Statement
To make a gift for a select partner in the design program
Ideation
The process began with ideating in my tiny sketchbook. I would write down many differing gift ideas such as a lampshade and packaging ideas. Nearly all the ideas involved more than 3 materials so they were scrapped.
After iterating through a plethora of scrapped ideas I pivoted to asking questions to understand my partner better. I wrote a list of questions to better understand them. The questions were along the lines of, what are your hobbies? What is your design influence? What do you aspire to be? Among others. I continued to write more questions so I would have a good grasp of what I could make.
I thought of ways to package my project without using 2 materials. One way was to make the project out of the same material as the packaging so I could use 2 materials for bounding. Eventually, I had the idea to laser cut the project and packaging, this way both the item and the box would be 1 material so I could focus on binding. I wanted to bind the project using magnets, however, it proved troublesome due to the fact that the designs I had made conflicted with the magnets. I eventually gave up on the magnet idea.
After touching base with my partner I was able to extrapolate a lot of information to make a few prototypes. After having a certain amount of ideas about what my partner would like I narrowed my focus to a few aspects to make a final design. The aspects that I narrowed down were his favorite animal, a Shoebill Bird, a few of his favorite TV shows, Gravity Falls and Naruto, and his love for puzzles.
Iteration/ Production
I decided to start with the shoebill, I knew that I would need to make a custom line art design. The process began with looking for a plethora of minimalist clipart designs of Shoebills and then tracing the features of the animal.
I had issues making a simplified line art version of the bird because some of the features of the animal are subtle yet important. The curve of the bird above the eye is meant to insinuate a protruding forehead, so it took some trial and error to find the correct line.
After making a simplified outline of the animal I began to iterate on ways to make it into a substantial gift. I made one prototype with the idea of topology, I wanted to make differing side profiles of the bird to convey a 3D shape for a simple doorstop design. I began by making different sized slices of the shape and then took them to be laser cut. After cutting out the prototype I realized that the topology would be very tedious to accurately make so I scrapped the idea.
My second attempt at a prototype began with the idea of my partner’s love for puzzles. I had the idea to make a puzzle piece box for a shoebill bird-sized hole. I wanted this iteration to be simple yet coherent for the idea it meant to convey the shape of the bird and the puzzle. I laser cut each part of the form and began gluing each slice to make the bird piece and the box. Each piece was glued together properly, however, after finishing both pieces I attempted to fit them together and they became impossibly stuck. So I scrapped that prototype.
After all of my experience with the laser cutter, I had a good idea of how I could use it to make a proper shape and a box to hold it. So I looked back through my notes and came across the fact that my partner likes to drink and watch TV shows. So I had the idea to make TV-themed coasters. I wanted to make 4 coasters with each a unique design pertaining to a TV show, the shoebill bird, or design. After making the rough design for the coaters and box I wanted to have a unifying quote to tie it together and bring significance to the receiver. I went through quotes that my partner liked and settled on “Don’t Not Never Do Dumb Things” This quote was a good unifier because there is a lot of absurdity in the ideas that I put together, however, that is not a reason to not make things. The quote helps to tie together the silliness in all of the different icons I put together.
Since the box and coaster were to be laser cut I wanted to make them different materials so they could be differentiated better while blending into the space that they’ll be used in. So I made the box out of wood because my partner likes the color. I then made the coaster out of acrylic so they could stand out from the box and allow for the simple logos to subtly stand out.
Conclusion
This project was one that was dominated by the laser cutter. Because of the 3 material limitations, I found myself trying to kill 2 birds with 1 stone by laser cutting the form and the packaging. This project encouraged a good exploration of material and expression however I found it troublesome how most of the methods to achieve the limitation were hidden behind trial and error. I noticed that during this project there was a massive variety that was made by my classmates, I found the variance wonderful however the limitation of the project was a bit too restrictive. I found myself cutting corners because my true ideas involved extra materials. The aspect of talking to someone to build an idea for a gift is fantastic, I enjoyed the process of talking to my mentor while pricing together things that they would enjoy. There was a lot of learning to maintain conversation to find an idea for a gift. Overall this project allowed for a good exploration of other people’s design processes and life.