the making.

The main physical touchpoint of Douceurs is the postal tablet which stores the letter for the future. This object is also what the recipient receives their letter in. It is a very important touchpoint and the sections aims to illustrate how it was created from concept through to manufacturing.

I devised a product specification to encompass my thoughts on the design as well as the opinions of the people involved in the testing of Douceurs.

• The product must portray the service values.
• It must be timeless, robust.
• It must convey a hint of luxury.
• It must look futuristic with only a hint at the past.
• Having explored what the product means to the sender - they must comfortable parting with it, they must be sure they are getting value for money, the form must be inspiring, the product will be fairly intuitive.

"It is an intelligent decision to explore the product from the sender and receivers point of view." Graham Pullin

• Having explored what it means to the recipient - this angle is particularly important. It must be secretive, curious, elegant and slightly mysterious.
• When it arrives at with the recipient there must be a sense of interaction. i.e peel it back or slice it open. It must be suitable for them to store it however they wish - display it or keep it a secret.
• The opening of the product must have a secretive quality. The noise and feel of it 'thudding' shut is crucial.
• There must be an element of privacy yet anticipation.
• It must feature light colours.
• It must be fairly lightweight.
• It must convey subtle hint of expensiveness
• It must withstand the test of time.

With these specifications in mind these sketches illustrate concept designs.

Using these sketches as inspiration I created prototypes to assist in visualising the final form of the product.

These images explore using a circular form. I decided these were too far away from the natural shape of a normal envelope so this idea was dismissed.

These images explore the materiality of the envelope - using a black leather. Feedback on the concept concluded this was too 'official and business like' although the magnetic closure aspect generated good feedback.

These images explore using paper prototypes to experiment with varying sizes and methods of opening and closing. The notion of having an 'outer sleeve' to protect the internal envelope was explored using a high finish white card.

These images explore using a box like structure to hold the internal envelope.

This box was made of highly polished steel and it generated good feedback in terms of materiality and hinged opening mechanism.

These images explore mocking up the security tape that would leave a message. I also experimented with a range of metal materials - playing with embossing and de bossing.

The creations of Tim Parsons inspired the thinkings behind these concept creations. Parsons is a product designer who creates simple and durable products. He explores a broad range of approaches, believing a project's direction should be shaped by a search for the definitive in relation to specific conditions, rather than by applying a pre-conceived style. The image below shows the Picture Frame Box augments a traditional picture frame with a compartment for storing photographs and other documents.

These images explore using steel to create the outer casing for the internal envelope. This was created by the team at Metal Workshop. The surface quality was very poor so I polished it up to create a highly polished effect. I used the Douceurs stamp and letter transfer to enhance the reality of this particular model.

This particular model was too heavy so that ruled out using this particular steel.

After creating these prototypes I created a very simple model encompassing all the best qualities (size and detailing) from the models tried and tested before. This concept is hinged at one side and closes using magnets. I decided to stop focusing on the shape and let the material inform the shape. In order to learn more about materials from an expert I had a meeting with packaging designer Jim Heaney to discuss my product specifications. The team at Dupuy Design were very positive with regards to my concept meeting my product specifications outlined at the start. The team at Dupuy Design are the manufacturers of Douceurs main touch point.

In order to meet the idea of my product being futuristic, yet mysterious a material with a certain translucency is appropriate. Also, a slight haziness in the material conveys connotations of reflecting back upon memories - an important function of the product.

My concept was finalized in the drawing below:

 

Exploring materials was a crucial part of the process and I studied the properties of each material which I felt met the needs of my product visually.

Repsol Glass

This material was chosen for a variety of reasons. It looks great, workable, strong and safe. It is a high quality and versatile product. The subtle frosted finish is stylish yet practical and offers a non-durable and reflective surface, ideal for screen printing, vinyl application, which is very important as name and address details have to be visible. It has a good surface finish and consistent properties. The properties of acrylic are similar to soft brass or hard aluminium, but there are a few differences.

