U Plus COLOR

Product Designer, Interaction Designer, Logo Designer

U Plus color was a very unique and exciting project as the client approached me with the intention of giving me almost full autonomy over the creative direction of their product. They wanted to create a personal and customizable gift product. Their goal was to have a product that could be appropriate for all genders and all ages over 5. Given this amount of liberty, my mind automatically went to the DIY categories of gifts. This was because DIY products would allow for the customization factor, and with thoughtful design, they can be appropriate for different genders and ages. I had to think of some sort of DIY product that could be, in a way, modified by each person who purchases it. It had to be something that was easy to use as it was meant to be for all ages. After researching different crafts projects, I deduced that people often enjoy products that have elements of painting, which I thought would be perfect. Allowing the user to paint their own item would make the item unique and personal. However, I wanted to take this step further by adding a deeper element of involvement. This is how I came to the conclusion that if I could create small make-it-yourself furniture pieces which can be painted, this would satisfy my client’s desire to have a thoughtful and one-of-a-kind gift product. One elemental concept that the client was insistent on was that they wanted the product also to be as environmentally friendly as possible. While doing more research into the added benefits of painting, I discovered that painting stimulates both the right and left sides of the brain. This realization made me understand that the possible applications of this gift could be far more advanced than my client had even imagined, and they were delighted by this realization.

There were three personas I took into consideration while designing this product. One was Jimmy, a 10-year-old who is a big dreamer. He has a hard time expressing himself and often struggles with learning, I wanted to help him find inner tranquillity through this gift. Another persona was Jessica, a 30-year-old working professional who always had an appreciation for crafts but never made the time nor knew where to start. I wanted to help ignite her creativity with a little push. And finally, there was Mike, a 75-year-old man who sometimes felt lonely. He never thought of himself to be an artist but as someone who always enjoyed fixing or putting things together. I wanted to help him find a meaningful pastime. A lot of craft gift ideas on the market today allow for complete creative expression and exploration. However, these can, in fact, sometimes work in the opposite way their maker intended. This is because, especially if someone is new to crafts, they don’t know where to begin and when there is no guidance, it can feel too daunting to get started. This situation creates a dilemma of choice, and the items in question can often go unused. This is why I wanted to create something which is familiar enough for customers to understand. For the most part, everyone knows how the final furniture pieces would look once put together. I also decided that providing distinct color sets based on various moods provided more diversity amongst the gifts. Since art can make significant impacts on a person’s perceptions, emotions and memories, I wanted to create a final product that would allow for the therapeutic benefits of painting to be incorporated. This was going to be achieved through the predictability of the furniture sets, which at the same time allowed for full autonomous expression with the use of the paint sets. The logo design was also my responsibility, and I wanted it to have a minimalistic yet efficacious look to it.

Foundational: I began sketching different possible furniture pieces in Illustrator to try and decide what pieces would be most realistic to continue with. I ended up choosing three main furniture concepts: a chair, a table, and animal wall mount designs. There are a total of five different animal designs. The reason that I chose this method was that I believe these three provide enough diversity and versatility that someone could easily receive multiples of each or one of each and not feel bored due to the unique color sets and how they complement each other. For the modeling of the products, I used Cinema 4D so that I could conceptualize how the pieces would fit together. In designing the logo, I was thinking of creating something which has a professional and artistic feel. The aim was minimalistic to represent the simplicity of the product designs, yet also special to also reflect the uniqueness of the project. This is how I came to the idea of the letter “U” with an added splash of color. It perfectly encapsulates the name of the product and is ageless in its design to make sure it appeals to the entire customer base.

While keeping the client’s desire that this gift should be appropriate for all ages, I had to consider how Jimmy and Mike would want to interact with this product as both of them are on different spectrums of age. I also wanted to make sure that everything the customer would need would be available inside the box. Jimmy’s parents most likely would not feel comfortable purchasing their young child a gift that could potentially be too difficult. In addition, Mike would most likely feel frustrated if the assembly seems too dexterous. This is how I concluded that if I created a product where the pieces slide in together, it could provide a challenging yet doable experience. Of course, the challenging factor varies depending on the end user. However, I believe customers of all backgrounds can be delighted with the accomplishment of simply fitting together pieces to create the furniture item.

Having every provided piece used in the final product also adds to the environmentally friendly factor the client had requested. Providing color sets, I believe, is a factor that all three personas I investigated can benefit from, especially for a persona like Jessica, who doesn’t know exactly where to start when it comes to crafts. Using color sets is also extremely beneficial from a business standpoint because it allows my client to potentially sell multiple products to the same person increasing overall revenue. Instead of solely providing different palettes, I wanted to incorporate the idea of the palettes corresponding with different moods.

The reason for this was because of the painting’s overall capability to tap into people’s emotions. Someone who is not feeling at their best one day can use the palette “Eternal Sunrise”, for example, which consists of warm-toned colors to change their mood the use of those colors. Coincidentally, that same person could decide to use the palette “Ocean Dream,” which consists of darker, more cool-toned colors, which could allow that person to express themselves in a safe and effective manner truly. There are a total of six color sets that can be purchased individually, which means each gift has the option of a gift add-on as well. To further expand my client’s wish for an environmentally friendly designed product, I chose toxic-free paints and recycled wood for the furniture pieces themselves. The box in which the product comes in is also recycled and recyclable. The two different-sized paint brushes that come in the box are also cruelty-free. In honoring the sentiment of having a box with all of the necessary items, I decided to include masking tape to help with designing different styles.

Superficially, U plus color product appears like a simple novel gift item, however, as I discovered, painting has profound impacts on the human brain. This gift can be used as a tool to help improve the state of mind of individuals and give them an overall elevated sense of well-being. As painting can boost mental cognition and is an excellent way to nurture emotional development, it transforms this into a perfect gift idea for a person like Jimmy. With the help of painting, Jimmy can find different ways of expressing himself and accessing his large imagination. By doing this, Jimmy also builds up his problem-solving skills because, with limited paints in each set, he’s forced to creatively come up with other colors from what he’s been given. Eventually, this could help him with his learning and overall expression. An additional purpose to having fit-together wood pieces and pre-chosen color sets is that it helps to eliminate the guess factor to a certain extent. This interaction goal was chosen for people like Jessica, who often feel confused about how to start a crafts project. By having the guess factor reduced and providing customers with a blueprint of sorts, it makes the product more accessible to people of all different skill levels. Moving on to persons like Mike, loneliness can often be attributed to feelings of purposelessness. As painting can be an incredibly meditative act, it thus helps a person’s sense of purpose. Not only does the painting itself fill a person’s excess time, but it also provides them with a finished product that they can be proud of. Mike can use this gift to transcend feelings of loneliness and begin to feel like a creator.

 It’s not often I’m given such liberties in the creative direction of a freelance project. Therefore, I wanted to make something as impactful as possible. I wanted to create something that was timeless, not just ageless, and something that would genuinely benefit the people that interact with it. I wanted to make people feel good about themselves through the use of this product. This gift is not only something for people of all ages and backgrounds, but it’s also a conversation starter, it’s a therapeutic product, and it’s a gift that can become a part of someone’s life.

Check out my behnace or my portfolio for examples.