Designing new leather products by utilizing waste material

• Main Authors: Persson, Louise, Rundqvist, Malin
• Format: Bachelor Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2006
• Subjects: Technology; design; läder; produktutformning; Bölebyns garveri; designmetodik; Teknik; Böle; Malo; Piteå
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-53594

In the summer of 2006, this master thesis was performed in cooperation with Bölebyn’s Tannery in Böle outside of Piteå, Sweden. The company gained a large amount of waste material from the production and the main purpose of the project was to develop products for which it would be possible to utilize the waste material. The products were also desired to be sold as company gifts and for this reason the manufacturing had to be inexpensive, possibly performed in Bangladesh. A generic development process was followed throughout the project and the goal was to end up with a number of concept ideas to further develop. In the beginning the range of product possibilities was wide but the usage of different development methods made it possible to eliminate the less suitable. The result was eight final product concepts: bookmark, pocket mirror, serviette ring, lantern, vase, bowl, mug and glass. For the concepts a pattern was developed. Since the products were to be used as company gifts, the symbolic of Norrland was considered highly important and therefore incorporated in the pattern. The yellow moosedung moss, Norrbotten’s provincial moss, inspired the design of the pattern. To express belongingness in a set, named malo, all the products were designed with the pattern and a similar shape. To evaluate the result of the project, most of the products were shown as test products made in leather at the Nolia fair in Piteå 2006 and the visitors of the fair were able to give their reflections. This ultimately led to a few changes of the final products which hopefully will be manufactured and sold in the future. Validerat; 20101217 (root)