Boonen design studio
Boonen Design Studio is an all-around design studio located in Hasselt. They guide individuals and companies through projects from A to Z. This means that they are involved in conceptualization, design, production, financial aspects, and marketing. It is a relatively small studio looking to expand in the coming years. When I started, the studio consisted of 4 employees: Frédéric Boonen (Lead designer/CEO), Dries Putzils (Designer), Hermengildo Neto Da Silva, also known as "Gil" (Designer), and Myona Celis (Marketing). Frédéric primarily focuses on the financial side and acquiring projects. Dries, Gil, and I are responsible for the design and technical development of the projects. Myona handles marketing for our clients and for Boonen Design itself. This small group made it easy to quickly feel a sense of belonging to the team. It also facilitated the exchange of ideas and quick resolution of various issues.
Due to our small team, it means that one person has to work on multiple projects simultaneously. This brings a lot of variety from day to day but also emphasizes the importance of good time management.
During my time there, I worked on 3 different projects and some smaller day-to-day jobs.
Bouncer Plate heater
During my internship at Boonen Design Studio, I worked on a variety of projects. The first project assigned to me was the Plate Heater for Bouncer. Bouncer is a company that focuses on products for the elderly. One of these products is the plate heater. Elderly individuals who still live at home but cannot cook for themselves every day receive a daily meal from a caterer, which they can heat up in the microwave oven. Bouncer noticed that these meals could be improved by warming them up via regeneration instead of the microwave. Bouncer approached Boonen Design Studio with the request to develop a small device that can warm up these meals through regeneration but can also be pre-programmed by home care so that the elderly do not forget to do so.
For this task, I didn't start from scratch but had to build upon the work of a previous intern.
My task was to further develop the aesthetics. Additionally, my responsibility included refining the interface, creating an initial prototype, and generating a CAD model and renders of this model. The prototype could be 3D printed since the actual electronics were handled by an electronics freelancer. The purpose of my prototype was to gather information about the user experience without food. This included tasks such as picking up and moving the device, opening it, setting the correct instructions, storing it, etc. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to conduct these tests myself as Bouncer already closely collaborates with nursing homes and elderly individuals, making it more efficient to let them perform the tests and work further based on their feedback.
BIRD HOUSES
When I was assigned this project, the initial discussions with Benoit about the design had already taken place. My task was to convert Benoit's models, drawings and renders into a manufacturable CAD model and also create prototypes from it.
The CAD work constituted the majority of this project and took longer than expected due to the complexity that emerged. Once again, I had to pay close attention to the choice of materials and manufacturing techniques. After discussions with Benoit and Frédéric, we decided that the bird feeders would be made using a combination of sheet metal and vacuum forming. Vacuum forming is a technique I had limited experience with, but it added an exciting and challenging aspect to the assignment. During the design phase, I reached out to CLEM on my own initiative. CLEM is a company in Kortrijk that could perform vacuum forming on a large scale for us, and they assisted me in resolving specific details when I encountered challenges.
Purrly
The briefing for the Purrly cat basket was quite short because the design was almost complete. My task was to come up with a better fastening system for attaching the cords to the posts. Currently, they are simply tied to them. The new fastening system should be quicker and easier to attach, and it should also be easy to tighten in case the basket starts to sag due to weight. Other requirements included being cost-effective to produce and requiring minimal assembly time.
Renderings
Strollo is the largest and most significant project that Boonen Design Studio was at this time working on. Initially handled by more experienced designers, technical issues and an impending deadline caused somewhat less critical tasks, such as creating renders for social media, to take a back seat. Due to these circumstances and my portfolio featuring reasonably good renders, this responsibility was delegated to me. All the images below are my renders that have been used on the website and/or social media of Strollo.
