SUMMER_01
Over the summer, I took part in the new industrial design minor teaching us the history of industrial design, graphics, and what goes into the process of being an industrial designer.
Throughout the first couple of weeks, we went through the process of drawing convention. What it takes to draw a straight line, a perfect square in perspective, and ellipses, even though that seems like a small detail, created a wonderful set of guidelines for anything that I wanted to draw.
The first project of the summer was to research specific brands, i.e Apple, Google, Nike, etc., and to learn what that brand wants to convey to the people who are purchasing their merchandise. I choose Yeezy brand clothing. Being a Kanye West fanatic myself, I was interested in his brand, because not only is he a well known and successful rapper, he is trying to get into design, whether that be through shoes, clothing, or home decor. I think his take on design, regardless on the necessity of it, shows the definition of industrial design and how it was created on the basis of the attention to small detail.
I wanted to expand the Yeezy style by applying it to house hold objects starting with an alarm, a mug, a skateboard, and a computer mouse. All being objects that are ordinary, how do you apply the brand to these objects? What is something that screams "Yeezy"? These are all questions we moved through within three weeks.
A couple of ideas that I found to be the focus of the brand is primitive, creating a camouflage between the person activating the object and the object itself, and gives off an apocalyptic air.
Going through the project, I applied all my efforts to putting this particular brand into a mouse. Multiple iterations conveyed this idea of how to blend a hand by a simple click of a mouse. Therefore, I started playing with materials, and how to make a mouse move from the 25 dollar range to the 1000 dollar range.
In the end creating a gem shaped mouse, with harsh angles applying this idea of apocalyptic style meeting with high class. Covering it in a snake skin, allowing the sharp edges to be softened by the leather. The idea of the leather is for it to be "high-class" but adding wear and tare. Every time you use, click, or even throw the mouse the scars will be seen within the material. The last addition was adding a flashy and reflective center piece. Creating that idea of camouflage. So whenever you scroll or click, your hand color is being blended into the portion of the mouse.
SUMMER_02
Through these four weeks, we ventured away from hand drawing and focused more on learning computer programs like Adobe Creative Cloud and Rhino, along with digital fabrication, exclusively using three-d printing to create a 1 to 1 scale model.
The goal of this part of the semester was to study the hairdryer. First buy buying and dissecting a hair dryer sold on the market today, to then understand how the machinery works from the switches from hot to cold transfers to the fan and then to the heating of the coils.
Simultaneously, we were given the responsibility to choose an animal, an insect, and a flower, to then pull apart the important characteristics of these animals or insects to make it identifiable but also to not be so blatant.
Combining the two together, I choose a bee to abstract and create into a hairdryer. The main ideas that I stuck with is the curves of a bee, translating that into the body of the hairdryer and handle. Making it seem playful like how bees are portrayed in children's books. The next idea I was attracted to was of course the pain and danger that bees cause and have a reputation for. Therefore, I created a coil portraying this idea of danger by having it come to a point at the end, but also leaving the coil exposed by having a translucent cover over it. The last idea I wanted to embed within the hairdryer is to include the dainty line work found within the wings of a bee, and add that detail within the translucent material incasing the coil, and fan.
With addition to abstracting the bee and placing it into a hairdryer, we were also tasked with trying to create a better hairdryer by tweaking issues within the original design. Many straighteners and curling irons have heat gages within the product, hairdryers just have an arbitrary "hot and cold" system. In the end, extreme heat can cause issues for some hair, while others might not be hot enough. Adding another switch which involves a turning of on and off rather than hitting a switch. The signage of lining up the dots will turn the hairdryer on, and the disassemble of said dots will turn it off. This was done to avoid turning the hair dryer off without meaning to while in use. This hairdryer is also smaller than other large hairdryers, to create a lighter product for holding, and easier to travel with.
A couple of months later, my class and I were put on display within our school for multiple months. To share our discoveries and interest anyone who would like to further the industrial design curriculum.
