The Product

Branding

I began to think about aspects of branding with regards to my product that I am proposing. The first step I made was choosing a product name, I came up with the name “SYGN” which I created through an combination of the words “eye” and “sign”. I thought that this name was most relevant to the product.

My second stage was to begin thinking about a logo and the style of font that I wanted to use. Here are some examples of typefaces that I particularly like and think will work well in terms of branding. All of these fonts are available online at http://www.dafont.com

I decided that I preferred the Sans Serif style font as opposed the the Serif. So that narrowed my choice down to the top three fonts. I decided to chose the font Rodondo because this typeface was different to the others and I liked the curvaceous edges.

Logo Ideas 

For the logo I decided that I wanted to use an ear icon but I also thought about incorporating an eye as the product is eyewear. The image above is one of the final designs that I created on Illustrator.

Colour Schemes

In terms of colour schemes, I thought about using grey because it’s a neutral colour, beige (pink/brown) because it is often associated with skin tones and blue because I wanted a colour that would balance out the pink tones. I experimented with light and dark shades to see which ones I preferred. In the end I chose the darkest shade.

The above image is my final logo design. I decided not to have the dots underneath the brand name because I thought that they were too much. I didn’t want to have the ear by itself because I thought that the product may not be recognised as the branding is all new. So I decided to place the name of the brand next to the ear and together they make up the logo. However, I would consider using the word “SYGN” by itself as the brand name.

Product Design

I decided from the beginning that I wanted the product to look like a normal pair of “stylish” glasses. Upon research I discovered a current pair of smart glasses under the name of Vue that already achieved this stylish but simple look. Below are the two types of glasses that they offer.

According to an article from Livestrong.com by Jean Jenkins, “Many deaf people feel that that one of their biggest difficulties the hearing culture that treats them as though they are handicapped, people to be pitied or changed.” I want to create these smart glasses as a piece of assistive technology that is unrecognisable to those who are of the hearing culture. I have realised that if the glasses are made to look like an ordinary pair of glasses then who is going to know that they are in fact assisting the user by helping them to communicate.

On the other hand, it may be argued that by “disguising” the piece of technology as a pair of standard glasses, it’s creating an act of shamefulness. It may suggest that having a hearing-impairment is something that should be hidden. Some may argue that anyone who is deaf should be proud, and by wearing these glasses that “disguise deafness” they are contradicting that idea.

Source: http://www.livestrong.com/article/241936-challenges-that-blind-people-face/

I decided that I wanted a style that was in-between. So I looked further into what kind of styles of glasses are out there. I discovered an article that explains how some glasses are designed according to font faces.

Out of all of the above, I decided that the style I thought would be best was Helvetica. This style incorporates both the round and the square shape into the frame and therefore I believe it is more likely to suit a wide range of people.

See more at: http://creativity-online.com/work/wk-tokyo-type-glasses-times-new-roman-etc/43140

I created the first mockup design on the programme Illustrator but I wasn’t happy with the turn out because the product didn’t look very realistic.

 

So I decided to try and create a 3D model of the smart glasses. To do this I used a programme called Autodesk Fusion 360. I found this task to be difficult at first because I had never used this programme before and I was pretty much teaching myself, I watched a few youtube tutorial videos on how to use the programme and they helped me to start off but as the product developed it became harder to understand how to use the software. Eventually, (after several hours) I managed to produce this as my finished product…

I am aware that the design is not perfect, but I figured that this is a job that can (or would) be perfected by the Industrial Designer. Having said that, I am happy with how the product has turned out and the next thing that I will work on is explaining the features of the product (and their locations).

After researching previous styles of glasses, I decided that I wanted the two temples to be different colours to the main body of the frame. I experimented with primary colours such as red and blue and then moved onto secondary colours like purple and orange, I decided that these block colours were not giving the effect that I wanted. So I thought about using different materials instead of focusing on colours.

In the end, I decided that the main body of the frame would remain as black plastic and the temples would be different metal materials like copper and nickel.

After researching further into the materials used to make eyewear frames, I discovered that Zylonite is most likely going to be the best type of plastic as a material for the main body of the frame as it is super lightweight and extremely cost-effective.

 

These are the beginners videos that I watched on YouTube to get an idea of how to use the programme.