An award winning family
Challenge
“Plug & Play” devices are hardly ever as simple to use as we think they should be. Dymo wanted to bring some truth back to this often touted feature and they chose Achilles to help them on their way. It was up to us to give their new Label Manager PNP a fresh new design, along with the Label Manager LM420P, LM160 and LM500TS.
In this project, the Achilles designers used their product design, engineering and styling skills to create the LabelManager product family. Functionality, ergonomics, technology and aesthetics go hand in hand in these award-winning designs.
Common Design Language
Good designs don’t fall out of the sky. They are built on strong brand foundation.
Everyone can see that the Dymo LabelManagers are all part of the same family. That's not a coincidence. Every Dymo device is designed with their common design language in mind, which we have systematically documented. In this document, the core values are defined that describe the brand foundation, the actual 'DNA' of the company.Guidelines that help designers
These brand values are translated in useful design guidelines about styling, CMF (Color, Material & Finish) but also about user interaction, ergonomics, etc. to define what makes a true Dymo product. Basically, they help the designers to make the right choices in function of the brand, through the entire design process.
Product architecture
Size matters. On your desk and in your hands.
For a professional desktop device, it is important that the footprint is kept as small as possible. For handheld devices the size of the grip area has a huge impact on the ergonomics and user comfort.Designing with real dimensions
Therefore, at first, we did not start drawing flashy sketches, but we developed the right component configuration in 3D. After all, they will define the actual size, grip area etc. and in the end, the usability of your product. Once we had that figured out, the actual shaping could start. We needed to find something intriguing and playful without going crazy.
Engineering
Make styling proposals that actually work.
Achilles was mainly responsible for the styling, but we also took care of the phase 1 engineering, in order to make sure that everything was feasible and producible. After all, a fun shape isn’t any fun if it can’t be made.
The result
The result is a family of products with strong, iconic shapes and details. Clearly related, but each with its own personality. A set of desktop companions that are ready and willing to print out all the labels you need.
