Taste of Home
New Housewares for a Legacy Brand
Developed and launched 4 lines of cookware and bakeware for a newly licensed brand.
Completed as Director of New Product Development at Range Kleen.
Project Summary
1 Year
1 Product Designer
Product Management
Research - Learn about the organization, users, and market
Development - Design and prototyping
Production - Manufacturing the pieces
Launch - 26 New Products
* Above images by Taste of Home.
What products should we create?
Initial Research
Survey of Taste of Home readers
Taste of Home most popular recipes
What is the Taste of Home brand?
Interviews with the Taste of Home test kitchen team
Market and competitive research of other lines
Product testing
Inspiration from old props they use for photography
What Will the Products Look Like?
Four Different Product Lines
Metal Bakeware
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Inspiration for pattern from mid-century bakeware and tin ceilings
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Refine the scale of the pattern
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Technical drawings
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Prototyping - metal and 3D printing
Aluminum Cookware
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Factory visit (Italy)
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Colors and printing
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Fittings and specifications
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Pricing and quantities
Cast Iron
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Requests from Taste of Home
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Reading reviews and testing reports
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Testing competitive samples
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Discussion with factory
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CAD
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Colors. logos, and specifications
Stoneware
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Decision on what pieces to design
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Feature development
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Textural pattern and color placement
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CAD
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Collaboration with factory
Bringing the Designs to Life
Production
Metal Bakeware - There was a bit of trial and error getting the embossed pattern on the bottom to come out consistently during production.
Aluminum Cookware - Taste of Home and I tested and approved samples that had the correct materials, sizes, shapes, and handles, but didn’t have the right colors. The factory matched the specified Pantone color well.
Cast Iron - The factory had provided useful feedback on the designs and good CAD for confirmation before tooling. The first off-tool samples were pretty good and we were able to approve them for production quickly.
Stoneware - The factory had evidently not reviewed the CAD before providing the quotes, which caused many issues later. Ceramic is a much more variable material than I am used to designing for, so many of the pieces ended up a bit smaller than I had intended and the glaze covers up a fair amount of the detail.
Final Products
* Above images by Taste of Home.
What I Learned
Major Takeaways from this Project
Balancing new designs with existing technologies can be a delicate balance, especially when on tight timelines.
Working with new technologies (or materials, in this case) can add extra time to a project.
Confirm that the whoever is executing the design truly understands what I'm looking for and the design intentions.