Product Design Degree - Gillette Virtual Mentors Brand Stretch
Gillette Brand Stretch Virtual Mentors
Model of 360 Degree Virtual Reality Projection and Sensor Array Unit. Part of Gillette Virtual Mentors Artificial Intelligence System
This was a multi-stage Industrial Design and Technology degree assignment for the Contextual Design module, to look at ways the Brand Gillette could expand product wise 10 or more years in the future.
Stage 1 (Download below) was a Team Project to research and report on the:
Stage 1 (Download below) was a Team Project to research and report on the:
- Analysis of the Cultural and Technological History of Shaving and History of Gillette.
- Analysis of Current Shaving Market.
- Analysis of the Brand, it’s Values, Persona, Style and Essence.
- Concepts of Masculinity and Manliness, both Adults and Adolescents.
- Looking at Repositioning Gillette for the Future.
- The Theme of Boys to Men and Current Issues of Role Models and Current Problems with Youth Development.
- Future Directions for Gillette in Terms of Product Range within the Context of the Theme Boys to Men. This is where the team started to split up in different directions.
- In this part one project report I designed the template and style. My content sections are marked with a (C).
Gillette Future Brand Stretch Theme
For Gillette to survive it needs to create brand loyalty. Males tend to stick with the first good shaving brand they start with so ideally this should be from the onset of adolescence when the next generation of boys become men hence the theme for the assignment.
The issue of boys to men is a very current and important issue as adolescence is the cross roads where the choice of path and decisions and influences can direct your whole future. The choices the youth make here affect the direction society moves in and currently this being corrupted in a very negative manner for large portions of societies, as seen with chav and gang culture, racist, ignorant, anti education, xenophobic, territorial, misogynistic aggression and religious fanaticism.
This is pushing violent crime such as knife, gang, acid attack violent crime and on larger scales terrorism, religious inquisition cultures as seen with Islamic state, buko haram and the Taliban, Christian evangelic attacks on birth control provision for females, warmongering, risking even nuclear Armageddon. The current financial situation and that of a lack of housing is also disrupting paths to manhood, such as gaining a bachelor pad when young and a home of their own when developing relationships to settled couple level forming families. There appears to be a severe lack of male role models guiding boys to men in a positive manner to that of successful, responsible, respectful, protective, adventurous, wise, romantic, strong, fit, social, technically innovative and outgoing. Very much the brand values of Gillette. As mentioned my content sections are marked with a (C) and included the history section.
The issue of boys to men is a very current and important issue as adolescence is the cross roads where the choice of path and decisions and influences can direct your whole future. The choices the youth make here affect the direction society moves in and currently this being corrupted in a very negative manner for large portions of societies, as seen with chav and gang culture, racist, ignorant, anti education, xenophobic, territorial, misogynistic aggression and religious fanaticism.
This is pushing violent crime such as knife, gang, acid attack violent crime and on larger scales terrorism, religious inquisition cultures as seen with Islamic state, buko haram and the Taliban, Christian evangelic attacks on birth control provision for females, warmongering, risking even nuclear Armageddon. The current financial situation and that of a lack of housing is also disrupting paths to manhood, such as gaining a bachelor pad when young and a home of their own when developing relationships to settled couple level forming families. There appears to be a severe lack of male role models guiding boys to men in a positive manner to that of successful, responsible, respectful, protective, adventurous, wise, romantic, strong, fit, social, technically innovative and outgoing. Very much the brand values of Gillette. As mentioned my content sections are marked with a (C) and included the history section.
Gillette Future Brand Stretch Concept
Given that the theme was to be Boys to Men, the time when a boy starts to shave and gains first razor as part of the process of becoming a man.
Dealing with the issues of a lack of guidance and role model mentors guiding young males into positive directions and equipping them with the wisdom, education, social and relationship skills, awareness, streetwise, field craft, fitness, protective ‘Gorilla’ as opposed to predatory ‘Chimp / Baboon’ fighting capability etc.
