Design Story
1. The brainstorm
This session helped us to turn our experience and customer feedback into innovative ideas. We identified some problems with existing plastic stadium and arena seats, and some benefits our new chair could offer. We grouped our ideas into concepts to be developed into seating designs.
2. Concept generation
Ten seating concepts were developed and finally narrowed down to the two which we felt offered the most benefits.
3. Market research
We presented the two concepts to prominent architects in the stadium, arena, sports and and school sectors. This helped us hone the seat designs and choose our eventual winner – which was seen by our respondents to be the most innovative.
4. Ergonomic design and testing
For the ultimate ergonomic test, the prototype of the seat surfaces was made, comfort tested by a panel of people of all heights and sizes, adjusted, and then 3D scanned back into the design software to produce the final surface design.
5. Design Development
In this stage, the concept design became reality, taking into account a plethora of requirements; installation time, environmental considerations, ease of maintenance, and the dimensional limitations of retractable seating, to mention just a few.
With every change of design, the model had to be run through Finite Element Analysis simulations to test its strength. All this without compromising the chair’s appearance or its cost.
6. Naming
So how do you name a plastic chair? Participants from across the company spent a creative morning brainstorming for names around a number of themes. From the resulting shortlist we chose the memorable name Blaze for its punchiness, excitement, and suggestion of innovation.
7. Launch
With its distinctive looks and practical features, Blaze is suitable for customers in the sports, arena and education markets worldwide, for indoor or outdoor use. If you have any questions, or would like a quotation, please contact our sales team.
