World Water Day
21st March 2018
Water; it’s tasteless, odourless, colourless and quite frankly, a little easy to take for granted. Yet, when we try to think of anything else that has been used everyday, by everyone across the globe throughout generations, we have to admit that even our best Sanders design haven’t quite achieved that – although we’re sure they’ve come close. Therefore, when we learned that this Thursday was World Water Day, it seemed only logical that we consider how h20 has played a part in the work we’ve done, whether that be our kitchen appliances, bathroom designs or even just keeping our creative minds hydrated.
Adhering to the values of both our clients and ourselves is an important element of any design we do. Sustainability is one such value, whether that be ensuring the durability of our products, the eco-friendliness of the materials or just recycling sketch paper. However one area that particularly bothered us was our use of water bottles. As cyclists, runners, climbers and gym-goers, we appreciated the need to keep ourselves hydrated, however were torn between the better, purer taste of bottled water versus the waste the plastic bottles created. Therefore we initiated our own project; we wanted to design a bottle that filtered the impurities out of tap water, was reusable and sustainable and could be subtly used in the office.
Whilst we always appreciate simplicity, when working with something as fundamental as water, it’s sometimes necessary to push the boundaries of design. The translucent spherical top is designed to hold a third of a litre of water and filters the impurities through a tea bag-like cartridge, containing 20 grams of activated carbon. Our research found these two materials achieved the best sustainability, not only in terms of its durability, but also in how safe it was to dispose of once it had been used. The clean water is filtered into a crisp, clean glass and is considerably subtler than a heavy, plastic water bottle. Whilst we love the fact that our own Sumo Water Filter Carafe won a Muji Design Award, it feels great just to know we’ve improved our eco-friendliness, whilst still creating interesting and impactful designs.
With this year’s theme for World Water Day being ‘Nature for Water’, we also have to consider water in its natural environment. That’s why, when we were approached by Palmer Environmental for help designing their underground water leak detector, we engaged our knowledge of engineering alongside our understanding of simple, effective design. The MicroCorr Touch Correlator was designed with a high visibility full colour VGA touch screen allowing for simple and efficient data entry. The product complies with the IP65 Ingress Protection Standard, and delivers in compactness, ease of use and performance. Its competitive price brings safe water management and purification to even more industries.
Whilst water isn’t always the most exciting of substances, it’s fair to say it won’t be becoming irrelevant any time soon, meaning we can expect a lot more products like this in the future. However this request is brought to us, we’re looking forward to the versatility, experimentation and creativity that comes with such a simple product.
