prototypes were then taken to a school for testing.

In spite of setbacks such as non-availability of materials, lack of production staff and non-payment of stipends that delayed the project, I learnt a lot from this project.