Reflection of the Coleman project

      For the final project of the year each team was supposed to design a product for a hypothetical Indoor line for the outdoor company of Coleman. My team, consisting of M. Shaama H. Trevor R. Courtney S. and myself, decided to make a child's bed that could also be made into a tent. This product was designed with the thought of getting kids interested in camping and the outdoors, and especially for kids in urban areas were they can not go camping.   

      In the brainstorming  part of the project I believe my team worked very well together to come up with our product design. I think it was Shamma who had the idea for the tent bed but the whole group contributed for the final details of our plan. After getting our ideas together we split the work up giving each member a different part to do. Shamma made the final designs on her computer and with sketches, Trevor made the power point presentation, Courtney made the kiosk design, and I designed the packaging. 

      The picture to the right shows our final product design. This product was designed keeping the preexisting Coleman look in mind and at the same time getting more kids more interested in camping, but also to be a quality long lasting bed. Another thing we wanted to keep in mind was environmental impact of making the bed so we decided to make the tent poles out of recycled plastic and the frame of the bed out of recycled wood. The team decided to make the poles of the tent to side to the back and to be able to completely remove them if the owner wanted so the kid would not always have to sleep in the tent. 

     My contribution to the project was the final design of the packaging. The team decided to to incorporate part of the bed into the packaging to same costs and prevent some waste. We decided to use the drawers from the bed to be folded up into a suit case like box and to put the rest of the parts in the box. Of course this means that the bed comes unassembled and the costumer will have to do this. We also decided to cover our "suit case" with a plastic film that has a picture of the actual bed and several stickers from popular outdoor vacation spots to give the illusion that the kids will be able to pretend they are traveling all over the country with the camp site in their bed room. Over all I felt very good about this project, I believe my team covered all the aspects of the project well.