PROTOTYPING STUDIO • PROJECT 2 /// POST 3

Throughout the rest of this project, I took a ton of photos.  I focused on the process and stages that led me to two final outcomes.  Looking at found textures and forms from products found at stores and those which come from "waste" – packaging used in fruit shipping.  Attached are the final containers that I developed.  The plaster form was my final, but I kept working to challenge myself to explore another material, cement.  Thus, I contrasted plaster and cement in their contrast with paper pulp packaging.  The cement was able to grip onto the packaging and incorporated the color into its surface unlike the softer plaster that remained much purer without much packaging remains adhering to its exterior surface.  The methods with cement left a more dynamic form than plaster that signals more of a artistic bust and lifted textual/symbolic elements from the packaging.  Both containers have an opening, but the cement body has an open void, unlike the plaster which is a drilled out doweled burrow.

Reflecting from the critique, my material exploration did not meet the expectations of my reviewers.  I enjoyed this process and my methods of vacuum forming, jump between different casting experiments and surfaces, but understand what to do going into future work with a level of design intent that show progressing from point to point in a node-network that typical people can follow, but ultimately a matter of logical order would have been preferred.  Too many conceptual arguments were made and lost in the outcomes of my work in retrospect.

Below is an exhaustive library of my process and experiments for the project.  Additionally, I am attaching my presentation file to this post.

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PROTOTYPING STUDIO • PROJECT 2 /// POST 2

I took one of my found forms, a fruit package and cast resin into it to see how the form was lifted.  The resin was very strong and stuck to the paper based material.  I am interested in contrasting a casting material that is hard when cured with the soft materials of found objects from the store, but mainly this recyclable fruit packaging material.  This is a test of a small section with the resin that goes from liquid to solid.  A living hinge was developed that forms a triad component.

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PROTOTYPING STUDIO • PROJECT 2 /// POST 1

I have started a new project.  This one is about contrast.  In particular contrasting two materials.  For example, a comparison between silicone and cement.  One is soft and you can "squeeze" the other is hard and does not noticeably "flex."

I conduced studies involving fruit.  These included: pomegranate, chamoe (known as Korean melon), apple, and banana.  The experience was fun and I have taken documentation of various moments exploring the properties of each fruit.

Another step to this project also involves researching two artists: Tom Sachs and Antoni Gaudi.  I will expand on this at a later point in the week.

The image below is click-throughable and connects to a wide array of documentation images.

After my video call with Tak, my professor, I decided the idea of "stealing form."  Looking at the fruit studies, I am drawn to their internal structures and textures.  Banana peels having vertical pattern extensions from end to end.  Pomegranate having this cavernous interior that grows around the seeds.  Casting into these textures to inform the shape of a vessel.  "Frankenstein-ing" a vessel by combining several "stolen" things.

I am developing a connection to Tom Sachs slowly.  My understanding is that he takes materials to imitate and get close to reflecting a "real" object or consumer good.  Gaudi works with weights that are netted  and gravity is used to inform the structure of his architecture.  I am studing tension to make a "wall."

PROTOTYPING STUDIO • PROJECT 1 /// POST 5

We held our human centered design testing event for our egg drop devices.  There was never a consistent audience or number of judges so the experience was varied between each device.  The take away from the project is that each user approaches design construction and usage differently.  Here is a poster detailing the three iterations that lad to the final design.  Additionally, I am attaching my presentation of the project to this post.

I received some strong feedback from the judges.  Attached is another option to download these scanned review forms they completed while testing my device and approach to protecting the raw egg.  Revision would entail my diagram not stating to spin the device and consider developing a built in orientation restriction of drop mechanism other than indicating it in the instructions to the users.

PROTOTYPING STUDIO • PROJECT 1 /// POST 4

Since my last post, I have refined my design significantly.  Primarily, I translated Whirly Drop from a container with a wing into a single sheet design.  To do this, I worked with Rhino to draw out a sharper design of a roughly made quick prototype out of cardboard.  This process of drawing in Rhino resulted in the development of several approaches and variations of Whirly Drop as a single sheet design.  Exploration of vents and obsession over generating spin from a drop were conducted.  The final design was developed through further testing of each drawing.  This would go onto reveal that with the constraints and evaluation methods enacted, a simple design was optimal.  Removing the need for vents of any types, a single sheet of cardboard will protect an egg when utilizing the dimensions discovered from testing.

Attached to this post is an Adobe Illustrator file and image of the final template for users.

Whirly Drop was renamed to "Sheet."  The name is a direct play at using a single sheet of cardboard to protect a raw egg from a 10' drop.  The design is minimalist and simple, yielding successful outcomes at a high rate.  The overall form is surprising, which became the focus of the project; how do you surprise a user in the simplest way?

During tests in the Industrial Design Workshop, undergraduate students engaged with me and shared their excitement for this design.  Amongst reviewing the process of narrowing to the drawing used to laser cur Sheet, one student said that it was very impressive to see this worked.  It really surprised the students that something so plain, arrived at through a regirous design process, could achieve the same outcome of a more dimensional, complicated, and laborious structure.