Designed specifically to help people for whom storage space and portability are a high priority, CDP’s integrated team of engineers and designers worked closely with Akzo Nobel Paints to develop a lighter, smaller and more ‘flat-friendly’ PaintPod.

PaintPod Compact, at one quarter the size of its big brother, is more portable and easier to store. When you’re done painting, it’s small enough to fit neatly into the kitchen drawer. By refining the mechanical design and replacing PaintPod’s self-cleaning function with an easy to use tap-rinse system, our design team were able to remove the water container and so vastly reduce the size of the product whilst retaining the performance that has made PaintPod such a success.

The insight behind PaintPod Compact was that first-time buyers and people who live in flats often have limited storage space and do not need to use large quantities of paint. There was an opportunity to offer a new product in the PaintPod range that better suited the needs of these customers by placing greater design emphasis on portability and convenience. By reducing size and complexity, Akzo Nobel Paints are also able to offer PaintPod Compact at a lower price than the original, making this a very appealing prospect to consumers who might previously have passed on PaintPod.

In addition, our design team created an innovative packaging design for PaintPod Compact. CDP designed a recycled pulp cardboard inner pack that doubles up as conveninent utility tray. By designing the product and packaging together in this way, CDP were able to both remove cost and lower PaintPod Compact’s carbon footprint for our client.

Skills Deployed

• Industrial design
• Mechanical engineering
• Packaging design
• Far East supply chain management
• Project management

www.dulux.co.uk/products/paintpod/paintpod_compact.jsp

For a start-up company, hitting challenging deadlines can be critical for the success of a new product. Navetas Energy Management had a vision to launch their smart energy hub to meet the demand for smart metering. With a key trade show already in the diary, CDP were able to transform Navetas’ requirements into a quality model demonstrating real functionality in a mere four months.

Navetas’ Smart Energy Monitor is a new approach to smart metering for electricity, gas and water metering. It is able to monitor readings from certified utility meters and communicate data wirelessly to a central billing system as well as indicate household energy usage to the domestic user. It incorporates non-intrusive appliance monitoring technology, developed and patented by Intelligent Sustainable Energy (ISE) that identifies the use of individual electrical appliances by interpreting mains electricity waveforms.

CDP’s closely integrated team worked together to design and develop this unprecedented product from scratch. Mechanical engineers and industrial designers created a robust, appealing product to meet all safety requirements. Simultaneously, our electronic and software engineers designed all electronics, and implemented ISE patented technology into a real product.

In addition, our industrial designers created an intuitive user interface to allow users to examine their real-time energy use on a small touchscreen device in their home. The challenge was to take complex, technical information on energy use and communicate it in a simple and practical manner through on-screen infographics.

Our intensive work contributed to Navetas’ success at the Metering Europe 2009 trade show, helping to open up new opportunities in the market. CDP continues to work with Navetas to bring the innovative Smart Energy Monitor to market.

Skills Deployed

• Industrial design
• Interaction design
• Mechanical engineering
• Electronic engineering
• Software engineering
• Design for regulatory compliance
• Project management

www.navetas.com
www.ise-oxford.com

It is an ultra portable, battery-powered pump that you can wear in its special rucksack. With the supplied (AA) batteries, you can paint up to 15 litres of paint without ever once dipping a roller into a paint tray. The system is supplied with a rucksack, while an extension pole and an edging kit worn on a belt are sold separately – all very useful when you are at the top of a ladder.

The core technology is the combination of a new formulation of paint, the novel pumping system, wireless control systems and a new roller design. All are packaged to create a solution in which exterior walls, even those that have been pebble dashed, can be painted quickly, cleanly and safely.

Laura Knight, Innovation Manager at ICI Paints AkzoNobel commented: “Our insight was that most of our consumers find painting the exterior of their homes daunting, which is putting them off doing the task. Their concerns mostly revolve around the scale of the project and the worry of climbing ladders while holding painting materials. With the Dulux Weathershield BackPack Roller System we targeted these concerns directly: By putting the paint into a rucksack and delivering it straight to the roller and onto the wall, our consumers can now apply paint more quickly, the project is completed in a shorter time and is therefore less daunting. But most importantly, our valuable consumers always have a spare hand for the ladder. By making it safer, we believe that consumers will feel empowered to paint their homes themselves. By making it easier, they are likely to repaint more often. The introduction of this Product System has therefore given us a significant competitive advantage in our market niche.”

