Tobin\u2019s design focuses on accessibility and ease of use, featuring ergonomic grips, easier-to-open lids, increased capacity, and hydration markers.<\/p>\n
\u200bNickle-Lott\u00a0attended Montessori Learning Centre, King George Public School, and Chippewa Secondary, before doing the Craft & Design Program at Sheridan. He took the four-year Industrial Design Program.<\/p>\n
“From a very early age, he was very creative and artistic and loved to design three-dimensional things,” Liz Lott told BayToday.\u00a0“He especially loved Lego. He would follow Lego design plans, then immediately take the build fully apart, then create a totally new design from scratch.”<\/p>\n
This year he began getting teaching contracts with Sheridan.\u00a0He was a teaching assistant\u00a0during his last two years as a student there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tobin agrees, saying he chose Sheridan\u00a0because it is\u00a0the more practical industrial design program out of the options in Canada.<\/p>\n
“I really like problem solving, so I like to be creative, but I also like steady employment, I guess. So I kind of wanted to find a place where I could be creative and also use my smarts and apply them in a more pragmatic way.”<\/p>\n
\u200bNickle-Lott\u00a0was a teacher’s assistant for the class that was doing this project, and they\u00a0wanted something to base their work on, so they knew what the benchmark was and\u00a0what the expectation of quality was. So the teacher asked Tobin\u00a0to make\u00a0a cup to show the students.<\/p>\n
The teacher really liked the cup demo and suggested that he\u00a0show it to Burlodge\u00a0as well.<\/p>\n
“Initially, this was a competition between the students, but because the company caught wind of my own design and liked it so much, they opted to go with mine.”<\/p>\n
Burlodge\u00a0Canada\u00a0is a\u00a0partner with Sheridan\u00a0and does\u00a0mock critiques for the students.\u00a0As a\u00a0food licensing company, they produce things like trayware and dishware, and then heating and cooling hubs for those meals for hospitals and long-term care homes.<\/p>\n
So what made\u00a0\u200bNickle-Lott’s design special?<\/p>\n
“A lot of the students made special designs. We all made things that looked nice, but\u00a0mine definitely stood out because I took the time to actually meet people who had mobility issues and\u00a0hand disabilities’<\/p>\n
He had a secret weapon!<\/p>\n
His girlfriend works at a diner in Toronto where a lot of senior citizens gather, and she has a close relationship with them.<\/p>\n
“I took that opportunity to actually sit down with my cup models\u00a0and say, ‘ What\u00a0do you think of this? How does this feel for you? And what would you change?’ And then I got a lot of really good feedback.”<\/p>\n
So every time he\u00a0worked on the cup, he was always working knowing exactly what the most common patient-user would want.<\/p>\n
“So I was very informed, and I don’t think a lot of the other participants had that opportunity.”<\/p>\n
The feedback was valuable, the biggest being that not all seniors hold a cup the same way.<\/p>\n
“It needed to work for every style of being held. A lot of people hold cups in a lot of different ways, and I wanted to make a cup that was accessible to every way you wanted to hold it. That was the goal with the design.”<\/p>\n
One of the keys was working closely with Burlodge.<\/p>\n
“They were the ones who would say, good, bad, yes, no, and they were very blunt with it.”<\/p>\n
\u200bNickle-Lott’s cups are already being manufactured, and he currently has\u00a0one of them in his\u00a0own home, but he’s unsure if people will be able to buy individual cups for personal use.<\/p>\n
“I assume what they’re going to do is batch orders. I don’t know if there will be the opportunity for single purchases. But I’m not sure. I really would like to get this cup into the hands of more than just people who are in care because I think the cup is kind of designed for everyone, not just a care situation.”<\/p>\n
That, however, is very much out of his hands. Once he gave them the design, “It was like, I’m pretty out of the picture as far as they make the decisions on that. I’m purely\u00a0a design consultant for them.” He did, however, receive\u00a0financial compensation for transferring the design rights of\u00a0his project to Burlodge.<\/p>\n
The response to the achievement has been overwhelming.<\/p>\n
“My mom made a Facebook post, and the amount of responses from people I didn’t even know\u00a0were astounding. I\u00a0appreciate\u00a0all the feedback I’m getting. And it’s also very nice to get messages from higher-up industrial designers in my community\u00a0who are really impressed with the project and the outcome of it.”<\/p>\n
The accomplishment pleased his mother, local photographer Liz Lott. She wrote on Facebook, “\u200bI’m sooooooo beyond proud of my son, Tobin Nickle-Lott<\/a>! This is such a wonderful and important accomplishment! Congratulations Tobin He humbly\u00a0credits his success to his Chippewa\u00a0teachers. “A lot of them did a really good job getting the tools I needed for industrial design, like my shop teachers and art teachers.”<\/p>\n Nickle-Lott is currently a teacher himself at Sheridan for 3D modelling, so he is very busy at the moment, but beyond that, he’s\u00a0looking to do more industrial design, possibly more teaching, and getting into the film business. He’s applying to\u00a0the Directors Guild of Canada for production design.<\/p>\n “Being able to do stuff like working on a film set or working on designs for movie production,\u00a0I think would be a lot of fun. I think industrial design has a lot of overlap that’s really untapped when it comes to film production.”<\/p>\n Visit Tobin’s website here.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\u2764\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2764.png\")
!!!!<\/p>\n