TurboChef produces commercial and residential ovens that offer different combinations of radiant, convective, and microwave heating to cook food in a fraction of the time required by traditional means. Back in my Ignition days, I led a project that enhanced TurboChef's product usability and pushed their boxy, utilitarian design language forward to something distinct and identifiable...something that was uniquely theirs. Working with their existing sheet metal production capabilities, we incorporated a two tone metallic CMF with pops of color in TurboChef blue. We added a number of functional improvements as well, such as easier door access and clearer control I/O.
Research on the line, studying how chefs were using TurboChef's older models.
Dialing in some thoughts in 1:1 Illustrator renderings.
As a quick model-building technique to check proportions and usablity, we mounted our 1:1 Illustrator renderings to full-size foam core boxes. We also machined a few opening handle ideas, burying magnets inside of the handles and foam core so that we could easily pop them on and off of the mockups.