eloise
Too often, with their excess of features and configurations, prams impose complication and create additional waste for families. The Eloise Pram Project was designed for the eponymous lifestyle start-up with the goal to create a pram that creates less clutter, is simple to choose, and a joy to use.
Year
2025
Sector
Transport
Material
Stainless Steel
ABS-PC
PMMA
PU
Process
Extrusion
Metal Folding
Injection Molding
Sewing
Disciplines
Market Research
Industrial Design
Mechanical Design
Colour, Material Finishing
Sourcing
Rough ideation exploring a closed cocoon and large storage offering
Small scale model validating the 2-in-1 bassinet and seat configuration
Mechanical study of a push four-point folding
Early CAD drawings shaping dimensions and proportions
Creative Direction
Prams are often considered a reluctant necessity, that frustrate families as much as they provide an essential function. The desires are often conflicting: safety competes with size and flexibility creates complexity. Safety remains the utmost priority for prams, and so it does for Eloise, but through diligent research and observation we’ve worked hard to identify the subtle and obvious areas where prams fall short, and considered elegant solutions.
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Prams aren’t just useful for carrying children. Busy lifestyles mean that prams double as vehicles to help families carry things. Families increasingly desire prams with large storage volume.
But storage baskets introduce inconvenience. Most prams cannot collapse while there are still things in storage, and they are difficult to load and unload. Because of this, prams are never as easy or quick to fold as advertised.
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As children grow from newborns to toddlers, their pram needs change. Newborns are required to lie-flat for roughly six months before they transition to upright seats.
Many parents purchase lie-flat bassinets for newborns, but they are large, expensive and create waste when they are no longer required after six months.
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Your everyday pram needs to weather the natural elements of harsh winds, rain, and sunshine while keeping children safe and comfortable.
Prams seldom provide the necessary protections out of the box as canopy don’t extend far enough to protect children entirely. Children can’t enjoy full darkness for naps, and are partially exposed to sun and rain.
To compensate, parents are forced to drape blankets over the canopy to provide sun and light protection, or purchase rain covers to protect from rain.
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Prams are no longer useful for families after 4 or 5 years once children are grown up. After this they are sold, handed down to friends or family, or end up in waste.
The industry must aim for modularity, repairability, and circularity to minimise its strain on our environment.
The Design
The motivation for building Eloise was driven by the challenges new families face weighing up the compromises and costs of new prams. Witnessing and experiencing this challenge first-hand, we sought out to design a pram that address usability challenges and shortcomings that make prams difficult to use and force families into purchasing yet moreaccessories.
On top of its functional improvements, it was essential that Eloise be loveable. We wanted a design that was playful, friendly, and immediately distinctive - not for vanity, but to befit the magical (albeit chaotic) nature of early parenthood.
We sought a design which:
Is a full-size, everyday pram
Has generous storage volume without compromising the fold
Eliminates the need to purchase separate newborn bassinets
Protects children from all kinds of weather
Is built with modularity and repairability in mind, to enable buyback and refurbishments
Introducing Eloise
Say ‘elo, to Eloise, a breakthrough full-size pram. A new kind of pram that’s a joy to use and easy to choose.
A compact fold
Eloise has all the capabilities of full-size prams and more, whilst being as compact when folded. With the wheels removed, Eloise becomes more compact than any other full-size pram, for storage in tight spaces. We sought a folding architecture that enabled the pram to collapse in a single, intuitive motion.
The most significant challenge was architecting the pram to allow the storage basket to be removed off a solid base. This meant that the Eloise storage basket could double as a carry-bag, and be unloaded in one motion for a truly seamless fold.
Folded with seat: height: 40 cm, width: 61 cm, length: 99 cm
Folded with wheels and seat removed: height: 20 cm, width: 61 cm, length: 99 cm
Removable Storage
The Eloise storage basket connects with a satisfying magnetic snap. Use it for shopping, picnics, and anything else you need it to be. Unlike other prams, where the storage basket needs to be emptied before the pram can be folded, you can simply lift the storage basket with all its contents in one action to quickly fold and stow away the pram. Easily pack and unpack your pram without needing to bring the whole pram with you, making life easier for apartment-living and multi-storey homes.
An all-in-one seat and bassinet
We call it the ‘basseat’. It effortlessly transforms from bassinet to seat with just one frame and minimal additional fabrics, so you don’t need to buy a large and expensive bassinet just to throw it away after 6 months. Whether your child wants to face you or face the world, Eloise has you covered. Detach and change the orientation of the seat frame with ease.
A Full Canopy
The Eloise canopy extends and retracts a full 180 degrees, so you don’t need any additional blankets, pegs, or covers to protect your child from the elements. The canopy’s unique central axis design allows it to retract from the bottom (as normal) and the top, so you can have a peek at your baby from the top. The flexible design allows you to provide sun protection when the sun is behind or in front of you. Choose additional canopies to maximise your baby’s comfort in the conditions. The summer canopy provides additional airflow while still shading from the harsh sun, and the hybrid canopy provides whilst still giving the child visibility of the world.
“I worked with Francois designing a new pram for urban families the Eloise. Francois was very collaborative throughout the design process, and was extremely empathetic to the unique problems we were trying to solve, and the directional vibe of what we wanted to design and build.
While Francois kept an open mind to what the initial design brief was, he brought his own experience and design language to iterate on the product and help us refine the proposition beyond what we had initially brief.
Francois was a fantastic partner throughout the project from inception through to sourcing, and was incredibly helpful with collaborating through the logistics of sourcing suppliers, engaging and collaborating with suppliers on a physical prototyping round, and keeping genuine production constraints in mind.”
— Jeremy Lui, Eloise Pram Founder
Project lead: Jeremy Liu
Industrial design: François Hurtaud
Design Strategist: Valentin Boré
Photography: WeiLoke