The modern bong
Intuitive, powerfully-smooth, and easy on the eyes - the Waterpipe transforms everything that was lacking in traditional bongs into a modern smoking companion that elevates the daily smoking ritual.
DESIGN TEAM
Tai Geng, Mauricio Romano, Jordan Steranka
MY ROLE
End to end product design, development, launch, sales, and marketing
DESIGNED FOR
Heir - smokeheir.com
The modern bong
Intuitive, powerfully-smooth, and easy on the eyes - the Waterpipe transforms everything that was lacking in traditional bongs into a modern smoking companion that elevates the daily smoking ritual.
DESIGN TEAM
Tai Geng, Mauricio Romano, Jordan Steranka
MY ROLE
End to end product design, development, launch, sales, and marketing
DESIGNED FOR
Heir - smokeheir.com
Design Process
An audit of existing products revealed key issues (breakability, awkwardness when holding, difficult cleaning, a stigmatized presence in the home) that became goals to solve in the design process.
The earliest priority was to develop a fundamentally functional pipe architecture that improved on the cooling and filtering performance of it's predecessors. Rounds of rough physical prototypes were tested until a basic functional design was established. Following, form explorations and iterative ergonomic tests helped further progress towards a finshed concept design.
With need for real-world testing, 10 samples of the concept design were made for daily use in the homes of the design team and friends. Opportunities for interaction and experience improvements were identified, then fed into the refined detailing of the Waterpipe's pre-production design. Manufacturing processes and materials were selected in the aim of achieving heirloom quality and durablity, a cornerstone of the Heir brand identity.
Smooth hit refinements
The Waterpipe's downstem draws heat away from smoke as it passes through. At the bottom, a percolator with 8 separate channels divides smoke into small bubbles as it enters the water.
The glass chamber is available in 11 inch and 13 inch tall versions, allowing customers to choose their preferred size of hit. A splashguard, found on the underside of the mouthpiece, blocks water droplets from being inhaled as well as condenses smoke into a more uniform cloud.
Intuitive Experience
A simpler session routine was brought to life through design details at each of the Waterpipe's touchpoints. There's space to store a lighter inside the mouthpiece so it's never lost at the start. The branching form of the mouthpiece allows the hand and neck to stay in a comfortable position while smoking, and positions the bowl directly in sight for better control while lighting it.
Tactile ridges on the side of the bowl guide the user to hold it safely there. The top has a generously wide rim to catch the bits of herb that would otherwise spill while loading into it.
Filling the glass chamber with water is an arduous task with conventional bongs because they're too tall to fit under the sink. The inability to scrub inside the glass makes after-session cleaning a tedious chore as well. The Waterpipe solves each of these inconviences with it's removeable glass chamber. Moreover, all parts of the assembly were designed with cleanability in-mind, and detach where necessary to allow access for scrubbing.
Lasting durability
A tenet Heir's mission is to serve long-lived smoking companions, and the Waterpipe represents an evolution away from the non-durable glass industry towards products designed to resiliently withstand their accident prone coffee table and kitchen sink environments.
Alumina ceramic, a material more commonly used to make aerospace and medical parts, was chosen to make the downstem and mouthpiece. Molding them with a process called high-pressure sintering results in much more drop-resistant parts than standard blown glass and slipcast ceramic pipes.
Machined stainless steel parts were designed for the Waterpipe's main points of assembly — between the glass, mouthpiece, and bowl — to add strength to these otherwise high-failure prone areas. The bowl is the most often broken part of a traditional glass bong, a reality that the Waterpipe's indestructible steel bowl addresses.
The hand-blown soda lime glass chamber has a thickened 12mm base that adds weight to prevent the assembly from tipping while making it resilient enough to survive accidental drops.
Standardized components make it possible to replace any part easily. Heir promises lifetime service to each customer, serving them with replacement parts sold at near to manufacturing cost. Customers from day one are still able to find the help and replacement parts they need thanks to generational design updates that preserved compatability with each preceding production version.
Accessories Ecosystem
Accessories for the Waterpipe were developed with the goal of transforming a static product experience into an ecosystem of tools that serves the unique and varying preferences of the modern cannabis enthusiast. An accessories kit for newcomers, including filtering, lighting, and cleaning upgrades as well as a new bowl, quickly became a best-seller. The Essentials Kit was introduced for those seeking an all-in-one solution for serving sessions, including a set of trays that keeps all smoking accoutrements organized akin to a cocktail bar cart.
Marketing Content
I created a large library of photo, video, and CG marketing content for the Waterpipe to showcase it's harmonious design with everyday life. On a limited small business budget I worked in nearly all capacities; as model and location scout, shoot director, camera operator, lighting, set-product-model stylist, and post-production editor.
In accompaniment, I designed and produced high-converting shopify website pages with attention demanding copywriting for smokeheir.com.
