Dog Products and Branding

Critical Making Final Project Proposal

For my final project I want to try to make a couple different things for my dogs. Boxers tend to have a very different body type in terms of their deep chests and short snouts, so many products for dogs don’t actually fit them right. I want to try to make dog goggles, to block out the wind etc when they put their head out of the window. My dogs love putting their head out, but the wind in their eyes seems to get to be too much when i reach 40 mph, so I want to try to address that problem with something that actually fits their face.

The second product is snow boots. After a while of playing outside I have noticed that one of my dogs constantly starts to pick his foot up, one by one, to get it out of the cold snow. I have tried some other ‘dog shoes’ but they all fall off so easily when he starts running around. I want to try to make a pair that is much taller than normal so it goes past the bend of his back legs and has straps in the right spots to secure the boots. I think this will help the product stay on better. I also will fit the soles specifically for each of their paw sizes.

I am going to try to model both the products in Either Fusion or Rhino, and then make some product image renders in Dimension. I also want to try to do some basic branding, so coming up with a logo and possible packaging for the two items. As for actually making prototypes, I want to 3D print the frames of the goggles. For the boots I am going to just try to cut the soles out of a sheet of a rubber like material and then connect it to a soft liner with a waterproof fabric on the outside.

These are my initial sketches of what I am trying to come up with.

I anticipate having some challenges in 3D printing the frames, as I’m not exactly sure how to go from the STL file to something that is ready to be 3D printed. For both projects some sewing is going to be involved, and I have some experience, but I’m not exactly sure how im going to connect the straps to the goggles. Im also not exactly sure what to do about the lenses.

I think this will incorporate some entrepreneurship design as I want to try to make a brand for the products so they are more cohesive and not just random products.

Hopefully I will be able to figure everything out as I work through it!