As someone who washes their hands maybe too often, filling up soap dispensers has persisted to be an annoyance. They have to be filled far too frequently, and when I (am I alone!?) fill them, I always misgauge how much space inside the pump takes up and end up making a mess. I wanted to design a soap dispenser that was 1. held more soap than your average dispenser and 2. easy to refill.

I’ve always loved the Hay Sowden line of appliances for their simple forms and excellent use of color. They gravitate to earth tones juxtaposed with unnaturally saturated accent colors. I knew I wanted to target this design language and color treatment with this project.

Normally I would have to rough out a concept on paper, but I had a pretty good idea of what I was going for with this project so I moved straight to 3D.

This led to my first half scale prototype, which I used to make sure all the components fit together and evaluate form. I made a few changes based off of this model and scaled back up.

My first full scale model actually works really well, and I use it daily. Through usage, I identified a few areas for opportunity. The soap cavity plug was sitting directly on the top of the dispenser, which when wet allows for scum buildup. The top parting line also being where water can rest did not seem ideal long term. On the bottom red piece, having a flat edge allowed water to bead up. These are minor inconveniences but I sought to fix them before making more dispensers for friends.

I fixed these issues with chamfers and moving the parting line to the side of the device, where water cannot build up.

A couple shots of assembly / manufacturing. I shaved cork down for the plugs, and all of the parts are adhered together with clear silicone.