CONCEPTUAL PRODUCT
Caldo is much more than just a portable boot dryer - it's a morale booster. A piece of pocket luxury to make your camping trip just that bit more comfortable.
Powerful enough to dry your boots overnight in the porch of your tent, Caldo makes sure that even if you're miles from the nearest warm pub, you don't have to dread waking up to cold, damp boots.
IN DETAIL
Caldo was my major project in my final year at university. I wrote a brief to improve the morale of hikers and campers, and my research showed that being cold and wet was one of the most demoralising parts of any camping trip.
After deciding to focus on boots, I worked from the inside out, selecting the method of drying, the technology, user interaction and touch points, and finally the visual design.
To reduce weight, it needed to be dual-powered: butane to warm the air, and a battery to power the fans which circulate it.
I built a functional prototype to validate the drying performance and size of the technology, using a gas powered soldering iron, two computer fans, and an aluminium heat-sink which I fabricated in the metal workshop at Loughborough University.
To evaluate the design, I needed people to use and interact with it. I initially made a quick and cheap laser-cut layered cardboard model so I could check myself if there were any obvious problems. Following that, I then 3D printed a handling prototype which enabled me to give the product to people and watch how they interacted with it.
