A few weeks ago Thom Fougere was invited by Swedish design firm Form Us With Love to give a talk at their Prototypa forum at iidex Toronto. It was an opportunity to have an intimate discussion about the process of design and production. From initial sketches and working through the form three dimensionally and materially, to finding manufacturing solutions, there are a lot of steps to bring a product to the retail market.

The first step was a loose exploration of form in charcoal.

Sketches along with the stand prototype in foreground, and finished product in background.

The various stages of the poker (foreground) and shovel (background).

I managed to capture some snippets of the talk.

Thom talks about how far along into the design process he was when he spoke with John and Juli from Mjölk about the project.

Thom talks about his unique shovel design.

Here he talks about process when designing a new product.

The booth set up, post talk. Thank you to Form Us With Love for inviting Thom to talk about the fire tools. It was such a great way to discuss all of his and our effort in bringing these tools to life.

Available at Mjölk.