Everyone knows the issue – you prepared a nice meal with meat, salad and bread, your family and friends arrive, but when you start using the barbeque you just can’t seem to heat the coals up. What now? Flame on is the solution for a great barbecue experience. This smart product design solution ensures that coals easily heat up, is suitable to prepare a meal for 6 people at the same time and can be used at any location!

The design team defined through an extensive research step by step how and in which circumstances the barbecue is used. By creating a customer journey, the designers figured out that users often face a repetitive issue during the meal preparation. The coals of the barbecue do not heat up properly or fast enough. That finding, in combination with several ergonomic aspects, became the main focus for the new design. Flame on BBQ creates a complete new barbecue experience where people can comfortably enjoy eating in combination with socializing.

The project is created for the company Mobi Garden. Within less than 9 months the design team went through the research, design and engineering track. Besides the feature to easily heat up the coals and the improved ergonomics, the factory is able to produce the item for less than 150 RMB. Currently the molds are opened and the first Flame on’s will be launched on the market within 3 months.

Having a barbecue is more than just eating a meal. The outside environment and the way of preparing the food allows people to gather around the table and spend some quality time. Important occasions like this do not happen that often these days and Design2Gather enhanced that experience with the convenience of Flame on. Now everyone, including the cook, is able to participate in the conversations and enjoy the food. The Flame on is easy to handle and does not require constant attention for the right performance.

The Design2Gather team aims to realize creative solutions of daily products to create impact. Due to the multidisciplinary composition and great experience in production in China, the designers completed the project within less than 9 months and delivered files that could be directly implemented for mass production.

Based on the brief to make ‘a new barbecue’, the design team started with a research. During the analysis phase the designers meticulously observed a few aspects: the barbequing experience, and the context that barbequing is becoming more popular in China. All the information was summarized in customer journey map. During the design track were findings such as mobility and convenient use the input for the concepts. Based on a Harris profile method, the concept for further development was selected. Engineers worked out the complete design with CAD drawings. Since everyone is based in China, a close cooperation was established with the manufacturer in order to be able to deliver a complete mass production ready result.

Mobi Garden invested in a design track, which was executed by Design2Gather. The multidisciplinary team with designers and engineers constantly strived for an optimum by finding the right balance between aesthetics and costs. The result is a barbecue that fits into a small bag for easy transportation with maximum comfort, for an affordable price.

Within 9 months the design was established and delivered for mass production. Currently molds are opened for production and sales in China. Furthermore the connections with Europe were established for a release in several Western countries as well.