Hey! I got something cool for you guys today. Here's a project from my industrial design studio from last semester. The basic assignment was to design and model a clock (digital or analog) based around a single descriptive adjective. The adjectives were randomly drawn from a box, and you had to exemplify that adjective through the form and characteristics of your final clock. I had the adjective "structural." Here's what I came up with:
As with most (all) Industrial design projects, the weeks leading up to the final due date were fraught with piles of sketches, conflicting ideas, severe sleep loss, numerous sketch models, and hours and hours of modeling work. To show this reality, here are some (not all) of the models I made leading up to the final design:
As you can see, the final design didn't come very easily to me. In particular, I messed around with PBC pipes for way too long, before deciding that I didn't want to use them. Early on, I had a really hard time visualizing a "structural" clock, even in sketches. I think I'd have been more comfortable with a more emotive adjective like "Playful" or "Quiet." Design is ,however, about overcoming mental blockages like that so ,at the end of the day, you can still bring something good to the table. I settled on the idea of an "organic" structure that included a lot of subtle curves. Here's my thesis statement on the final design:
"Human beings cannot live
without structure. Routines naturally grow out of our day to day
experiences. In fact, it is confusing and terrifying to imagine
living without some sort of structure. I wanted to incorporate this
idea of a naturally occurring structure into my design. I wanted to
show that Structure is something organic and natural, something that
naturally grows out of human experience. My final clock design grew
out of this idea of organic structure. The two legs of the clock
stand out as strong supports, giving the clock a physical and
somewhat visceral feel. The smooth and subtle curves that compose the
main body of the clock invoke a structure forming from natural
elements. The inset clock face echoes the shape of the outer body,
while adding a new dimension to the overall form. Overall, the clock
embodies a strong and inherently organic structure that is entirely
it's own."
A bit much, but you get the idea. What's left out is the difficulty involved in actually making the physical model. My final model was made out of a block of yellow foam, that I cut separate clock parts out of, sanded out the details, primed and spray-painted many times until it had the detail I needed, and finally super-glued together. That's not even including fixing mistakes, wet-sending, and spackling. All in all, it was an exhaustive week or so of model work with a clock always ticking in the back-ground. Still I love it. I don't know why I love it, but I do. I guess that's just life sometimes. Anyways, I'm fairly happy with the final design, although, to be honest, I still have some reservations. But that's design work for ya. Here are some more pictures.
Hope you guys enjoyed it! I loved the ideas behind this project, even though I struggled with my adjective a bit. I'm hoping to put up some more Industrial Design projects soon, as well as some more sketches, photos, and concepts.
Love,
-Joseph
