The Pottyfish

The Pottyfisch is a flatpack designed potty for children between 18 and 24 months. The design challenge was to make a potty with a reduce-able volume so it becomes more handy to transport unlike the 'normal' existing models. The Pottyfish contains two elements, the support and the cover, which both become flat when (un)folding it in a particular way. Despite the simplicity of the design it is made user-friendly. The well-chosen forms and colours makes the potty very attractive to children but also in an ergonomic way it is very pleasant.

1. Cut out the global form : rectangle 31mm x 55mm

2. Take double sticking scotch tape and paste it on one of the two halves of the form. Make a light cut at the centerline and fold the form in two so the two parts stick together.

3. Draw the fin of the fish at both sides, use a stencil and cut it out. Don't forget to make a cutout line untill the half of the fin, at one side below and on the other side on top.

4. Make in each fin two little holes (4mm) for the push buttons later.

1. Because we are working with PP (polypropyleen) we first have to give the surface a plasticprimer, so the paint in the next step attached well.

2. Spread the blue paint over the surface.

-- Do this for both sides of the support --

1. When the paint is dry we can apply the two pushbuttons at both sides, we use two component glue.

2. A plastic round rubber will be used at the bottom of the support as adhesion. Make a cutout as thick as the material and glue the rubber at the support.

3. Draw two big eyes of the fish on the support.

The cover of the potty is made of a polystyreenplate.

For the form I made a drawing in illustrator and used a lasercutter to cutout the form twice (see later)

The plastic container will be fastened at the form we already made with the lasercutter. It is made of flexible plastic material and has at the bottom a hard element to ensure the firmness.

1. First we cutout the contour.

2. We use the scissors to make little cuts in the platsic container above and at the bottom. ( 20 mm)

3. We take the harder form that is already cutted out by the lasercutter and we fasten the little bits of plastic to the surface of this ground element with double sticking scotch tape.

4. The ends of the soft container plastic must be attached to eachother to make it round. We weld the ends together with heath, this is possible because we use a thermoplastic.

1 We glue the plastic parts we earlier cutted with the scissors on the bottom side of the cover with double sticking scotch tape. Do this till every parts is fastened on the cover.

2 We take the second form (cutout by the lasercutter) and put it over the glued plastic parts. Glue the form to the cover so everything looks very tidy.

3 Place your support on your cover and draw a line where it has to come. Now glew the rubber elements in the front making sure the thickness of the support can be places between the two parts.

1 Bend the support and fit the fins together.

2 Push the buttons together.

3 Put the cover on the support and make sure it fits well

4 Push the container downwards