Neubau Y2023
Duration: 4 weeks
Collaboration partner:
A brand focused project including research in groups, individual ideation process and a final presentation.
Silhouette encouraged us to reflect upon the designers ethics, future distribution solutions and how to handle recycling. The aim of the project was to come up with one or more suggestion for the younger Neubau brand.
The company:
The collaboration partner, Silhouette, has three brands - Neubau, Silhouette and after designing Adidas eyewear they started their own sports eyewear brand Evil Eye. The three different brands have different target audiences. Neubau targets a younger audience and focuses on visible frames with more sustainable explorative materials.
Silhouette is describing the Neubau users are is young, free, and artistic. They want their eyewear to express sustainable consciousness and a sensibility to trends. The name refers to the trendy district Neubau in Austria.
The target audience:
- Neubaus motto
See good, do good
Pictures: Neubau
Chosen problem area:
To reduce the number of parts thrown to waste when updating your eyewear
A product suggested for Neubau with a durable hinge system, the glasses and frame can be easily changed without the presence of an optician. Biodegradable or regenerative material is desirable and the lifetime of the parts should fit the estimated time of usage.
Desirable result:
Why do we buy new eyewear?
-
Change in prescription
-
Want to renew the look
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The hinge is broken
What do we do with outdated eyewear?
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Thrown to garbage
-
Tucked away in a drawer
-
In few cases left to stores that recycle or send the eyewear for reuse
*Answers from vendors
of eyewear
Research
How do we pursue eyewear?
Get prescription at store
Order the eyewear at store
Get prescription at store
Order the eyewear online
No new prescription
Order the eyewear online
+
-
Get professional help
-
Instant fitting
-
check of quality
-
-
Travel to store
+
-
Often cheaper
-
More eyewear to choose between
-
-
Takes more time
-
Can't try eyewear before ordering
+
-
No travel
-
Often cheaper
-
More eyewear to chose between
-
-
Takes ore time
-
Can't try eyewear before ordering
How are the different customer experiences?
We tried out Synsams application Stylelab & did a comparison study with the eyewear in a Synsam store
VR showroom store visit
VS
We can see how customers want more to choose between, they want different styles of their eyewear, one casual frame and something edgier
"
- Hannes, optician at Synsam in Umeå City
The designer's quest
For the eyewear designer, it’s always gonna be a question of excluding some users from their design. A pair of eyewear will fit people very differently since some are allergic to materials and the eyewear has to fit in relation to the length between their eyes, eyebrows, nose, the width of their face, and distance to ears.
People in the measurement index percentiles often tends to be discriminated against, there's no exception within the eyewear industry.
The average adult’s PD (pupillary Distance is between 54-74 mm; kids’ are between 43-58 mm.
Minimum for females: 51
Maximum for males: 77
: My inspiration
Pictures from Neubaus website, Pinterest and various articles
Which non-ending resources in Austria can be locally made into eyewear material?
SHEAP WOOL
MYCELIUM
HUMAN HAIR
CORN STARCH
POTATO
Pictures: Cubitts.com
Check out these cool examples,
I found that it's already today possible to do biodegradable and even recyclable eyewear that looks good.
I found the England based eyewear company named Cubitts, which makes eyewear as a traditional and conscious craft. In response to the conventional unsustainable spectacle making, they started the campaign REDUX with the aim to find sustainable alternatives and to minimize their impact on Mother Earth.
REDUX presents ten different concept frames from ten different waste materials. The potato waste model, presented to the left, was done in collaboration with Chip Board that makes biodegradable and recyclable products of bio-plastic composites that perform the same way as conventional plastics.
Visit Cubitts website :
My chosen biological ingredients:
These ingredients can be grown in Austria, the production country of Neubau's eyewear. To my surprise, Austria has big seed corn cultivations and one of the biggest algae greenhouses in the world.
POTATO
local waste
CORN
SEEDS
ALGAES
CELLULOSA
MUSHROOM
Pictures: Cubitts.com, Pinterest
Sketches & first mock-ups:
Modification instructions:
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
Presenting my final design:
Fashionable eyewear for the conscious user living with nature as a friend
A collection of tomorrows eyewear
Y2023
Aimed expression:
fashion, consciousness,
gender-neutral,
being bold but classy
A classic frame
where the small details
tell the difference
Photograph by Daniel Stjerne & edited by me
THYME
Material: Potatoe & algaes
Seed: Thyme
Production: 3D-printed
Blending potato starch and dried algae into printable substance create this dark green and more reflective finish. The algae make the
material more water-resistant than pure potato waste.
Plant the frame when you want to give it a new life
as the delicious thyme plant.
PEPPER
Material: Potato starch
Seed: Pepper
Production: 3D-printed
Pure potato starch mixed with grinded pepper seed
peel and pepper seeds creates a more calm but still
bold look. No coloring ingredients added makes the
frame express its natural origin. Plant the frame when you want to give it a new life
as the hot pepper plant.
POPPY
Material: Potato & corn
Seed: Poppy
Production: 3D-printed
Blending potato starch and black corn intends to create an interesting material blend and pattern. Poppy seeds may contribute to the expressive material blend fitting the consumer desiring a more classic and warm look. Plant the frame when you want to give it a new life as the beautiful poppy flower
FORGET ME NOT
Material: Black corn
Seed: Forget me not
Production: 3D-printed
Black corn starch is the mother of these almost black
frames. The chunky frames with modules on the
temples will sure be a conscious choice to make you
visible, and memorable.
The parts hide seeds to rebooted as the forget me
not flower.
MUSHROOM
Material: Compostable cellulose
Seed: Mushroom
Production: 3D-printed
It’s always nice with a more transparent frame for the days you would like a less sensational look. Cellulose can be made transparent and
compostable. The frame sustains longer than the ones made from potato but it also requires a longer time to dissolve back into nature and doesn’t provides nutrition to your plants. This particular
frame is colored with bergamot leaves.
Unscrew the screw to enable moving the lenses, front, and temples
By snapping of
the ear loops you can either change them add a
chucky temple
A chunky look can be applied to eyewear with the attachable temple modules
Slide onto temple after unsnapping the ear part
Loops enable attachment of a strap if needed
The thoughtful shape of the nose bridge gives the frame a quality look
End life ~ new life
Unscrew the model and plant it in your garden or in your home, let your eyewear reboot into a memorable plant reminding you of your previous Neubau frames.
THYME
Lenses made of cellulosa are separately recycled into plastic
Plant your used frames and watch them giving new life as a plant
The system:
VR-showroom
Locally printed of local material
Grow new
material
enjoy wearing eyewear
Plant the
eyewear parts
With access to a computer
with a camera and a 3D-printer
it enables world wide use of
this system.
Same design can be ordered
but in diffrent parts of the
world we can find different
material to use, which will
contribute to a special look celebrating its origin.
No shipping needed!