Case Study: Infant Feeding
In 2023 I had the opportunity to design and develop a completely new assortment of feeding products for Target’s infant brand Cloud Island. Since this was Cloud Island’s first venture into this category, we had the chance to establish a cohesive, approachable, and modern assortment from the ground up. Using high quality materials like food grade silicone, stainless steel, and recycled plastics, our team created a trend forward assortment that meets the needs of the customer at an approachable price.
We started exploring forms, and tried establishing a form language that could be used across the different products in the assortment. Our goal was to establish soft, comfortable forms that were visually appealing and easy for little hands to hold.
If At First You Don’t Succeed…
With the form language beginning to take shape, we began iterating to establish not just how we wanted the collection to look, but more importantly how it felt.
… Try Try Again
The more we iterated and refined, the more each piece started to feel like a part of a collection. The subtle curves that originated in the cutlery handles informed the shape of the cup handles. Piece by piece it was coming together.
Prototype Testing is Messy Work
Once we started getting samples in, we had to make sure each piece worked as well as they looked. We filled sippy cups with water and dropped them off ladders, scratched at our plastic plates with stainless flatware, and did stain testing on our silicone plates. From spaghetti sauce to turmeric, we turned our plates into tie-dye.
After close to a year of development and testing, our new feeding assortment launched to rave reviews, quickly surpassing sales expectations. What was initially meant to be a new sippy cup and some spoons, turned out to be a complete solution of everything from bibs to sippy cups providing incredible solutions at an accessible cost.
