2016 Galleries

The Spark Gallery pages are one of our most popular design destinations, with thousands of visitors each year. Check out some of the latest Spark entries, in the galleries below.

Lightwater

Winner - Bronze

Competition: Spark:Spring Concept
Designer: Daniel Smitasin
Design Type: Sports
Company / Organization / School: Art Center College of Design
Website: http://danielsmitasin.com

Lightwater was designed through the empathic understanding of freshwater fishing hobbyists. Using journey map observations, interviews, immersive experiences, and synthesizing the data into insights the conclusion was that there was a greater need to simplify the way we carry around fishing gear and how to easily and effectively we can access these tools when fishing. Using the idea of a retractable keychain mounted into a fishing vest I designed a solution that allowed users to place their most used equipment and clip them onto the vest. When they need to use it such as pliers they can pull on the tool, use the tool, and let it retract back to the vest. The hooks also allow for a user to mount their fishing rod in a standing position while they are looking for tools or are in need of using both their hands. This idea sparked another use of the retractable mechanism by placing the retractable coords in the back and attaching it to a backpack. This way the user only needs to pull on a strap to get the backpack in front of them and when they are done it will retract to the back in its original state.