On August 26, 2014 Kikkerland Design, in collaboration with Bed Bath & Beyond, will kick off their 7th “Industrial Design Project.” The goal is to challenge industrial design students to create a useful product geared to the North American consumer. Kikkerland is inviting students from the Art Institute of Chicago, Cranbrook Academy of Art, and Rochester Institute of Technology to design a product that will appeal to Bed Bath & Beyond customers with the design quality that people have come to expect from Kikkerland Design.
Past Design Projects:
1- Philadelphia University
2- National University of Mexico, Mexico
3- New Jersey Institute of Design
4- KT&G Sangsang Madang, Republic of Korea
5- Dutch Design Competition, Kingdom of the Netherlands
6- Beijing Design Week/Red Star Design, The People’s Republic of China
The winning designers will have their products produced and sold worldwide as well as receive a royalty fee for their winning submission. The “Design Projects” provide Kikkerland with a vehicle to give back to the design community as well as receive theme-oriented product design ideas to broaden their worldwide brand appeal. For Bed Bath & Beyond, the Project provides an opportunity to designers to give back to the design community and adds exclusive design flair to the Bed Bath & Beyond selection.
Bed Bath & Beyond:
Bed Bath & Beyond is a national retail chain with $11 billion in annual revenue that specializes in the Home Furnishings categories. Public since 1993, Bed Bath & Beyond has grown to over 1000 stores that serve all 50 states as well as Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico. We value innovative design and are always looking for products and ideas to show our customers. The demographics of our customers are female and lean toward family purchases. Many of our customers come to us for "solution" items to help improve how they organize and utilize space in their home and to simplify their life. We have been rated as America's #1 favorite place to shop for home goods among 18-28 year olds. We have active Digital, Social and Print marketing campaigns. We have over 4.5 billion email touches annually; we have 22 million website views per month and over 230 million page views. We have monthly direct mail programs reaching millions of US households. In social media we have 1.4 million Facebook likes, 1.9 million Youtube views and 108,000 Pinterest followers.
The "life" of our business is new, innovative products that help people with solutions to everyday problems in their homes, closets, kitchens, garages and dorm rooms. The strength of our media, the aisle presentations in our store, our newly launched web platform, and of course, our coupons, makes Bed Bath & Beyond a destination for home needs, dorm needs, and decorating.
Kikkerland Design:
Kikkerland Design was founded 22 years ago in 1992 in New York City by Jan van der Lande.
It started as a hobby by Mr. van der Lande who collaborated with designers from the Netherlands whom produced their own products. The original focus of the company was the import and distribution of Dutch design products. That is where the name Kikkerland came from; it is a term of endearment for the country of the Netherlands, meaning Land of Frogs.
As the business grew in the international hub that is New York, Mr. van der Lande met independent designers from around the world. Kikkerland designs, produces and markets original products in a variety of consumer categories such as gift, stationery, and house wares to name a few. One thing that all products have in common is that each product must have a theme that tells a story.
1. Assignment Theme
The assignment is to design storage and organizational products that provide an innovative solution that either solves a home storage issue or improves upon current products. The product must be able to be used in any home or college dorm.
2. Product Design Categories:
The storage solutions for home and dorm room organization include:
Closet
Desk
Shelving
Over the door
Under the bed
Jewelry
3. Objectives
The students are to design products that meet the following conditions:
- To design storage and organization products that provide a solution to an existing problem. It can either solve an issue or improve upon current designs.
- The product must appeal to the Bed Bath & Beyond and Kikkerland Design customer base.
- The design should follow industry standard of “Value for Money”.
- The product must be a feasibly-designed consumer product.
- The designer must reference the Kikkerland Design brand guidelines and catalogs for inspiration.
4. Timeline
4.1 Kick-off meetings
The meetings will present the Design Project, its objectives, top award winning prizes, and the collaboration of Kikkerland Deign with Bed Bath & Beyond.
The meetings will take place at the participating schools with the professors and students in attendance.
Attendees:
- Bed Bath & Beyond representatives : Senior Management and the local Bed Bath & Beyond store manager
- Kikkerland Design : Jan van der Lande (Founder/President), Vincent du Prée (Key
- Account Sales Manager), Jay Lee (Product Designer), Perrine Giacomazzo (Director of Global Marketing)
4.2 Design process
August 26th – Oct 1st: Professors will email Kikkerland a PDF of their individual submissions by October 1st. We recommend each submission to have multiple product views (concept sketches, renderings, images of completed models, etc) and text explaining the product usage, production techniques, and inspirations.
- Oct 3rd: Kikkerland will review and provide design and commercial feedback, as well as advise on each individual submission (via Skype to students).
- Oct 31st: Professors will send the final prototypes to Kikkerland’s office in New York City. Kikkerland and Bed Bath & Beyond will meet to select winner(s) the first week of November.
- November 1st – Nov 16th: Kikkerland will create a website-based voting system to provide the opportunity for a “People’s Choice Winner” that will be determined by popular vote.
4.3 Winner selections
There will be 3 winner categories:
- Academic: One winner per school whom will be chosen by Kikkerland. The selection will be based on functionality, sustainability and product feasibility. The student will receive a certificate of accomplishment, 2 free tickets to the MoMA in New York City, $100 Bed Bath & Beyond gift certificate and a $100 Kikkerland ecommerce gift certificate.
- Production: Selected product(s) that Bed Bath & Beyond intends to buy and Kikkerland intends to produce.
- People Choice: Product that received the most votes from the online voting website.
5. Contest Rules
- Must be a current design student enrolled in the selected colleges design curriculum.
- Each participating design student can submit one entry
- The designer must research the Bed Bath & Beyond and Kikkerland Design customer to understand the store, market and demographics.
- Prior to the announcement of the winners, the entered designs may not be submitted or licensed to any other third party.
6. Copyrights
- Participating designers may not submit any work that is not original. Any copyright violations will be the responsibility of the participating designer.
- All the information provided on the entry form must be true and accurate.
- Submitted design works cannot be featured in any other design events and/or exhibitions.
- Any violation of these rules will result in automatic disqualification.
7. Winning Design
- Winning design(s) that have been selected for mass production may be produced and sold at Bed Bath & Beyond and Kikkerland Design.
- Winning designer(s) will have their name featured on the product packaging, Kikkerland Design website and catalog.
- The winning designer(s) will receive royalties for all sales (Kikkerland Design and Bed Bath & Beyond) if mass produced.
- The winning design(s) that have been mass produced will be featured at Tradeshows worldwide.
8. Jury Members
- Kikkerland Design: Jan van der Lande and Kikkerland Design Team
- Bed Bath & Beyond: Senior Management, Divisional Merchandise Managers and Product Development Team
- Design Industry Professionals: Jan Habraken, FormNation