K9 Shut Eye Dog/Cat sleeping place by Tom Kerpert

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DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?

TK : To provide a save, comfortable sleeping place for dogs and cats

DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?

TK : A comfortable place for the animal to rest combined with easy maintanance and durability for the owner

DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?

TK : Expansion to overseas markets

DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?

TK : The project took about 4 month from concept to final tooling

DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?

TK : The design was comissioned by a client to design a completely new concept for a sleeping place

DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?

TK : The design is currently in production in South Africa, licensing will be available

DI: What made you design this particular type of work?

TK : The end product had to be acceptable by both clients, dog and owner, easy maintainable, easy produceable and visually pleasing inside a dwelling

DI: Who is the target customer for his design?

TK : Any dog or cat owner

DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?

TK : Ease of production, ease of maintenance, 100% recyclable, strong visual impact

DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?

TK : K9 Shut Eye was created during a brain stroming session with the client

DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?

TK : CAD solid modelling and Stereolithography for design evaluation

DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?

TK : The ergonomic shape of the design modeled on the animals sleeping position

DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?

TK : The design was completely created in-house right to the final CAD model for tooling

DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?

TK : Rotamoulding provided an economical way to produce this particular design

DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?

TK : The main challange was to ensure that the original concept was easely mouldable with simple tooling

DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?

TK : Having won product of the year by ARMSA I decided to submit my design to an international audience