At my time at Kinneir Dufort I worked on a number of projects for several different clients. Below I have included three of the most significant projects.
A consumer goods company approached Kinneir Dufort to develop concepts for their next generation of sustainable toothbrushes for developed and emerging markets. The brief was to develop a toothbrush which would mechanically provide feedback to prevent the user from overbrushing. The initial phases of this project were heavily focused on producing a broad range of concepts to explore this brief. Several of these concepts were then selected for further development and exploration. I produced a range of prototypes to test these concepts and presented these back to the company. One of my concepts was taken forward to be prototyped and was praised as having strong visual identity which could set it apart from existing offerings.
KD was contracted to investigate the possibility of using compressed air as a propellant for hair sprays. Existing propellants cause damage to the ozone layer and contribute to global warming, so the company wanted to explore more sustainable alternatives.
My role was to investigate different flow rates of hairspray and air through a selection of nozzles to determine several optimal spray patterns. These were compared to spray patterns from existing aerosols and ranked based on particle fall, spray consistency and spray strength. Laser measuring equipment was also used to accurately determine the average particle size to ensure this fell within an appropriate range.
My final project was for a corporation that specialised in pharmaceutical and biological technology. Some of their products include bioreactors that are used to manufacture vaccinations. The corporation approached Kinneir Dufort to help develop the user interface of a new line of bioreactors. My role in this project was to design and build two rigs that would be used in a study to test features for the new line of bioreactors. On the last week of my internship, I accompanied three other team members from Kinneir Dufort to run the study at the company’s headquarters. I found the experience of talking to clients face to face and seeing my work being used in the field to be very rewarding.