Projects Archives - Con Cor Design

Huntco Rebranding Partnership

October 5, 2015April 25, 2017
by CCD

Building an online product catalog through rendering

In another enjoyable partnership, CCD teamed with independent brand builder Heather Cummings in a radical makeover the image of Huntco, a longtime Portland manufacturer and distributor of outdoor accessories.

Over the span of 30 years, Huntco had accrued hundreds of original designs for bike racks, benches and other outdoor furnishings. CCD helped Cummings leverage 270 existing CAD models to compile an online catalog of photorealistic renderings. It is one of many cases where rendered images is proving a superior marketing tool than traditional product photography.

The project effectively elevated the image of a blue-collar operation to that of a design-savvy Portland trendsetter. We’re eager to see what comes next for Huntco!

Method

Realigning a Brand Internationally

May 15, 2015November 17, 2016
by CCD

The Sig Sauer international program is a recurring project as new shows and new marketing are always in the works.

Con Cor Design was brought in to discuss an interesting project involving the brand Sig Sauer.

CCD was tasked to re-imagine and redesign the Sig Sauer brand so that its international presence would be aligned with its domestic visual language but also to heighten the perceived value at the exhibit level. This meant really digging into the Sig Sauer brand and gaining a fluency about the company.

We started by looking at the history of Sig and how they evolved from Swiss wagon factory to the pinnacle of personal and privatized defense products. To prime the pump of the creative process we selected keywords, built mood-boards with a associated inspiration imagery.

We were then able to created a form language that expressed the feel of the brand and could be extended into all modular elements of an industry show structure. The resulting design included multiple modular kiosks with an angular yet curved architecture set and a futuristic material palette that complimented its products and demonstrations.

Then, after several rounds of iterations and development, we successfully created a real scalable solution that would fit at all of the different sized shows around the world.

CCD has been a contended partner to make the best possible use of budget, space and form.

Projects

Yawning Fish

May 14, 2015September 24, 2015
by CCD

Heavy metal thunder

Can good design change an object of kitsch into a premiere luxury item? In partnership with our client Yawning Fish, that’s what we at CCD achieved with the protection bell.

What’s a guardian bell? In the Easy Rider days, riders hung the tiny trinkets on various parts of the bike to scare away gremlins from causing mischief to the rider in the form of engine malfunction, flat tires, and slick spills.

Even today in the era of suburban-dad Harley collectors, guardian bells are still common and one of many small ways owners personalize their bikes, though the magic thinking has somewhat devolved into jokey guy-kitsch. With today’s style obsessed and more affluent motorcycle set, Portland metal craft firm Yawning Fish decided it was time to revisit the bell and redefine it as a premiere accessory.

Yawning Fish’s product line of sterling silver boutique bells launched in late 2014 as an online store. Con Cor Design helped Yawning Fish recast the object as a crowning building detail that is bespoke and alluring. CCD designed, prototyped, refined the product line and set up an efficient custom manufacturing process.

The result is far removed from its origins. The form is modern. A custom message embossment wraps around the waist. The product is presented in a fabric bag inside a crafted wooden gift box. And the website touts life-affirming maxims of the road — with no mention of evil gremlins.

Many factors — price, finish, package, story — can increase the perceived value of a luxury item:

The Bells — “The aim is not only to create a quality object but also to build a psychological intimacy with the user.”

Compelling brands need compelling stories

What if you could rewrite the legend of the bell? That’s exactly what we did. By partnering with Black Monk Consulting, we created a new legend of the bell that was not only removing the variable of “bell” as equaling a totem of fear and replacing it with “bell” as a symbol of joy and empowerment but CCD used this as a departure point from all of the basic bells out there that are embossed with company logos and kitsch. Similarly, CCD used this background as a departure point from all of the basic bells out there that are embossed with company logos and other masculine kitsch. The Yawning Fish product line aims to appeal a “high-brow” biker set that responses to elevated design and positive lifestyle messages. We created the “high-brow” biker site.

When you receive your bell. It comes in a pine box cinched in a microfiber polishing pouch then is encompassed in a paper insert that reads the new story.

We’ll continue working with this brand to flesh out several other categories of products and continue to raise the bar of what is available to the motorcycle enthusiast. In the meantime, why don’t you head over to YawningFish.com and check out the collection?

Blog

WeMake Celebrates

January 27, 2014September 25, 2015
by CCD

Con Cor Design sponsored the WeMake Celebrates party as part of the wrap up of Design Week Portland 2013. CCD facilitated the projectors, gobos, and space planning and spent well over two weeks surveying and modeling the event space. We worked closely with the WeMake team to visualize the final event. The celebration took place at Sandbox Studio in NE Portland.

Image courtesy of @Kirspati on Instagram.

CCD has also been intermittently helping the team at MC Laser Labs with various projects, like laying out lines for their awesome bird house for the WeMake party:

It was great to have spent our donation budget with such brilliant collaborators and contribute to such a spectacular and successful event.

WeMake founder Yvonne Emerson said, “we are thrilled to report the organization raised $11,0000 to support arts and music education.”

Cover photo by Ethan Allen Smith

Projects

Proxy People by Manifesto

December 17, 2013September 25, 2015
by CCD

Brand actualizers Manifesto approached idea-to-reality logisticians at Con Cor Design to facilitate a new social networking game for kids called Proxy. CCD aided on partial design needs and the eventual prototyping of the game’s figures.

Rather than an internet network, Proxy relies on the wireless technology NFC (Near Field Communication), the same tech that allows two cell phones to exchange data within a short range of each other. Instead of kids getting on the wide open web, they can interact with a closed network of their friends. On the software accompanying aids a character-modeled USB drive, players collect points for social responsible actions and can “give back” to the community via school supplies, shoes, and village wells.

For Proxy devices, this meant that the shells had to take into account certain parameters. CCD designed within these constraints and the form of initial model designed by character designer Steve Talkowski.