Cintas / Branch & Vine

— Premium home-away bathroom experience

Brief

Serviceable premium restroom products designed for the hospitality industry. Cintas, a Fortune 500 company, provides a wide range of products and services to businesses, including uniforms, mats, restroom supplies, safety products, and more. They approached Pensa to develop a brand and high-quality products uniquely tailored for the high-end hospitality industry. The solution shifts from an industrial style to a warm, premium look while enhancing product features and hygiene.

Designed at Pensa

Client: Cintas

Role: Industrial designer, Brand designer

Year: 2022

Team Credits: Michael Berger, Marco Perry, Lisa Yanz Lehman, Eric Harsh

Field research

To gain a deep understanding of the servicing journey and uncover essential needs, we accompanied a Cintas service truck, immersing ourselves in the journey from the facility to on-site service. Additionally, we interviewed key stakeholders to comprehensively grasp challenges and needs from various perspectives in the service business.

Approach

Holistic design: fulfilling stakeholder needs and desires across sales, installation, service, and end-use.

Solution

Modern dispensers with premium materials & finishes that elevate the space and provide enhanced functionality and hygiene.

Warm and welcoming modern apothecary-style soap and lotion dispensers, discreetly designed to deter theft. We've integrated a lug at the bottle's base, allowing for an invisible bayonet lock mechanism that securely attaches the bottle to the resin base. Once separated, the bottle becomes unstable. The bayonet lock also ensures the labels always face forward when the bottle is affixed to the resin base. The shield and resin base elevate the bottle, giving it a floating and inviting appearance while concealing mounting details and minor installation misalignments.

A passive air diffuser with gypsum beads, providing a pleasing visual and sensory experience. Gypsum is a molded material soaked in fragrance oil, gradually emitting its fragrance into the space. Our goal was to establish a sophisticated, layered look and feel using the resin base and a tinted, frosted translucent body. This design departs from the traditional industrial appearance of gypsum air fresheners and complements apothecary-style soap and lotion dispensers. The lid opening provides airflow and prevents users from touching the beads. Two rings of gypsum beads are shipped in translucent containers, making them easy to place inside the acrylic jar for quick refill.

Designed inside out, detail by detail. We put a lot of care into all the design details visible or invisible to achieve a cohesive high quality product construction and experience.

Versatile wall-mount & standalone dispensers with innovative features: paper towel dispenser, toilet paper holder & caddy, toilet paper floor stand, tissue box cover, and trash bin. Functional innovations allow for different configurations suitable for a variety of space and venue needs. Towel dispensers use spring-loaded mechanisms that dispense towels both in wall-mount and standalone scenarios. The toilet paper floor stand's base functions as a place to store extra toilet paper rolls either with a toilet paper caddy or without it. Trash bins have trash bag liner storage underneath allowing for the new liner to be replaced quickly.

Installation Instructions

Color, material, and finish (CMF) options to complement a wide range of restroom styles. Materials with deep and rich textures blend into any luxurious restroom.

©2024 / All rights reserved.