Polymethyl methaacrylate (PMMA) is manufactured from the acrylic monomer methyl methacrylate. It is a thermopastic material, so it is thermoformable. It can be formed, trimmed, shaped, drilled, bended, polished, glued and engraved.

Acrylic will soften when heated over 80°C, so considerable heat can be generated during machining, which causes stress, so heat build up must be kept to a minimum. The use of coolants during machining is used to assistance in lubrication, removing swarf and maintaining a cool stress free machining environment - various coolants can be used including water and water/air mists, soluble oils and compressed air.

Acrylic is a brittle material. It is therefore important that only light machining cuts are taken and feed rates are kept slow.

Diamond polishing can be used for straight edges and gives excellent results without the rounded edges often produced by buffing. The Diamond polishing process leads to very little stress in the surface of acrylic.

Flame polishing is ideal for polishing thin edges of acrylic, especially clear extruded sheet for point-of-sale items because it is fast and effective. A good routered or scraped edge is essential for flame polishing. Specialised equipment is used consisting of a small blowtorch type gas-air flame. The technique requires some practice to achieve the desired level of skill. Only the slightest impingement of the hottest part of the flame is required rapidly passing the jet across the work. Great care must be taken not to ignite the surface and it should be noted that flame polishing will produce highly stressed edges. Flame polishing is not possible on certain heavily pigmented colours resulting in a matt finish or discolouration.

These graphs show my findings in table form.

	Test Method	Units	Values	Thickness
Mechanical Properties.
Tensile Strength	ISO 527-2/1B/5	Mpa	83 (at 23º)	4mm
Flexural Strength	ISO 178 (5mm/min)	Mpa	120	4mm
Izod impact strength	1SO 180/1A	Kl/m²	1.5	4mm
Modulus elasticity	ISO 527-2/1B/1	Mpa	3240	4mm
Elongation at break.	ISO 527-2/1B/5	%	4	4mm
Rockwell hardness	ISO  2039.2	Scale M	975	6mm

 

Thermal Properties
Vicat softening temperature	150.306	°C	>110	-
Forming temperature	-	°C	150-180	-
Co-efficient of liner thermal expansion.	ISO 11359-2	mm/m°C	0.08	4mm

 

Optical Properties
Light transmittance	DIN-5036-3	%	92	3mm

As the product is hinged I also looked into the different types of hinges available to use with Repsol Glass. I choose to use transparent hinge to keep the materiality consistent.

This image shows the tamper evident material I chose to have the security label manufactured from. The material is made in such a way that the smallest interference is evident.

I explored using different sizes and orientations of labels.

The external envelope is reliant on strong graphic design and font semantics. It is the image of these letters that conveys the different themes available. The different themes are : legacy, love, hopes and dreams, memories, story telling. The following show examples of letters for 'lust' and 'legacy'. These prototypes generated feedback that the use of graphics was unrelated to my branding. Therefore the use of words and fonts will ensure the external envelope meets the specifications set at the outset.

Learning the fundamentals of graphic design and font semantics is ongoing.

The following images are prototypes for the packaging of the Douceurs product. These books have been useful reading whilst designing packaging concepts. The design will be based on a basic envelope - the focus being on the graphics.

I visited Curits Fine Papers to source a suitable paper type to use for the paper touch point. The paper finally choosen was Fine Art Felt Paper in stark white.

I printed name and delivery date on acetate to enable me to experiement with the postitioning of the text and what font to use on the final product. Feedback indicated to keep the text within the white paper so it was clear to read, as well as using a very simple modern font : Century Gothic. The printing on the underside creates a slight haziness which conveys the notion of memories and reflecting on the past - a driving theme throuhgout Douceurs.

These were my first mock ups of the packaging to ensure all dimensions were correct and to test out graphics and print quality.

These graphics were generated to illustrate on the packaging how to use the packaging, as it is two envelopes in one.

This stamp is also an important touch point included in the packaging.

The followig images are the illustrations which feature on the envelope that holds the letter for the future. I have used a font that I believe convyes what the theme of the letter is all about.

 

the final product.