Elevate your Matcha Journey
Anywhere with Roamr!
Design Goals | Create a set of cups and bowls that are compact and sustainable for persons living a nomadic lifestyle, particularly in a van setting. Integrate calming form and color into the product to continue the authentic Matcha aesthetic.
Category | Product Set
Duration | 5 Weeks | Spring Semester
Skills Used | Traditional Sketching, Digital Sketching, Fusion 360, Bambu Studio, 3D Printing, Keyshot Rendering
Population Research
Van-Dweller Numbers in the U.S.
After the pandemic, van-dwelling increased by 63%. Reaching 3.1 million in the year 2022, van-dwelling will only be increasing over the next years.
1.9 million van-dwellers 2020
Why Matcha?
Starting at the origin
Matcha and the nomadic lifestyle have more in common than the average eye can see on the outside. When choosing a beverage to innovate around, I instantly thought of matcha because of my own liking towards it. The benefits and taste are what appeal to me the most, which I found to be a common opinion throughout the U.S. Benefits include improving brain, heart, liver health alongside upping the immune system and even reducing stress.
Van Life Meets Matcha
Integrating two similar cultures
When diving deeper into the origin of matcha and the original process of making the beverage, it was obvious that this system is very specific. Taking the specificity from the original process of making a matcha beverage and assimilating that value into the current status of an individual who resides in a van was my main goal throughout this infographic.
The Current Status
Why create this tea set?
Before ideating for the tea set, I wanted to know what exactly needed to be changed about the current tea sets on the market for anyone living nomadically.
Accommodates small spaces while contributing to a compact environment
Stability in a van is often non-existent or unavailable
Cup to pour the milk and matcha liquid into
Cup detached from the combined form, looking into the lid/hook part attached to the top
Matcha tools and bowls are often made of highly breakable material such as ceramics
Ideation Sketches
Finding solutions through traditional sketching
To settle on a concept to further expand on, sketching is essential. With my sketches, I focused mainly around form of the overall set while paying attention to detail on the individual cups/bowls as well. While sketching, I arrived at several directions that stood out amongst the others, highlighting a form that is able to stack or compress.
Initial Form Exploration
Conceptualizing form through 2D cut outs
To further understand sizing and overall form of the tea set components, I used cut out pieces of card board to experience it for myself. While grasping each form, I quickly realized there were tweaks to be made on each form to improve ergonomics. Within this process, I expanded more on how each object would compress, leaning more towards an interlocking bowl and cup, which would then fold inward to form a puck-like shape.
Bowl form used to mix the matcha in prior to drinking
Combined form with cup on top and bowl on bottom, experimenting with slanted ridges to fold upon
Overall intial form of the two cups stacked ontop of eachother
Exploratory Sketches
Expanding on three directions
Paying closer attention to detail for these next sketched, I focused on three different directions that seemed the most relevant to the issues my tea set is meant to resolve.
3D Prototyping
Looking deep into ergonomics
Taking the more in-depth sketches and concepts, I used more 3D forms to create an accurate representation of how each piece would fit into a hand or interact with the user. It was during this process when I decided to expand on a cup and bowl locking mechanism that combines into one overall form.
Matcha whisk stand, keeping a traditional form while planning to integrate aesthetics from my set
Final Sketches
Composition page of sketching process
CAD Modeling
Exploring in Fusion 360
While taking my concept and modeling it in fusion, I quickly realized that the slanted ridges from previous explorations were slightly unrealistic for a real form. To keep my design simplistic, I reverted back to my original design consisting of straight across fold lines. I also converted the original ring mechanism on top of the cup to a smaller loop that a carabiner can hook onto. A suction cup was also added to the bottom of the matcha whisk holder which will keep the whisk in place while the van is in motion.
Materiality
Choosing materiality based on function
With matcha and van life both exhibiting clean and healthy characteristics, choosing a material that fits along with that demographic was a clear direction I needed to take. Silicone resembles the values aligned with matcha and van life, centered around it’s safety and reusable attributes. With multiple other plastics and materials often containing harmful chemicals that can seep into the liquids inside the vessel, I specifically wanted to avoid that with the silicone materials being implemented. Other positive characteristics of silicone include being eco-friendly, non-toxic, storing hot and cold liquids, and is flexible. Flexibility is very important to my choice of material considering that my whole bowl/cup function will be folding inwards on itself when storing it away.
3D Printing Prototypes
Utilizing Bambu Studio to 3D print test models
After modeling in Fusion 360, I 3D printed scaled down models to identify mistakes within my mechanisms. With the locking mechanism in between the bowl and the cup, I realized I needed an extension to regain the thickness to create the correct tolerance.
Final 3D Prints
Full 3D Printed Roamr Matcha Tea Set
Using the Bambu 3D printers I made sure all of my pieces were set to the correct scale and dimensions. Going forward with the print, each pieces was either sliced to print evenly or printed as a full object to then put together in my set. My final 3D printed set included the cup and bowl that interlocked, a lid for the cup, and a whisk stand for the bamboo whisk tool.
Exploded and Orthographic View
Keyshot rendered view of each part in the main bowl/cup
Looking at the exploded view of each component of the key objects in this set, it is fairly clear that each part is simple in design and is formatted for easy use. The exploded view explains how each piece interacts with each other. With the bottom bowl piece and the linking middle ring attaching, they form a L-shaped slot for the extruded bumps on the cup to fit into and lock.
Color Exploration
Exploring color within aesthetic purposes
While exploring different color combinations for the sets, I used multiple color pallets and related images to pull corresponding hues. These are the initial combinations that I thought might be appealing to consumers who’s ideal lifestyle is calming, health centered, and simple.
Final Color Directions
Four of the final color-ways rendered in Keyshot
When deciding what colors to use throughout the designs, I decided to keep each tea set monochrome for the most part. I used different hues and shades of orange, blue, green, and pink for these specific sets. I decided to keep the cup and bowls on opposite ends of the color spectrum that I was focusing on.
Roamr Final Renders
Compacted form and logo identification
Collapsed version of the cup and bowl form. After it is collapsed, the tea set can hang up on a hook or even attached to a bag strap. Along with rendering the compacted version of my tea set, I also decided to dive into brand identity and experiment with logo ideation. I came across a combination of two shapes, one representing the silhouette of my cup form, and the other representing a wheel. This concept seemed to connect the two of my cultures through simple shapes.
3.1 million van-dwellers 2022
U.S. Matcha sales in the year 2015
U.S. Matcha sales by year 2024
Tea Sales Research
Number of Matcha Sales in the U.S.
When looking at the sales of Matcha in the U.S. it was found that they have reached over 10 billion in the last 25 years. With this increase in matcha consumption, it can be inferred that more individuals have been buying matcha and even trying to make it at home.