CLIENT: SKOPE INDUSTRIES 2

PROJECT: SK RANGE

We were commissioned by Skope Industries to design their new SK range of refrigerators. Designers worked in conjunction with the Skope Refrigeration engineering team. Released in 2007, this product is showing good sales gains.

Michael Woods had previously designed a curved door cooler for Skope. The form language developed for the curved door was retained but simplified. A top-to-bottom tower with alloy vertical elements was used. By edging the signage panel with the same profile as the doors, the design became more cohesive top to bottom. This worked to make the 'frame' for point of sale simpler, and less of a distraction. The main business of the cooler is, after all, for displaying items for sale.

Beyond the product design of the cooler range, considerable effort was put into extrusion design and connection. The doors frames function primarily as a structure to hold glass. Other considerations such as heat transfer, insulation and condensation were also very important. Handles were made very obvious in soft form alloy with injection-molded caps. Here Skope were interested in producing handles that couldn't pinch fingers, and would work well for both children and adults. The handles needed to signal their presence so that people could instinctively know how to open the door. Terminology that we use for this instinctive knowledge signalling is what we call 'Symbolic Product Function'.