When it comes to home/garage storage and organization, majority of the market associates the aesthetic of an autoshop with quality. This leads to designs that lean more masculine and suited for one user which is an issue as everyone in a household uses and interacts with the home/garage and their things in different ways.

Our primary method of communication was through Miro. A digital whiteboard that allows us to upload photos, take notes, and use limited tools for sketches. This eventually turned into a few conversations being entirely through sketching as our team is spread across the globe.

This tool allowed me to show our partners, in real time, what we as a team were thinking. I could sketch something out as we discussed during meetings on what ideas we should explore and what steps we should take next.

For any project that involves designing a physical product, we have to validate our ideas by bringing them into the real world. Using both 3D printing and hardware similar to what we would be sourcing, we could see how certain configurations would affect the strength and rigidity of the shelf. Some of the things we wanted to address were side-to-side movement when assembled, ease of assembly, ability to move shelves without having to disassemble the entire shelf, and use a, primarily, sheet steel construction all while maintaining an identifiable and versatile design language. This rack shelf will serve as the inspiration for the rest of the storage system.