The Focus
Designing a cooler for Symphony that goes beyond living-room scenarios
Disrupting the unorganised market for commercial-grade coolers
Making the cooler an alluring, versatile option for a variety of outdoor applications
The Design
The team at Elephant designed a cooler from scratch that would be an affordable, yet sturdy alternative to patchwork-type coolers that are generally available for this purpose
The aesthetics were designed according to the type of application – rugged, stain-proof and mobile
Varints for adjusting capacity as per need were accommodated
The Story
Symphony has been the defining name when it comes to air coolers in the world. With a presence in over 30 countries, Symphony and its subsidiaries have penetrated the industrial, commercial and residential markets and the name is rightly synonymous with cooling.
The air cooler market in India has been growing steadily, and understandably so, with a CAGR of over 11% since the last 4 years. As people look to coolers as more eco-friendly and cheaper options to air-conditioners, coolers are here to stay. However, Symphony came to Elephant with a unique proposition that was targeted toward the more commercial, industrial-grade market.
For commercial applications there were zero coolers in India. By that, we mean that there were no organized market dealings for this type of cooler, which meant that there were no industry standards to speak of. The coolers you did get were of the black box variety – hastily put together, made of cheap materials that would more often than not be recycled – and obviously, no guaranteed servicing or any other benefits that would come if it was regulated.
Symphony wanted us at Elephant to design a cooler that would be right at home in this environment, and disrupt the market. This cooler had to be an affordable, yet quality-centric one for the target audience, which would compel them to buy this instead of the same old patchwork-type device. In effect, this was the creation of a new segment for Symphony – which we were delighted to have a hand in.
“Symphony wanted us at Elephant to design a cooler that would compel the target audience to switch from the same old patchwork-type device, which was a result of a disorganised market. ”
What Can a Commercial Cooler Do?
When we talk about a commercial-style cooler, the black-coloured assemblage of parts often comes to mind for most potential consumers. Clearly, aesthetic virtues weren’t on the top of their list of priorities. Plus, the cooler had to have a decent air output – something that would clearly outmatch any residential cooler.
Thus, we envisaged a boxy-structure with a starting capacity of 130 liters. It can throw air at the rate of 10000 cubic feet per minute, which makes it highly versatile for outdoor spaces like marriage halls, large outdoor seating-type garden restaurants and other, similar spaces.
It also helps that we have installed honeycomb-style cooling pads on over three surfaces for a higher grade of performance in some models – the design incorporated for the variance and enabled us to create an entire range in this segment of coolers. Another aspect of the flexible design is that the cooler range comes in a double-decker variant, which can be utilized during unforeseen, or larger-capacity situations.
“The team also decided to make the cooler’s exterior a tough, rugged one so that it could endure outdoor and industrial conditions, if necessary. All coolers in this category were envisaged to be extremely mobile, because outdoor conditions and use-scenarios can change at the drop of a hat.”
Rough and Tough
The team also decided to make the cooler’s exterior a tough, rugged one so that it could endure outdoor and industrial conditions, if necessary. All coolers in this category were envisaged to be extremely mobile, because outdoor conditions and use-scenarios can change at the drop of a hat. Thus, while the coolers do look clunky, they are also highly portable with strong wheels.
The colour palette, too, was intentional. We used darker tones of grey, which embodies a sturdy reliability – but also does not stain, unlike purely white or black coolers that do the rounds.
Overall, we worked with Symphony to develop a product that would not only come to define an entirely new category, but also make the consumers feel like they were purchasing something innately familiar to them – which was a major point for us!
“One man’s ‘magic’ is another man’s engineering. ‘Supernatural’ is a null word.”