Little Chonk
Industrial Design
Launched 2024
Badged as a "Project We Love" by Kickstarter’s editorial team.
I was briefed by a Brooklyn, NYC based brand to design an innovative new bottle to serve the luxury pet market. The lineup uses nostalgic colourways which are based on familiar 90's toys.
The Lil'Gulp is a fully considered product that has been very well received by the market at a retail price of $35USD. Through a process of iterative development with 7x prototypes, the design overcomes leaking, hygiene and functional issues that cause competitor products to fail.
The project raised $142,000 in 40 days on Kickstarter, before fully launching to market in Autumn 2024.
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Opportunity
Existing pet bottles are typically low value and poorly executed, with poor functionality and lacking in thoughtful design and aesthetic appeal. A major issue was leaking bottles and a short usable life. I was commissioned to eliminate a list of pain points. A high priority of the brief was the need for a pleasing user experience and a fun product personality.
Solution
The result is a lasting, carefully considered lifestyle product with best in class functionality and quality. I worked closely with the brand and the chosen suppliers to create a product with high attention to detail, beautiful finishes and an excellent user experience for both humans and pets.
Project Role
End-to-end industrial design.
Notes
Concept ideation through to DFM.
Designed in SolidWorks.
Mass manufactured responsibly in China from '24.
WIRED - Best dog water bottle (Wired.com)
Research, initial exploration and strategy on Miro.
"I absolutely love this dog water bottle! It’s super easy to use"
"This is super high quality"
"I've used plenty of dog water bottles, and this one is genuinely different!"
"With this I feel like it's more than a dog water bottle. It looks cool and I have already been complimented on it twice at the park!"
(2026 user reviews / US Amazon.com)
The brand's Peach logo de-bossed inside the lid as an 'easter egg'.
