This project was part of my Design, Culture and Context module in my Design (Product and Graphic) Foundation degree course from November to December of 2018.

Like with my William Morris project, we were taught about a wide number of historical designers throughout history like Morris, Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles Eames and Frank Gehry.

This time, we were to redesign an existing household object in the style of a designer. I opted for Charles Eames and his wife Ray as they had some very good design styles, and also I happen to be related to them in a capacity, so it seemed perfect.

I chose to do a Charles Eames redesign of the bathroom toilet. I didn't really choose it for any particular reason, other than I could not think of a different thing to redesign in an innovative way. Also, it relates to Charles Eames as he largely designed furniture, but I did not choose something that is directly considered 'furniture'.

Like with my other project, I started with creating a detailed mind-map about Charles Eames - his existing designs, his design styles, the material choices they used and possible design ideas (from which I chose the toilet).

Afterwards, I researched a large number of Eames design and showed this on my mood boards below. This was largely of furniture works like chairs, tables and ottomans; as well as interior designs and exterior designs.

Following this, I then researched a number of various toilet designs - both common standard designs and more advanced "out there" designs.

I began creating thumbnail sketches of various designs from different angles and annotations of design choices and materials and reasons for why they were proposed.

These can be seen below.

I then used some of the designs from the thumbnail sketches to begin 3 different concepts for toilet designs.

The first design can be seen below, where I created a toilet-sink combination. A cast polymer sink basin attached to a stylish wooden counter, which would include the plumbing typically included in a toilet basin above the toilet. More details on the design can be viewed on the image below.

The second design was more "out there", looking more explicitly Eames-styled.

It was a design that was regarded as unhygienic via feedback, so I did not develop upon it.

However, I did like the idea of replicating the glass basin design I researched and incorporated into the design.

The third design was sleeker and less complex of a design. Details on the design can be seen below.

Following this, I then developed upon 1st and 3rd concept designs.

With the first, I set about it looking more stylish and being advanced, with embedded music players to enjoy whilst using the toilet, and implementing motion sensor taps (but also with hand taps for convenience and accessibility.

The second design was then an amalgamation of the 2 concepts, giving the sleek shape to it, comfortable design and also able to be installed in the bathroom not up against the wall. The image below this one shows other features and details in its design.

I then further developed this as my final design.

The final design is pretty exact to the 2nd development design, but with an added towel rack, and a slight variation in design of the front base of the toilet.

I also coloured it with watercolour markers, but it came out very poorly unfortunately. The blueish looking colour was actually a grey marker. And the sink came out more peach than wooden brown.

Like with my coffee flask project, I also enjoyed coming up with the creative ideas of new features to the designs – especially with the attached sink, and the general shape of it.

I really liked the final design style I made for the Eames toilet. It's sleek, modern, advanced yet simplistic at the same time.