Bullfrog Spas Series II Control Panel

This project was really a fun one to work on.  Designing something that will be used by people on a daily basis meant that the final printed piece would get a lot of face time with people.  This control panel is what consumers will use to control the jetting, temperature, and other spa functions on the new 2009 Series II Bullfrog Spas.

I had two goals when I set out to design the control panel:

1. Design it in such a way that it flows with the design of the rest of the spa.  This would be a bit tricky because the colors used on the control panel would have to work alongside a variety of different spa shell colors.
2. Be as user friendly as possible. I wanted to make sure that the person using this control panel would fully understand how to use the various functions of their spa without being confused by abstract symbols, confusing layouts, or anything else.

After working through nearly 50 different ideas, I settled on using a subtle wave as the backdrop of the design.  I did this for two reasons.  The most obvious reason was because of its tie in with the flowing hot water of a spa, but the wave also worked with all of the smooth flowing lines of the spa itself.  I based the color scheme on some light grays and blues and tested them against all of our spa shell colors.  After a little tweaking, I found a combination that worked across the board.

The final piece was printed on a durable, waterproof plastic and die cut to fit within the designated space on the electronic portion of the control system.  The buttons are embossed so they are easy to feel.  And finally, each symbol is back lit so that they are easy to see even when using the spa at night.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 2:59 PM. It is filed under Design Work and tagged with Bullfrog Spas, Control Panel, Design, Die Cut. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.