My partner Brian Shen uses his wallet a lot to hold cards, cash and keys. However, He found it inconvenient that the wallet is not thick enough to hold all three of his keys, nor is it small enough to fit into his pocket. I took some notes during a meeting with him to figure out how to best redesign the wallet.
I asked him the five why questions:
I asked a sample of his key.
Before sketching, I want to research on the perfect material that is both lightweight and reformable to the shape I want.
First I wanted to use vegan leather, but found out that it’s not eco-friendly just like the real leather
“It gets worse. Both leather and vegan leather production emit chemicals harmful to environment and factory workers alike. Leather production’s preparatory stage, in which the raw animal hide is prepared for tanning, usually incorporates substances (like hydrogen sulfide and ammonia) which put factory workers at risk for skin, respiratory, ocular or nerve damage, or in cases of extreme overexposure, death.”
Source:What is vegan leather
Upon further research, I found a non-toxic alternative made out of fish skin. As weird as it sounds, it’s called fish leather.
“Fish leather is made out of real fish skin and offers an alternative to exotic leathers that threaten endangered animal species. Unlike other fish leather suppliers, we hope to fulfil the needs of individuals, rather than large workshops, to allow more people to experiment with the material. Fish leather can be used for a variety of crafts, from jewellery making to book binding. The look of the fish leather, created by the scale pockets, is unique and looks great when applied to objects.”
Source:Fish Leather
Later I learned that as fragile as it seems, fish leather is expected to be as strong as lamb skin. Therefore it’s a great choice for making a wallet. What’s more, fish skin get tossed in the ocean while processing anyways so it’s not harmful to the environment.
There also are different types of finishes just like real leather. Because Brian prefers a metallic bronze style, I would choose the foil finish from HERE
This is an initial sketch. The key part will be at a higher surface than the wallet itself to give big and wide enough space for 3 keys. I also shrank the size of the wallet.
On Tuesday, I met with Brian in class. Since this is a personalized design, we tweaked a little according to Brian’s preference.
- The 3-D key space doesn’t have to be a key shape
- He’s actually scared of the texture of the fish leather I researched for, therefore we are going to change into regular leather.
- The long string keep him from losing the wallet. He would still like to have it but preferably removable.
- When talking about colors, he was really attractive to my nail polish color, which is a mid-toned dark brown.
2/9
