Art Transporter
Skills: Product Design, Research, Prototyping
For senior Capstone course at Northwestern University
The Art Transporter is a secure art portfolio designed to move wet/unfinished paintings. This elevated method of art transportation allows users to quickly secure their work in their portfolio for storage or undisturbed movement with adjustable corner clamps and a rigid lining/housing.
White space
For our senior Capstone project my four teammates and I were tasked with a white space project where we could choose any opportunity space we found exciting, discover a root cause, and design a solution for the space. Together, we thought of 100+ ideas, and then narrowed those down to nine which we researched to determine whether the spaces were saturated or promising. This led us to three ideas that we conducted deeper research on, and ultimately we chose our space of improving art portfolios. We discussed how current art portfolios on the market don’t meet users’ needs, specifically in terms of convenient and secure transportation, customization, or aesthetic.
Two of the many forms of research we conducted were patent exploration and benchmarking analysis.
For our benchmarking analysis, we compared four products in five different categories that users expressed were most important to them when deciding which portfolio on the market was right for them based off of user interviews
Research & Exploration
For patent exploration, we focused on specific features and components we knew would be important to the function of the portfolio. The five most insightful patents we were inspired by focused on security, aesthetic, and form.
Mockups & Prototyping
Each of these three components had three major rounds of iterations which are showcased in the screen recording shown here:
During these iterations, we explored the defined primary needs of security, easiness to carry, durability, privacy, and multi functionality, as well as the secondary needs of affordability and sustainability. We designed and built at least four mockups for each component which underwent user and performance testing until they were iterated to meet our needs and specifications.
For our mockups and prototypes, we first decided to break up our product into three main components: holding, hanging, and housing. This division allowed us to focus on each component individually to refine its form and function and then bring all three back together.
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Holding
How does the mechanism hold onto the painting?
Where does it make contact with the canvas?
Is it adjustable to different-sized canvases?
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Hanging
How does the holding mechanism attach to the housing?
Does it need to dampen drops?
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Housing
What is the best structure and material that meet the primary and secondary needs?
Which straps, handles, and accessories are needed?
Final Product
In the end, we decided to primarily focus in on the holding and hanging components of the product. The corner clamps for our final design can be used as in insert for a variety of different portfolios that are already on the market.
To conclude our project, we also explored:
Design for Manufacturing considerations like machinability, part removability, minimization of pull directions, material usage, and uniform cooling.
The base, traveler, and screw knob make up the corner clamps that can easily and quickly secure a user’s artwork.
The bases of these corner clamps have velcro so that they can be easily attached to any portfolios that are lined with velcro and conveniently transported by users.
Costs Breakdowns for each component regarding material, unit cost, procurement, and supplier, as well as a Product Cost Analysis and a Manufacturing and Assembly plan.
For the business side, we explored a variety of next steps for the project, including three phases of Platforming for the product, a Business Plan where we compared options of a Licensing Deal vs a Startup Business for the product, and a Branding case study.