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RZR: A Modern Redesign of the Classic Shaving Razor

RZR

After becoming increasingly concerned by the state of design around him in the early 1980s—or what he called "an impenetrable confusion of forms, colors and noises"—industrial designer Dieter Rams established for himself what is now known as the Ten Principles of Good Design. These design principles—which have since been used by many companies, including Apple—include "good design makes a product understandable" and "good design is long-lasting," among others.

More recently, Dutch industrial designer Patrick Schuur put these ten principles into context when he set out to redesign the classic men's razor for a client who wanted to create a no-nonsense wet shaving system that merges rituals of the past with the comforts provided by today's manufacturing capabilities. Starting with four main requirements for the finished product—comfort, sustainability, beauty and value—from RZR founders Marco Vermeer and Remco Smit, Schuur dove head-first into bringing the next-generation razor concept to life with modern design and rapid prototyping processes.

Design Team

RZR Team

All images courtesy of 3D Hubs

"When they first came to me in 2013, Marco and Remco were explicit that the shaver was as comfortable and safe as modern razors but had the style and substance of an old-fashioned razor," explains Patrick. "Additionally, they strongly believed that a razor should be able to last a lifetime and be passed from father to son while remaining cost effective to both manufacture and maintain—like an original safety razor design but in a modern package."

To kick off the design process, Patrick worked through some quick 2D sketches with Marco and Remco before jumping into SolidWorks to work with his ideas in 3D. Along the way, he used Luxion Keyshot to create lifelike visualizations early in the process to ensure that the models exuded the same qualities found in the old fashioned razor systems – before jumping into physical 3D printed prototypes.

"I like working in CAD from an early stage because it's very easy to print out quick ideas on my studio's Ultimaker 3D printer or more refined ideas through an industrial 3D printing service such as 3D Hubs. Being able to print out models of ideas that are still at a very early sketch phase has really changed the dynamics of the design process; I like to get the client involved directly with the prototypes in their hands."

Prototyping

To create the final RZR prototypes before investing in the significantly more expensive production prototypes made from metal, Patrick turned to the Polyjet materials through the 3D Hubs online 3D printing service, which paired him with a local 3D printing expert who was able to provide professional guidance with each iteration along the way.

"The Polyjet 3D prints gave us a really good idea about the size, fitting, look and feel of the final parts," adds Patrick. "We were quite surprised when we got the aluminum CNC milled prototypes back and compared them to the original Polyjet prototype samples - they were very close. Needless to say, finding a local 3D printing expert through 3D Hubs to help along the way proved to be invaluable"

Final form

After three years of prototyping, user testing and design tweaks, Patrick, Marco and Remco finally arrived at the final RZR design in early 2016.

Designed to last a lifetime, the sturdy and minimal titanium razor system is free of moving parts commonly found in today's disposable razors and marries modern comfort with the style, substance and durability of an old-fashioned safety razor.

"At RZR we wondered if it was possible to design and develop a no-nonsense wet shaving system with the beauty of the past and the comfort of today," adds the team, who recently launched the project on Kickstarter. "After 3 years of research & development and extensive testing with 3D printed models we are now ready to begin manufacturing and help today's men return to the traditional male shaving ritual."

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William Hardaway

8 years ago

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There are so many benefits to getting life-like visualizations early. They inspire ideas and give you the motivation for follow through.

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Gabriel Olariu

8 years ago

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Wait, haven't you heard?
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-skarp-laser-razor-21st-century-shaving#/

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- Nout Hogesteeger
  
  Gabriel Olariu
  
  8 years ago
  
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  Hope you didn't waste your money on a laser-razor..
  
  Laser won't cut it for shaving (pun intended) It will either be to slow, only able to cut 1 or 2 hairs at a time, or it will be dangerous and drain the battery quicker than you can shave.
  
