Design Bureau – Lundgren+Lindqvist - We're a design bureau. Kind of

Svensk Tvättstuga

Lundgren+Lindqvist was approached by the two initiators of the project, who had written a script, for what was suppose to be a book, about the shared laundry room that almost every Swedish apartment building has. However, it was decided that an online portal was a better alternative, since the object of focus is a place for both the daily utilitarian work and socializing. Consequently, the portal is, besides a collection of interesting facts, history and washing instructions, a place where everyone is welcome to try out their washing skills in tricky quizzes, ask Tvätt-Lina for advice and socialize. In other words, pretty much like in a real laundry room.

For Svensk Tvättstuga, we did everything from identity, character design and programming of the website to structuring the huge amount of material gathered for the intended book and forming a strategically suitable way of presenting it online. We also helped with setting up accounts on the major social networks, like Twitter and Flickr, and incorporated these into the site. This way we make use of each networks strengths and at the same time extend the number of paths leading to the website.

Since the laundry room is a place that concern almost every Swede, the main focuses when designing and programming the website was accessibility and navigation, especially for an audience that might not be very familiar with web portals. With strong focus on the social aspect, the comment area is placed right next to the content, to emphasize your possibility to discuss each subject. You are also encouraged to contribute with your own material, such as photos or stories.

The symbol has several incorporated meanings. Besides representing the familiar sight of a tumbling washing machine it also symbolizes people mixing and socializing. If you look carefully, you can also see an S and a T made up from the different fields of tumbling water.