Award of Merit:

Charlwood Design for Dsmile

Charlwood Design is committed to delivering innovative and sustainable product design as well as simple yet elegant design solutions for consumer, medical and capital markets. Established by Paul Charlwood in 1993 the consultancy has enjoyed much recognition, including multiple Premier's Design Awards, 'Gold' at NeoCon and a Good Design Award from the Chicago Athenaeum, as well as admission to the Australian Manufacturing Hall of Fame. Charlwood’s diverse product design folio includes the Queen's Baton for the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, cleaning products and medical products. It’s ‘Hope Solar Tower’ design was featured in the National Design Triennial: Why Design Now? at The Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York. Charlwood Design is also a Registered Research Agency with the Australian Government. 

Paul has always been committed to being a strong advocate for design, and the difference it can make. He is a past Director and State President of the DIA, where he was instrumental in developing the education policy and sustainability practice notes as well as being on the founding committee for the Australian Interior Design Awards for 10 years. He has contributed to many Government and University advisory committees on design, as well as lecturing locally and internationally at design conferences. He was also founder of the best-selling Melbourne and Sydney Design guides in 2007.

About the Project

Habit changing – through design

• Sustainable - no single use

• Beautiful design - elevating the process

• Social Enterprise - commercial outcomes with community dividends

Better Oral Health by Design
Australians aged 15 and over have an average of 12.8 decayed or filled teeth in their lifetime. In 2016-17, about 70,000 hospitalisations for dental conditions in Australia may have been prevented with earlier treatment. Good oral health starts with the basic concept of ‘Flossing, Brushing (2 minutes x 2) and Rinsing’ every day. Do this and you will have a significant improvement to your oral health, less visits and expensive treatments at the dentist! Dentists and dental hygienists tell us this every time we visit. Simple…so why don’t people do it? This was the challenge to Charlwood Design to change people’s daily habits. 

Dsmile is a demonstration of how design can make a difference to people’s oral health. It is a subtle habit-forming approach using great design to change how people approach oral health. The solution focussed on making it easy for people to make ‘Flossing, Brushing and Rinsing’ part of their daily routine. It is designed to be a feature next to the basin, prompting regular and easy use. It is not a box of technology with a nice cover! 

Sustainability
Dsmile changes people’s consumption habits by moving from single use unrecyclable containers/tubes that poorly regulate product quantities, and encourage toothpaste oversupply, to quality refillable measured dispensers. We applied a simple process to all products in Dsmile - namely, Reduce Reuse Recycle. 

• All components are reusable indefinitely and can be 100% recycled in the household recycle bin, if needed. Minimal embodied energy.

• Mono material for all components (except brush head). No TPR over-moulds on brushes.

• rPET (recycled PET) for all injection mouldings reusable indefinitely and 100% recyclable

• Mouthwash bottle PE, reusable indefinitely and 100% recyclable

• Toothpaste tube PE Momo polymer (unlike major brands with aluminium foils) 40% recycled content, Australian made, 100% recyclable

• Consumer can return the Dsmile kit to D-spa Dental Clinics for recycling.

Dsmile is completely tooled and manufactured in Australia (except the brush head). Recycled and recyclable cardboard packaging, PLA brush bags. 

Better Social outcomes.
Charlwood Design developed the Dsmile packaging to make it easy for packing by Social Enterprises. The packaging is a no shrink wrap complex packing, a simple pick and place starter kit and refill packs. Charlwood identified Wallara Social Enterprise to partner with Dsmile to look after the third-party logistics (3PL). This has been a successful partnership for all and enabled the client to easily ramp up for expanded distribution.

Category: Use

Designers and Project Team:
Paul Charlwood
Esther Kat
Paul Riaikkenen
Matt de Hollander
Dr Joseph Badr (Dsmile)
Tamarin Noble
Tom Schorel
Michelle Mackintosh
Richard Henderson
Warren Kemp
Tom Stray