07.09.2016

Skyjack student partnership

Skyjack has been working with fourth year industrial design students from the Bachelor in Industrial Design programme at Humber College’s School of Applied Technology, in Toronto, Canada.

Skyjack challenged the students to work on the aesthetic styling of the company various aerial work platforms, which has resulted in potential concepts for both new scissor and boomlift designs. The students also proposed of ideas and concepts, such as Terrain detection and a new camera system.

The partnership was part of an industrial design practices course, where faculty members Dennis Kappen and Glenn Moffatt, asked 27 students to research competitive brands, visit equipment rental companies, conduct ethnographic research and assimilate operators and rental companies’ feedback on the Skyjack products.

The students’ concepts were entered into a competition, where a team of Skyjack senior executives, engineers and designers judged the ideas based on creativity, practicality and presentation. Three teams were awarded a total of $5,000.

Student Elio Pedulla said: “My key take away from this project was the importance of user experience and the use of considerate ergonomics as a remedy. The most beneficial thing about the project was the one-on-one direction and critiques that we received from Skyjack staff on a weekly basis. Their guidance helped to inform better design and complemented our creative process. As a designer, I personally enjoyed how the Skyjack project challenged my design sensibilities.
Understanding Skyjack’s culture and the labour/construction force helped me to angle planning and design to offer a better product for the end user.”
Please register to see all images

(L-R) Student Rob Gemmell, Troydon Rosario and Heather McDiarmid with professor Glenn Moffatt, Malcolm Early of Skyjack and professor Dennis Kappa

Please register to see all images

Students-Elio Medulla, Michelle Tran, Professor Glenn Moffatt,Malcolm Early of Skyjack and professor Dennis Kappa and student Curtis Rumble

Please register to see all images

(L-R) Students -Jacob Tomlinson, Jason MacDonald and Scott Taylor, with professor Glenn Moffatt, Malcolm Early-Skyjack and professor Dennis Kappa

Marketing vice president Malcolm Early added: “The students’ designs were an impressive mix of innovation and practicality. They independently visited customers and job sites, then used those inputs to come up with a wide range of innovative ideas.”