Floatation Awareness Device

The FlagGuard

Developing a water safety device to keep swimmers safe and seen.

Providing safety and security so swimmers are more visible in the water.

Beyond Design was contracted by Inventor, Erin McLaughlin, to develop a range of industrial designs with improved operation for the FlagGuard. The goal was to make the FlagGuard accessory easy-to-attach to life vests. Having a FlagGuard on a swimmers vest makes them more noticeable to oncoming boats and lifeguards. Our team designed the product and developed a working prototype. Designers also performed exploratory research to understand and improve the functionality of the existing model.

The safety device is geared towards children above 2 years old and adults of all ages and sizes. The polished design has a flag that rises up as the user sinks deeper in the water, creating an easy and clear view of the person wearing the device. The industrial design concepts we created achieved an increased speed of flag deployment, a thinner aesthetic, improved flag attachment accessibility that is easy to fasten.

After taking the inventor’s product, making it fully functional, and improving the designs, Beyond Design helped coordinate the invention for overseas manufacturing. The FlagGuard is available today and can be purchased at https://www.flagguard.net/.