Wed, Nov 17 2010
As everyone now knows, Nancy Casimir’s Travelstacks, which has been in presale limbo since November 2009, has been pushed into production along with nine other products.
But before this product could go into tooling, we had to make a few changes to the original design. Let’s travel back, shall we?
A brief history after initial launch:
The original design we launched over a year ago was very large. Back then, our integrated tray design was meant to accommodate a broad spectrum of objects that a user could possibly stow away.
Upon further investigation we realized that this was overkill, and so we decided to bring it back to the basics: pens, pencils, small notepad, cell phone, snacks, Easy Pass, etc. The form shrunk and became more compact and portable. This new version has been brought down to a manageable scale that will not overpower the interior space of a car.
Another point we reconsidered was the bottle holder. Originally we had a spring loaded mechanism to capture bottles that you would place into the cup holder. Early on, this was an adequate and visually attractive solution, but when we started redesigning within the constraints of manufacturing it did not prove to be a feasible option for us to move forward with. The final design shows a single part TPE ring with tab three extrusions to hold most plastic bottles, paper cups, and aluminum cans.
What’s happening now:
Our office reviewed a T1 sample a few weeks ago. Overall it wasn’t bad, but it was far from where we needed it to be. First, we needed to increase the size of the tray design’s snapping features to keep them aligned and in place when the unit moves around. These were steel-safe modifications (which are easier since we remove steel from the inside of the tool rather than add steel) and will result in a more secure snapping feature.
The second tooled sample (T2) is a big improvement over the T1. The snapping features have been improved and now you can clearly hear the clicking of the various parts when they come together. Some of the more involved engineering issues, like fixing sink marks (areas where the plastic had slight deformations) on some of the tray walls, were resolved thanks to our talented partners in China.
You’ll also noticed that we’ve switched up the product’s colors. The original Travelstacks renderings show a variety of bright options. When we moved into manufacturing we pulled back on the color dial and went with a light grey and textured black color combo. This was mostly done to keep TS from overpowering the neutral color layouts that usually exist in a car’s interior.
The Next Steps:
Travelstacks has been green lit and will be moving into full production. We are tweaking the packaging design on all our products and the TS packaging is no exception. So hang on. You’ll be getting this one very soon!