  A laser is a light beam so it will get interrupted by any obstacle, unlike a blade which will happily keep cutting. So you either have to make the beam so strong it takes less then a millisecond to 'zap/cut' a hair thereby using more power and becoming more dangerous or it stays safer limiting power but also sacrificing a lot of cutting speed.
  
  Also the skin is never smooth and very flexible, how would you keep that from interrupting the beam while still making sure it cuts close to the skin?
  
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  - Gabriel Olariu
    
    Nout Hogesteeger
    
    8 years ago
    
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    I apologize, I was only trying to be sarcastic, raise the spirits a bit. I would really not invest in a laser razor over this product or any other product for that matter.
    
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Joe Taylor

8 years ago

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Disappointing. The blades cannot be changed without popping the blade holder out from the back (which would require a tool), or pushing the blade out from the front (which requires touching the sharp blades).

I'd give em a pass if it was a student design exercise, but after 3 years of development?

Every razor currently available features a blade system that can be changed without tools & without touching the blades, this smells of usability taking a back seat to achieving a particular form. "Good design makes a product useful"

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- Jules Parmentier
  
  Joe Taylor
  
  8 years ago
  
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  I disagree, this shaver solves two major pain points:
  1. The blades are easy to clean
  2. The blades are easy to dry (so it does not get rusty)
  
  Exchanging the blades looks quite straight forward. Why using a tool? Just pop it out from behind...
  
  Most shavers look sporty because marketing said so. I'd rather buy this one.
  
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- Patrick Schuur
  
  Joe Taylor
  
  8 years ago
  
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  Hi Joe,
  
  Sorry to read about your disappointment. You have a valid point. It is actually something we have thought about and came up with several solutions (and prototypes) for during the design process (which took place in a period of 3 years - not 3 actual years of full-time work).
  
  You are correct that it will come in the form of a tool. It will most likely be small ejector pad in the form of an embossed area in the packaging of the blades - an addition to the packaging that will have minimal impact on the packaging's volume and material use (if any impact at all).
  
  Most cartridge based shaving systems produce a gigantic amount of waste. It starts with the bulky blister packs they are often sold in, goes on with the plastic case the cartridges are stored in (which have no use after cartridges have all been used) and ends up with the cartridges themselves which are an assembly of rubber (often 2K folded with plastic), plastic, metal and lubrication strip(s) - which make them difficult to recycle. The RZR tries to achieve the opposite. It tries to produce as little waste as possible. The waste it does produce (all metal) can hopefully be seperated in most waste processing facilities and then recycled.
  
  So yes, it will take a bit more care to replace the blades in a RZR as the sharp edges are exposed (similar to replacing a blade on a safety razor or x-acto knife). In addition it indeed does require some sort of 'tool'. This tool will actually be part of the blades' packaging. It most likely isn't the kind of tool you will lose as it is part of the packaging; if you don't have a pack of spare blades with you it means you likely do not have a need to open the RZR as you will not have a new blade to insert into the RZR. The fact that the tool is part of the blades' packaging also means that with each package of replacement blade you get a new tool. It is correct that blade replacement works a bit different from most shaving systems on the market today - but I do not think it will lead to a bad usage experience.
  
  It is unfortunate that the packaging hasn't been designed yet - and the ejector system prototypes (quite crude proof of concept prototypes) aren't in the materials that ended up in the Kickstarter campaign. As they are both important aspects of RZR's usability.
  
  I hope this gives you some insight in the thinking behind the aspect of RZR's design you (understandably) found to be disappointing.
  
  Cheers!
  
  - Patrick
  
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  - Joe Taylor
    
    Patrick Schuur
    
    8 years ago
    
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    Thanks for your reply Patrick. Now that you explained that the replacement blade packaging includes a tool to pop out the blade cartridge from behind, that eliminates my major concern. I was envisioning that the user would need to a) find something in the bathroom to fish out the blade holder from behind, or b) try to push out the blades from the front without cutting themselves. Including a simple removal tool with the replacement blades seems much more elegant, thanks for clarifying.
    
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