CHAMBORD DISPLAY

One of my favorite projects thus far that I've had the pleasure of producing here at Compass is a Chambord floor display rack for Brown-Forman. The premise is fairly straight-forward: our client requested an in-store shelving system which would hold a specified number of both their larger Korbel champagne bottles as well as their smaller Chambord brand bottles. But here at Compass, the bare minimum is never the answer. After several iterations, an awe-inspiring evolution of renderings, and weeks worth of engineering, prototyping, re-engineering, and prototyping again, we were able to create something truly unique that not only holds up to the name of the brand but also is something you will never quite see anywhere else...period. Beautiful, sleek, classy, compact, and dynamic-- these are just a few words I would use to describe the final product. Of course, this was the mission throughout, but it only got better as the project drove forward. Just to highlight a few features of the design, what we developed is an almost all-wire, dual shelving display--with Chambord bottles displayed in front and Korbel bottles majestically flaring out from the sides--finished off with printed styrene graphics and a header that make it nigh impossible for a customer to misunderstand what display he's looking at. The wire shelving is insanely easy to put together, and within minutes you've got a fully functional product display that you can put anywhere you want. And with a highly polished, edge-banded, and painted wooden base (but of course maintaining a small footprint and a light overall design), complete with premium locking casters, I firmly believe that this display has it all. When it comes to projects like this, I have a pride for my work that goes beyond words, as do we all at Compass, and that I think is what makes each project better than the last. As the principle driving force behind all engineering of this design, I was in charge not only of selecting materials, processes, and resources for producing the final product, I personally managed every dimension, every thickness, every tolerance, every weld point, EVERY DECIMAL, that comprised this thing. And while sometimes it gets a bit crazy (routing and re-routing, testing and re-testing, changing and re-changing), it's all worth it when you see the first one go together flawlessly. And let's not forget the slew of design changes along the way, on our part and as per the client's request. What's that? Shelves too big? No problem. A little too tall? We need to change the display for larger bottles now? You got it, we're with you-- whatever you need. Wait, one more thing-- can we also have a small pocket attached to the header that holds our recipe booklets? Yes you can. Anything you can dream up, we can realize, and we make it look _good_. And every time I re-engineer it, it only gets better and better. Design Engineer, or Industrial Designer, or 3-D Modeler (or whatever else you want to call me), I take pride in the projects I design and I can't help but smile ear-to-ear when I finally meet one of my own, face-to-face. There's simply nothing quite like experiencing an awesome project maturing from sketches on paper, to engineering on a computer screen, to the exact thing you were dreaming up in all it's real-life glory, standing right there in front of you. (It's like meeting an old friend for the first time face-to-face, but even though you've never actually met in person, you already know them oh so well.) Chambord is one of those projects that went well from the beginning (and finished even better than it started) because we personally _made_ it happen. Each and every one of us. We were vested in it, as with all our projects, and I have to say that working on this one was by far one of my favorites. 600+ floor displays later (an entire warehouse full of them), and it's hard not to smile while looking at the great things we've just crafted. And you'd better believe our client was smiling with us. Ryan Daugherty, Industrial Designer / Design Engineer