Concept
The SW-01 cordless steam iron is another passion project that was inspired by two things; my disdain for my bulky heavy steam iron, and an opportunity to learn new design techniques.
About three times a week, I find myself frantically ironing a nice shirt to wear before I run off to work. I thought about the different features I would like in an iron if I designed my own. These features included a smaller footprint, a cordless experience, easy refill, and improved ergonomics.
Skills: 3D Modelling, product visualization
Tools: Solidworks, Keyshot, Marvelous Designer, Blender
Date: March 2020
Gestures
Early on in the project, to help guide form development, I explored the simple forms of traditional tools and the different gestures that accompanied them. I wanted to breakdown what made these tools successful and impervious to change over the years and how I could apply these findings to the SW-01.
The steam iron user-interface located on the top of the iron is comprised of localized controls including a temperature dial with presets for various fabrics, adjustable steam control, and a removable cap to refill water. The SW-01 charges through a conductive connection with the charging base that seamlessly blends in with the overall form.
Process and Insights
I feel like I learned a ton throughout this project but there is so much room for improvement. I had to force myself to just finally throw in the towel and complete it. There were a lot of challenges throughout, including exploring new rendering/lighting techniques and color grading. It's important to teach what you learn, so to pass it on, I included a link below for one of my KeyShot scenes and the Photoshop file for the context rendering with the hands, hope it helps!
I used MarvelousDesigner to simulate realistic wrinkles in the fabric. Blender was used to simulate the fabric falling and draping over the pedestals. I also used Blender for the steam/smoke simulation.