CDP’s integrated engineering and design team were able to build on their experience of creating PaintPod, and deliver a market-ready product system to Dulux a mere months after the initial brief, designing not just the pump but also the rucksack, roller and complete range of accesories.

Skills Deployed

• User research
• Industrial design
• Mechanical engineering
• Ergonomic study
• Project management

www.dulux.co.uk/products/weathershield/backpack.jsp

The Emotion concept

The ‘GAIA Emotion’ mobile concept is a device that comes to life – It is an extension of our bodies and our presence, and is built around us and everyone that is linked to us. ‘Gaia’ recognises and responds to ‘known’ devices within close proximity, and exchanges relevant information with them. It identifies and reacts to a best friend’s call or text message, a brother’s new picture upload or status update, a girlfriend’s presence close by, or our own behaviours, feelings and experiences – interpreting them into emotional responses through light, sound and vibrations.

The Gaia concept device is organic in form, perfectly weighted and shaped to fit in the palm of the hand. It recognises the owners touch and comes to life by displaying an array of thin glow lines that rap themselves around his/her hand and figure tips. The interface is built around everyone that is connected to us and is presented in an infinite virtual ‘Wall’, which allows effortless scrolling and zooming in and out using multi-touch screen technology. Pictures fade according to the relevant strength of relationships with friends and family on the wall (i.e. pictures will begin to fade if a certain friend has not been in touch for a long period of time). Statuses, pictures, news feeds about the ‘Wall’ are updated automatically and translated by the device through light and vibration.

The Bespoke concept

The ‘GAIA Bespoke’ concept is about creating a more personal, engaging experience that starts as soon as customers walk into the store. Bespoke allows people to tailor the design of their phone by choosing materials and custom embossing and prints that make it unique and personal. Smartphones already allow you to choose your own applications; the next step is to expand this choice to the handset itself.

Bespoke offers customers an unprecedented choice of materials that until now have only been available in ultra-high-end devices. Materials such as leather and suede actually improve with age, rather than glossy plastics, so as the phone takes the bumps and knocks on everyday life, it gains character in much the same way as a worn pair of jeans or a vintage guitar.

Whether buying online or in-store, you would use a simple, intuitive web or touch-screen interface to customise a standard phone chassis in the way that best suits you. When satisfied, the design would be instantly sent for rapid manufacture and delivered to your door a few days later.

Ultimately, a Bespoke phone is individual, expressive and says more about its owner than current handsets can.

The device delivers a world-first for the market in a GPS road safety device with a GPRS modem for automatic wireless updates from a central server database. Users may also update the central server with information about the location of mobile camera vans as they go.

The clear and intuitive interface design keeps drivers clearly informed and even allows for message updates and device tracking. It is highly configurable and is operated with a remote control.

Skills Deployed
• Innovation
• Industrial design
• User interface design
• Mechanical engineering
• Electronic engineering
• Project management

*Source: Road Angel Group quoted in PC Advisor 2008

www.roadangel.co.uk

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Hammerite approached CDP with the brief to ‘bring electrostatic commercial painting techniques into the hands of the consumer.’  

3D Wrap Painter

CDP were able to deliver a high volume consumer product at a price point 100 times lower than the commercial alternative.  The first electrostatic paint spray gun to be created for the home DIY market, Metalmaster is four times faster than a brush and delivers a flawless finish with minimal mess or effort.

CDP developed both the spray device and specialised containers, working closely with end manufacturers to push the boundaries of what had previously been possible.

Metalmaster’s ease of use and excellent paint finish is expected to attract completely new customers to use Hammerite paint, rejuvenating the brand.

Skills Deployed
• Innovation
• Industrial design
• Mechanical engineering
• Electronic engineering
• Far Eastern supply chain development
• Project management

Technology Highlights
• First consumer electrostatic sprayer
• 100 fold price reduction for technology
• First consumer product ATEX certified

http://www.hammerite.co.uk/

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