CLIENT:                     Unitec

PROJECT DATE:       2008

The toaster project was an extension of an earlier brief – ‘In the Style Of’ where we were allotted two designers to study and create a moodboard for (it felt very interior design!).  I was lucky enough to get Peter Haythornthwaite, perhaps New Zealand’s best working designer, and the God of Functionalism:  Dieter Rams.  It was a revelation to look at both of these designers output in real detail.  We then had to choose a household object from our own homes that we felt was poorly designed and redesign it using stylistic cues from our given design sources.

Of course having Dieter Rams meant that I had to examine the object properly, and anew, from first principles.  We all have eaten toast that is cold, or soggy, or dry, because we have had other things vying for our attention at breakfast time.  Thus I created a ‘catcher’ where the toast could sit once browned to perfection.   This wall mounted toaster re-circulates hot air to keep the toast hot, and moist, until the user opens the base – invoking the subconscious knowledge of breadbins from the past.

I used a frosted glass base that had vertical fillets to hold the toast in the air.  Peter Haythornthwaite had used this motif in a garage door opener, and the body of the toaster was modelled on the ultraclean lines that Dieter Rams had employed for most of the products that he designed for Braun.  This in one of my old designs that I would like to revisit and finish properly given the larger skill set that I now have at my disposal.

The render was my first ever CAD drawing which looks so dated now…