Geberit’s unique product design for China’s bathrooms

WILDDESIGN has an ongoing and extensive creative partnership with the Swiss sanitary fixtures brand Geberit, and we’re very excited about what we’ve been able to achieve in working with such a legendary brand. Dating from 2011, the collaboration has borne some exceptional fruit this year, as many of the designs and products are hitting the market just as our busy 2013 heats up. We have a long history of collaborating on design, trend analysis and market research, but we’re particularly proud of one of our biggest contributions: our work on Geberit’s Monolith bathroom fixtures and other bathroom designs, which is featured in the Geberit 2013 Product magazine (pages 14/15). In modern Chinese style, the classical and the contemporary often blend into something new and unique, and WILDDESIGN’s design for Geberit is a good example of this.

Shower drains are generally the sort of thing users don’t give a second thought to. The WILDDESIGN shower drain, however, marries form and function, with a technologically advanced design that doesn’t dry out or let odors linger, while offering a pixel-like graphical pattern that remains visually pleasing. The pixel design includes notes of the official Geberit logo, and was designed to lend a technology-inspired aesthetic touch to complement the advanced design function itself. The interior details of a shower drain are immensely important to its function, so we had to be careful to create a pattern that would improve water flow.

The toilet flush control, a critical part of any bathroom design, also provided a great opportunity for reengineering and adapting the modern Chinese design approach. Designed specifically for the Asia-Pacific Market, WILDDESIGN’s flush control button system is smaller and easier to use than traditional actuators, comes in a variety of models and materials, and is suitable for both dry-wall and solid construction mounting, with versatility as a key element in design.

For the Monolith sanitary module, WILDDESIGN drew on our own market research and experience. The overall color profile can play an important role in bathroom design, as well, which is why we created four distinct patterns for Geberit’s Monolith sanitary module, with colors designed specifically to appeal to Chinese consumers. While Geberit previously offered black, white and red designs, WILDDESIGN created nude, oceanbreeze blue and deep-sea blue profiles for the Monolith. Distinctive patterns can also do a lot to enhance a bathroom, so several patterns were developed, deemed “Fern”, “Rococo”, “Blossom” and “Bamboo,” respectively. Aimed at China’s rising middle class, these Monolith colors and patterns stress elegance, luxury and tradition while maintaining a modern and abstract feel.