PROJECT BRIEF - To design a lounge chair for retail in the home department of Godrej Interio.
PROCESS - To make sure we were on the right track, I started with building a word cloud of all the activities that the lounge chair would be used for.
The next step was to enlist all the expectations that users have from a lounge chair that they bring into their homes.
CONCEPT - Suspension - Taking inspiration from the classic suspension chairs, we decided to further explore the principle of suspension itself for our chair.
Suspension chairs are very comfortable, simply because they give you the feeling of hanging, which helps in relaxing your body & mind. The problem with using traditional suspension (fabric + frame), is that it would have to be low, and would prove hard to get up from, for a lot of people.
This is what brought us to explore how we can maintain the principle of suspension without it becoming the main seating.
DESIGN - The design of the frame does exactly that - incorporating suspension without sticking to the premise of a suspended fabric on a frame.
Using this sort of frame, we can choose to upholster and cushion the way we want, to make it a comfortable chair that every member of the house can use without hesitation.
PRODUCT RENDERS - A closer look at the design
MOODBOARDS - To resolve the CMF (color, material, finish) - we generated 3 moodboards:
STORY - The philosophy behind the chair:
Every house has many different types of users - Mom, Dad, Grandma, Aveer (the toddler), and maybe even Socks - the cat. Dad reads his newspaper on his favourite chair in the mornings before joining everyone at the breakfast table - apart from Aveer - who eats his breakfast on the very same chair - while watching cartoons. After Mom, Dad, and Aveer have left for work & school - Grandma sits with her afternoon tea, accompanied by Socks on the ottoman. While Grandma and Socks take their late afternoon siesta in the bedroom, Mom comes home early from work, looking forward to an hour to herself before Aveer's school bus drops him home. This hour goes by much too quickly, maybe it's the pace of the new crime thriller she's reading, or maybe it's the soothing tea, while she's curled up on the chair with her feet stretched out onto the ottoman, under a comfy little shawl. Before you know it, she's back to the hustle - making an evening snack for Aveer - who is now pre-occupied with his gaming console whilst hanging off one side of the chair. Just as dusk approaches, Dad's car pulls into the parking, and Aveer jumps up from the living room chair to greet him. Exhausted after a long day at the office, he slumps down into the chair, and slides one shoe off after the other - telling Mom about his new project. Meanwhile, Grandma has been getting dinner ready and the table set. After dinner, and just a little past Aveer's bedtime - Dad is back on his favourite chair, starting a new season of his favourite show on Netflix. Before you know it, he's dozing off on his chair again, and Mom has to wake him up and drag him to the bedroom. Just as all lights in the house have been dimmed, and everyone is tucked into the covers, little Socks jumps up onto the most sought after seat in the house, and curls up into a little ball for the night.
A chair that is designed to suit the needs of your whole family.
COMPOSITION SHOTS - Simulating for the users
