About the Company
Gatic is internationally renowned for the manufacture and supply of innovative gas and air-tight access covers and surface water drainage systems to the construction, transport and utility markets. The company's worldwide reputation has been established over one hundred years of providing quality products and performance on prestigious projects across the globe.
With international offices, production facilities and distributors located throughout the world, Gatic has become the leading global brand for access and surface drainage systems.
The Street Furniture Brief
In 2011 I managed to secure an internship at Gatic, for a while the company had wanted to expand their product portfolio to include street furniture, but hadn't had the time in terms of man hours to investigate the venture. The brief was straight forward, to develop a design language for Gatic that could be carried through the new ranges.
Gatic is internationally renowned for the manufacture and supply of innovative gas and air-tight access covers and surface water drainage systems to the construction, transport and utility markets. The company's worldwide reputation has been established over one hundred years of providing quality products and performance on prestigious projects across the globe.
With international offices, production facilities and distributors located throughout the world, Gatic has become the leading global brand for access and surface drainage systems.
The Street Furniture Brief
In 2011 I managed to secure an internship at Gatic, for a while the company had wanted to expand their product portfolio to include street furniture, but hadn't had the time in terms of man hours to investigate the venture. The brief was straight forward, to develop a design language for Gatic that could be carried through the new ranges.
Deciding on a Direction
Since Gatic is the benchmark for the industry, the decision was made we needed to design a high end "premium" product. Gatic access covers and drains could be considered the "Rolls Royce" of their industry, commanding a high price point but ultimately have a reputation as a quality product, this meant the furniture had to match.
Sketch exploration centred on the use of sheet metal, a product Gatic is known for, in a highly engineered way. In order to show this engineered side we explored the idea of cantilevered structures, bins and seating that defied gravity.
Wally 118
Designed by Wally Yatchs
Materials and Direction
When it came to selecting materials inspiration came from high end yatch design. Ian who directed the project with us was a big fan of the Wally 118 yacht, a boat that re-defined what a luxury yacht could be.
The beautifully sculpted hull contrasting the modern, angular bridge conveys a very heavily engineered, highly efficient aesthetic that we sought to emulate.
Below is the initial bench proposal based on this language, this was modelled in Autodesk Alias and Rendered in Bunkspeed HyperShot. Note the use of teak and electro-polished stainless steel.
The beautifully sculpted hull contrasting the modern, angular bridge conveys a very heavily engineered, highly efficient aesthetic that we sought to emulate.
Below is the initial bench proposal based on this language, this was modelled in Autodesk Alias and Rendered in Bunkspeed HyperShot. Note the use of teak and electro-polished stainless steel.
Signed off Proposal
Once the bench was approved in the design review stage the language was then applied to other products in the range. One thing we noticed during our research was many items of street furniture are stand alone items, lacking a cohesion that the client may expect from a premium product. The following products were designed to compliment each other. This would hopefully generate additional sales come release as clients want the matching set rather than individual items.
Product Release
Several months after I left Gatic to return to University, the range was released along with several others I worked on to form the new Gatic Streetwise Ranges.
These Ranges can be found here: http://www.gatic.com/streetwise
I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Gatic and am very grateful to them for being given the responsibility of developing this venture for them as well as being able to publish the above work as part of my portfolio, I wish the company and all the great people I had the pleasure of working with all the success they deserve going into the future.
To find out more about the company, enquire about Streetwise or other Gatic products please visit: http://www.gatic.com/
Several months after I left Gatic to return to University, the range was released along with several others I worked on to form the new Gatic Streetwise Ranges.
These Ranges can be found here: http://www.gatic.com/streetwise
I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Gatic and am very grateful to them for being given the responsibility of developing this venture for them as well as being able to publish the above work as part of my portfolio, I wish the company and all the great people I had the pleasure of working with all the success they deserve going into the future.
To find out more about the company, enquire about Streetwise or other Gatic products please visit: http://www.gatic.com/
