Gifting design: process

Objective:

Meet and get to know a mentor that you choose and design a gift for them based on what you have learned through direct communication. Experiment with compositional attributes in volumetric space and form: inside and outside; complimentary relationships between a “packaged” or contained idea and the form/vehicle that contains it. 

Research

I had the pleasure of getting to know an Interior Design student names Sarah Relyea. We communicated through a series of text messages and a zoom call. When getting to know Sarah, I learned that she likes experimental design spaces and she has a passion for interior design. Furthermore, I learned that Sarah also had a background in performing arts and loves musicals and plays. One of Sarah’s favorite musicals is called “Hadestown”. I enjoyed learning about Sarah’s interest and was happy to see that we both share a lot of the same interest in theater and design.

Exercises

Best Gift:

The best gift that I have ever received would have to be my first guitar. My guitar is acoustic and plays like an angel and a harp. It is all black with a shiny finish and I white circle around the sound hole. This gift is special to me because it was given to me on my 13th birthday by my grandmother who introduced me to music. I get a nostalgic feeling every time I play my guitar because it reminds me of when I first received it and practiced it all the time. This gift is still functioning today, so I think it is the best gift that I have received thus far.

Container

 

For this exercise we found an item around the design building and found a way to build something that would contain the item inside. For my exercise, I found a green styrofoam block and carved a face in it and called it Shrek. I then got the idea to up-cycle a shoe box and create a mini set of Shrek The Musical. I used fabric to create curtains that open up to create some user experience. My intentions were to exercise the knowledge I already known about my mentor Sarah.

Iterations

In my iterations I decided to set the theme of my project to Hadestown The Musical and create a mini experimental space as the inside of the packaging. The gift that I decided to create is a red carnation flower that symbolizes a significant prop in Hadestown The Musical. The flower is essentially used as a gift in the musical.

Production

To create the boxing to my gift, I glued two shoe boxes together. The boxes with leave a gap on the side however, they will close up with string.

First, I cut out a stage and stairs made out thin wood with the laser cutter

 

I then painted the stage to a brown orange tint wood with the laser cutter.

 

I used a heavy weight poster board to build the set.

I painted the poster board to match the color of the set in Hadestown The Musical.

I reused a synthetic flower stem and reused fabric from a previous project. I cut out the fabric in layers and hot glued them together to form a 3D flower.

Final

Concept statement

“Form follows function – that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”

-Frank Lloyd Wright

When getting to know my mentor Sarah Relyea, I learned that she is an Interior Design student that has an interest in experimental spaces. I also learned that Sarah has a background in Theater and performance arts and one of her favorite musicals is “Hadestown the Musical”. I chose my statement in correlation to the gift I designed for Sarah because I wanted to create a form that could function as a experimental space. So, I created a mini musical set inspired from the musical Hadestown and a carnation flower that functions as a prop from the musical.

Reflection

What I enjoyed most about this project was getting to know Sarah and her interest. It was cool to see how you can learn about someone and who they are, and gift them something based off of what you’ve learned about them. I enjoyed creating a space that correlated to Sarah and I’s interest. If I were to make any adjustments to this project, I would have found a better way of creating the carnation flower.

 

 

 

 

 

Checkmate: process

Objective:

Work collaboratively to redesign the game pieces in chess. we will use chess rules, mechanics, and goals as the game system; the focus of this design is to use the system as a potential for a new narrative device.

Research

My partner an I are beginners at chess, so we did research on chess pieces and how they move. With our research, we decided to create chess pieces that would be beginner learner friendly. We also decided to create chess pieces that told a deeper story about the game.

Exercises

Split joints

Iterations

Our intentions in our iteration process was to create architectural forms that told a story about gentrification. I created templates so that I could began my prototype stage.

Prototypes

 

My measurements for my prototypes were off, so I had to put one together with tape and the other one was very loose and the joints didn’t connect. To solve this I used illustrator to decrease the length in my split joints so that they can be tighter.

Production

Pawn

Bishop

Rook

Knight

Queen

 King

I used these templates and cut them each out using the cricut machine. My split joints finally came together correctly and I was able to build my final pieces.

Final

Concept statement and individual chess pieces

Chess pieces (by Aaron Beckhon and Elise Aultman, 2022)

Concept statement

There is a war in the city of Columbus. It’s not very violet however, it will cause poverty and increase division. While some students enjoy exploring the new architecture of the city and the amenities, there are also students on the other hand that can’t afford the new upgrades to the city and are forced to move out of the campus zone. The primary objective of the game chess is to capture your opponent’s king while keeping your own well-guarded. If you are a beginner in the game of gentrification, you may be faced with a journey through ever-changing and often unfair rules. The strategies used to take your property come with knowledge that is limited to the player who is still learning the game. Our chess pieces will tell a story about two sides that work against each other for power. What will be represented visually is contrast, hierarchy, and a diptych pieces. We will use black and grey card stock to create a modern wealthy aesthetic on one side and use brown and tan cardstock to create a working-class aesthetic to the other side. The player who is most experienced in the game of chess, will take the side of the wealthy architecture and the person who is least experienced will take the other side. The black and brown chess board will be used for our pieces to create a sense of harmony and belonging for the chess pieces. Our chess pieces will be tiny architectural buildings that will show hierarchy and symbolism in each piece. Our overall initiative is to show the damage that gentrification continues to do to many great cities like Columbus, Ohio and how being a beginner in the game of chess, means you may struggle against your opponent due to the circumstances that are already put in place to suppress you.

Reflection

What I enjoyed most about this project was coming up with the concept statement for our chess pieces and deciding what narrative we wanted to visualize. Working with split joints allowed me to expand on my iterations so that I have more than one way of prototyping. If I were to make any adjustments to this project, I would change the material I worked with to something heavier however, due to the laser cutting machine availability, I had to choose a material more suitable for cricut cutting.