peer comments

Nina Harcus
Fil Pulido
Nicholas Walker
Jennifer Widjaja
RuYu Xiao

Project 3: Upcycling Unwanted

The original idea for this project was to make a chair which sat in the upright position. It took me quit some time to come up with the final idea as ideas only came to me when i found the material i was to use in the project. I wanted to make a comfortable and stylish piece of furniture that didn't loose its recycled look or its original purpose.
There were many set backs through equipment issues especially with the bending of the metal pipes. I had asked many different muffler shops and metal workers if i could be done and was told it wasn't able to be done. The last place i went to was a disabled chair repair shop and he gave me an idea of cutting a piece out of the corner of the bend and then welding the two cuts at the angle needed.
The entire object was made from two pieces of a futon frame, the kind of frame that moves from being a coach to a double bed. The two parts used were the frames in which the mattress would lay on the futon bed. Those pieces were cut in half and the two parts with rounded corners were matched up and welded together. The remaining pieces were cut down to size to fit as legs as seen above.
I decided to keep the mesh on the legs and body of the chair not only for the foam support, and comfort but also to keep the original look of the recycled material.
The shape was inspired from pool chairs that i had laying by my pool and the recycled futon frame itself.

Annie Leonard - The Story of Stuff

Seymour Powell: Designing Dream Machines

peer comments

Gleb labazine
Greg shar
Christopher hui
Vivian Shao
Fanru Wang

Postal Present

For my postal present i wanted to make something that could be enjoyed over and over again instead of a single use object. The product i ended up making was a oil burner.
The oil burner was made out of aluminum at .5mm thick with a laser cutter the design was inspired by Asian architecture and objects.
There were other reasons for this particular design, as this design could be massed produced with little waste in production. Almost all sides are flat and there is no material removed from the product when cut out of flat material.
The user is expected to follow the instructions to make the product as shown the end result will be a oil burner that looks good and keeps the space around you filled with a calming aroma.

Ross Lonegrove: Organic Design

The information supplied by this video shows designers the importance of sustainable designing and that there is hope for and success in sustainable ideas and design.
The only challenge faced by this direction of thinking is the large corporate companies themselves, who refuse to recognize the state of our natural resources and laugh at the idea of using sustainable products. Lonegrove found this out the hard way through talking to 'Sony' who were too determined to take on 'Apple' and beat them so other materials were chosen other than sustainable options.

The products in the video were impressively designed but not nearly as impressive as the way in which the were designed. The ideas behind the designs and the process in which they got to the final design was interesting and exciting to understand. The final design itself captured the essence of water in all its glory but the bottle would be nothing without the process they took in order to get it. I find it similar to painting were a painter might be able to paint a picture really well but with out a surrounding idea of how the painting came to be the painting would be meaningless and useless.

Although this video was centered more around 'captain organic' instead of information on sustainable design and materials, the video was inspiring and showed great potential for future designing of sustainable products.

Bad Design - Liana Head deck

Peer Comments

Jill Darbey
Kiran Kashyap
Danny Kim
Daniel M. Kotzen
Gleb Labazine

Experience Enrichment

This product is for people who are on the move enjoy exercising and don't carry a towel when running. I hoped that this product would be enjoyed by either gym goers or Sunday morning runners who meet up with friends at cafe's. This gives them a chance to wipe themselves down before getting to that cafe.
The product was designed to be for comfort so that the user would not feel like carrying the bottle as a chore but as enjoyable. It was shaped to fit snugly in the hand of the user with its obvious curves. The outside of the bottle is wrapped in a highly absorbent material or a 'shamy', this material could not only be used as a small towel but also to keep the contents of the bottle at a cool temperature.

Yves Behar - Designing Objects that Tell Stories

Don Norman: emotional design

Don Norman explains the concept of emotional design through past experiences and observations that he has had. The idea of designing something to key an emotional response in a person may not be found in a that you buy but just in a product that you are using, such as the example Norman gave as Google's extended o's in the search results. Products designed in this way dictate how we react with the product, producing an emotional response of 'i don't know what it does but i want it'. This reflects the designers vision for the product, of something that is not always usable but something that is 'beautiful and fun'.

An example used by Norman as a product that is not usable but wanted for its beauty and fun is the Alessi juicer which comes in a gold plated edition and with a small note that says 'do not use this juicer for juicing, the acidity of the fruit may erode the gold plating'. This product has been rendered unusable for the purpose that it was intended for, in another circumstance this product would be thought of as badly designed, based on the materials that the product is made from. Due to the reaction and emotional affect the product has this juicer is given a new purpose as a decorative piece in the home.

Don Norman explains in three steps what emotional design is based on, these are:

Visceral - This has been shown in previous examples such as the gold edition juicer bought for its visceral value. Other things affect us on this level such as type fonts and the colour red for 'hot'.

Behavioral - The behavioral level is our sub conscious which helps us breath without having to think about it otherwise known as the automatic skills and behaviors. Within design this is how a person will react to the product in front of then, creating a sense of joy, fear, or anxiety to the product. The goal of a designer in most cases depending on a product is to create a sense of joy when using the product. This will attract people more than a product that produces a sense of fear unless the goal is to defer people from going or using something, eg High voltage signs.

Reflective - Described by Norman as the 'super ego', this emotional level has no control over the muscles or brain. This is the voice inside you that tells you if you like something in front of you or not. It is the part of you that wants to show other people how much money you have such as buying an expensive watch or car, or showing people you care for the environment by buying a environmentally friendly car. It is the part of the brain that wants to impress the people around you.

Task 3 Good Design

Product Sketches

David Kelley - Human Centred Design

David Kelley: Human Centered Design

Designers have moved away from designing a product or object and just unveiling it to the public and client, they have come to realize that there is more to design than that. Design has progressed to a point were products are designed to an audience so that they may understand how to use it and the message the product is trying to convey. This happens on an emotional level, such as feelings that the product can give you?, and a physical level, can the product be easily used?

Designers are focusing more on the interaction between the client and the product instead of just the product itself. This has been done by including questions like, how does the user interact with the user? Did the message get across?
This new train of thought is pushing the design world away from just designing a product for a job or purpose but to design a product for a person for a job or purpose.
David kelley’s video ‘the future of design is human centered’ shows us the audience what we are missing out on in products through touching, feeling and interacting. He goes on to explain that these things can be accomplished by designer building in behavior or personality into there products.

This video is a must watch for designer development as it shows with evidence the direction that design is taking us and designers are heading. This would make human centered design in future projects a great reference when designing something new for a client.