The brief being to come up with a brand stretch product direction to be set a decade or 2 into the future not simply an add-on product now. I took inspiration from films such as:
- Star Wars.
- Karate Kid.
- Zorro.
- Weird Science.
- Various rescue, police and army training school movies polishing rough wayward youth.
- Van Wilder Party Liaison.
- Star Trek the Next Generation.
- Jungle Book.
- The concept of a the village not just parents bring up kids.
- And more.
I came up with a way of providing this guidance in the form of a selection of different artificially generated artificial intelligence mentors, appearing to sometimes work in opposition but ultimately together and connected to the school to fill in parenting gaps. These would be projected ideally like holograms or in the form or a projected virtual reality in the bed and bathroom of the youth. The brand would be product placed and branded to have the youth constantly thinking of it as influenced with the system, disciplined, advised, guided both directly or indirectly to a positive and successful adulthood. Mentor guides could include:
Please see the link above for the Log book report the see this in more detail or here:
- A Drill Sargent Sports Coach like figure to act as a punishment and push for fitness. Ie get bad grades get woken early to do push ups. Think characters like the drill sergeants from films like Officer and a Gentleman, Full Metal Jacket etc.Wisdom and philosophy (Predominantly oriental) character based on characters like Yoda, Mr Miyagi from the Karate Kid films.
- Van Wilder Party Liaison / Baloo the bear from Jungle Book to get the youth relaxed, fun, outgoing, a sense of positive mischief.
- A sexual female companion with friends who can be both reward for good work ie such as the bathing scene in the film ‘Coming to America’, Lisa from the ‘Weird Science’ series more than the original film to be able to ask all about females, have practice dates, discuss romantic and sexual matters etc.
- Revolutionary advisors to encourage standing up for what is right and others. Positive rebellion. Spartacus, the Hard Harry DJ from the film Pump up the Volume, Nelson Mandela etc.
Please see the link above for the Log book report the see this in more detail or here:
This would be an integrated system that could control and monitor things such as social media, school grading and discipline issues, homework fitness via sensors on the body, in toilets, in bed, computer game use, wake up times etc.
It would also act as advisors who could answer questions, role play scenarios, make the youth get out of bed, do exercise, study, have practice dates, assess threats, force decision making and so on. Whilst much of it would be the artificial intelligence computer system, the hardware would include the need for some sort of projection and sensor system. The assignment required a model of the product so I chose to make a model of a concept for the projector and sensor array in a Gillette brand style.
It would also act as advisors who could answer questions, role play scenarios, make the youth get out of bed, do exercise, study, have practice dates, assess threats, force decision making and so on. Whilst much of it would be the artificial intelligence computer system, the hardware would include the need for some sort of projection and sensor system. The assignment required a model of the product so I chose to make a model of a concept for the projector and sensor array in a Gillette brand style.
All of this is covered in the second report / log book
you can click to download above along with the study and development of the product in terms of brand styling taking much from films like Tron which seems to closely fit Gillette brand, style, slickness speed, power and technology, advanced sports cars, aircraft, boats and space craft.
All of this is covered in the second report / log book
you can click to download above along with the study and development of the product in terms of brand styling taking much from films like Tron which seems to closely fit Gillette brand, style, slickness speed, power and technology, advanced sports cars, aircraft, boats and space craft.
Whilst the styling was important the product model also had to be realistic as to what it could do so started looking more at form follows function, moving to a design based more on a bubble scope lens designed for 360 ring viewing like a full panorama and move to fisheye lens top and bottom. Also much as the brand styling detailing was very much part of this, limitations in what the university workshops could produce rapid prototyping, both CNC and 3D printing meant the design needed simplification.
The CAD development and finally model making with high density Sikablock model making foam, acrylic, a broken fisheye lens, and hand spray finished. All of this is in more detail in the log book. The CAD work was done in Solidworks.
