In Product Design our Year 10 students have been creating their Design Ventura entries for the Design Museum. The brief for the competition is to design a product that improves everyday life to be sold in the Design Museum Shop for around £15. The winning product will then be manufactured and sold at the shop. The following Year 10 GCSE Product Design students, Aysha V - Holborn, Jamie H - Ludgate, Issy M - Piccadilly and Josh C - Walbrook have been chosen to enter into the competition. Please read below to get a few details about their idea:

The idea

The Soothe sphere is a hand held, pocket size stress relief tool that makes the user more aware of their breathing by displaying it visually. The dandelion inspired turbine spins on a vertical axis to demonstrate the duration and strength of exhalation. It helps with calming breathing exercises to relieve stress.

Target audience

Our target audience is Secondary School and University students. Post pandemic, this target market has experienced a drop in mental health and this product aims to address this issue. It attracts environment enthusiasts because of its nature inspired design and students are one of the biggest target audiences of the Design Museum Shop.

Sustainable design

The product materials use sustainably sourced plywood and the product itself raises awareness of the environment due its natural theme. Cardboard packaging has been considered for sustainability too.

Manufacturing

The Soothe Sphere will be made from 4mm Birch Plywood that will be laser cut into simple shapes that are simple to assemble. Nylon thread will hold the spinning component within the plywood frame and it will be packaged in cardboard.

If chosen to win the competition, students will donate any profits to the Young Minds charity. The group said "We want to donate to this charity as it is linked to our product and will be also giving back to our target audience."