Bissell

Lite Vac, bagless & wireless vacuum cleaner — product identity study

Design a new concept of bag­less and wire­less vacu­um clean­er, from a tech­nic­al pro­to­type developed by Chiaphua Industries. The goal was to help the com­pany to present its wire­less tech­no­logy to its cus­tom­ers in an attract­ive way. So we pro­posed a slender and very flu­id design, with min­im­al­ist­ic lines. We have emphas­ized the gen­er­al “pur­ity of shape”, to give it a very aer­i­al look to the product.

It was later redesigned to match the iden­tity of the end cus­tom­er of this new vacu­um clean­er: Bissell. So we reworked the lines of the product, to both integ­rate the styl­ist­ic codes of Bissell, as well as refresh­ing them, lay­ing the found­a­tion for the future line of products of the brand.

The vacu­um clean­er has been designed to be used wire­lessly, but also wired to an elec­tric­al outlet.

Detail of the product con­trols loc­ated at the back. From top to bot­tom, suc­tion brush, on, off, bat­tery rechar­ging mode.

Detail of the cyc­lon­ic bag­less suc­tion unit.

Rear detail that allows to remove the upper part of the product, for easy stor­age / transport.

Backstage of the project

Competitors & Trend boards

Most of the vacu­um clean­er of com­pet­it­ors shows a clear demarc­a­tion between their high and their low end, with a sep­ar­a­tion, often high­lighted, and very tech­nic­al. Others have a much more flu­id approach, like Samsung. To renew the Bissell’s styl­ist­ic codes, while cap­it­al­iz­ing on their cur­rent ones, we chose to keep the typ­ic­al shape of Bissell handles, but giv­ing more eleg­ance to the product. We have freed ourselves from visu­ally too tech­nic­al shapes and too bright col­ors, to bring the notion of pur­ity of col­or, but also sim­pli­city of shape. In short, a real return to the essentials.

Design research

The main idea was to give an aer­i­al look to the product, but also to show a con­tinu­ity of shape, between the low and high part of the product, for more eleg­ance. The read­ing of the charge level of the bat­tery should also high­light the fea­ture, which is not always very vis­ible at first on com­pet­it­ors’ wire­less vacu­ums. Finally, the trans­par­ent col­lect­or shows a tech­nic­al piece which remains rel­at­ively simple (com­pared to the com­pet­i­tion), and more elegant.