Tristan Christianson

Aer, Electrostatic Air Purifier. Building on the experience from the previous projects, the Aer’s new design was opened up to allow for a greater degree of airflow with a 180-degree inlet and outlet to better allow the unit to take in particulate from a broader area. A larger internal area around the unit's collector blade cartridge also works to improve performance with a far higher CADR (Clean Air Delivery Rate) then found in previous competitive electrostatic air purifiers. The overall makeup of the unit proved to be less restrictive in how it was typically placed in a room situation allowing it to be kept out of the way if needed and run 24/7. Operation, and general cleaning and maintenance were simplified with color-coded and keyed major components for simple reassembly.

Aer, Series 3: Electrostatic Hybrid Air Purification. Concept, Industrial Design/Development, 2006 - 2008. The objective was to develop a new air purification system combining the advances in electrostatic and fan driven technologies, creating an entirely new and different look for the Ionic Breeze Series of products as a top class flagship unit. The idea being that it should bare little in similarity, but maintain a familiarity to the line of product from nearly ten years prior. With the plan to build the largest unit to-date the need was to design a box that is not a box, working to balance the bulk with surface curves to "slenderize" the appearance for a sculptural look that would better fit into a home living environment. The addition of an intuitive smooth electrostatic touch-control surface keeps a clean unit devoid of control clutter keeping the "appliance" look to a minimum.

Knowing the increased cost of development and production for a hybrid unit, the design needs to economize where possible, but advance in appearance. By building a symmetrical design larger housing components can be used twice instead of building tooling for too many parts and driving up production costs.

The unit's internal makeup was engineered for modular parts removal, cleaning and replacement, if needed, avoiding compromising the entire unit. All internal components (including the inlet and outlet grills) were developed to be cleaned and even hose-washed if necessary.

The new Hybrid was engineered to set a new CADR standard for its type, competing with larger and more expensive replaceable filter fan-driven units, and break the "beige box" look with a design to set comfortably in any living environment.

In order to communicate a good understanding of the design's new look, room scenarios were rendered and mock catalog and magazine ads were worked up for retail and executive team's review.

Early stage concept builds for the series. Many different concepts were built and rendered for review with the development team and company executives. These studies were designed around the concept of a new series for different room applications and cost targets. A floor and versatile table top unit were to be the main focus.