Originally Published: February 2011

This was a 3 week project I did whilst studying product design at Nottingham. We were given a brief to design a baby monitor with a focus on the use of semantics to inspire the form of the product. We were given the required functions and electronics so most of our focus was on form and manufacturing.

I looked at what a baby monitor means to a parent. From this I started sketching around these words and principles. I particularly liked the idea of a cocoon shape as it symbolises comfort, growth and protection, in an aesthetically pleasing form.

I took this design and played around with the different shapes I could have, using clay models to further experiment. With my ideal solution I went through the technical details needed to injection mould the component in ABS. We were required to submit engineering drawings of all the parts and show what standard components we had used.

My final design has an injection moulded cocoon structure with a rotating top to turn the product on and off. The assembly is then tightly wrapped and bonded in leather, which acts to show the wrapping and protecting nature of the product. All of these design aspects helps to subtly symbolise the semantic nature of my design.