New Product for China: June 2007

In China, most people put their wet umbrella at the balcony where is 5-10 meters away from the entry, so that provide some drips on the floor. As these reason, an umbrella stand should be placed at the walkway behind the main door. However, most existing product doesn’t match the decoration or other furniture in vestibule to Chinese. Therefore, for Chinese market, an umbrella should have some Chinese elements.

In my design of umbrella stand, I used the shape of Chinese ancient vase which was blue and white porcelain, and used the lucky pattern which is four season flower, and it also has a god meaning because vase and safe is same pronounce as ping in Chinese. Hence, a vase shape umbrella stand is sitting at the vestibule to bless people safe in whole year.

In my final concept, the product will use two materials, one is acrylic sheet with screen printing at double side, another is cast steel with Chromium plating. And all parts are disassembled. They are joined together without any glue and screws.

The design is not only for traditional umbrella, but also for telescope umbrella which Chinese people use mostly. A hook is at the top for hanging up telescope umbrella, and two flowers shape ring are for holding umbrella when it stands on the base. A small dish under the base is for water container. Cross structure provides four compartments, so wet and dry umbrellas can be separated in different space.