Gifting Design: Process

Research

Meeting My Giftee

I met up with my gift receiver, Korene, in-person. I asked her about her interests, favorites of different things, her dislikes, and how she got into industrial design.

Finding Quotes

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/design-quotes

These two quotes were my favorites after reading through multiple quotes about design. The quote on the left in the orange reminded a lot about industrial design, so I highly considered this quote since my mentor is in that discipline. However, I ended up going with the quote on the right, because it felt that it was still a good quote and even related to my gift since it was going to be constructed to look like a book.

Sizing

https://gatekeeperpress.com/guide-to-book-sizes/

I wanted the book to look a realistic size, so I researched common book sizes. I ended up choosing the 9” x 6” size since the measurements on each side could be divided by 3 and would make the dividers easier to move around wherever.

Book Hinge Methods

How To: Design a Living Hinge

260 × 379

Another thing that I had to research about was hinges for this wooden book box. I considered living hinges, but the curve that it created was not lining up with how I visualized the book. After getting some advice with my classmate, I found a better hinge system for the design that I was using.

Exercises

Best Gift

After doing this exercise, I took note of specifically why I chose this gift as my favorite and planned to incorporate those feelings in the gift that I will be making for my mentor.

Constructing a Container

For this exercise, my partner and I got this uniquely shaped lightbulb. I went into Sketchbook and started drawing out basic geometric containers. During this ideating, I realized that one of the containers looked like a flashlight and thought it would be perfect for this lightbulb.

I tried constructing the section that holds the lightbulb using two different templates, one being a short and wide cylinder while the other was a pyramid. Neither way really worked, but I did encounter issues when folding the Bristol board and it reminded me of the techniques that we learned last semester which ended up helping me in the rest of the construction.

I mainly focused on the handle portion of the flashlight while my partner began making the top part that held the flashlight. I used Bristol board on the inside to make it more sturdy and then covered it with black card stock. My partner folded card stock around the lightbulb and used tape to hold together the top section.

To get the light bulb out of the flashlight container, we needed something to push it through from the bottom. We made a cylinder similar to the flashlight handle except it was thinner so it could fit inside the handle. We also made a cap to go on the bottom.

This is how our final product for the exercise turned out. I had the idea to turn the cylinder meant to push out the lightbulb into batteries so it fit the concept more than a random rod.

Iterations

I went back to the notes I took during my meet-up with Korene and highlighted the interests I thought I would be able to work the most off of for her gift.

Sketching Out Ideas

Starting with her interest in reading and drawing, I brainstormed with the idea of making a pencil case that looks like a book. I originally had the dividers unmovable, but later changed that once I settled on this idea. I also sketched out some container/ covering ideas for the gift.

I also had two other ideas, a phone stand and more basic pencil case. I sketched out a phone stand to look like a easel, to both represent her interest in drawing and to function as something useful for her. The pencil case sketched out on the right was supposed to be structured more simply than the book pencil case, but would have more decorative aspects on the exterior.

In the end, I decided on making the book pencil case.

Testing out Sizing and Slip Joints

I cut out two different sizes of book sizes to see which one I liked the most and also tested out how slip joints work. I considered using them for the borders of my book, but only ended up using them for the dividers on the inside.

Concept Statement

For this project, we had to construct a 3-D gift for an assigned mentor. I reached out to my recipient, Korene, and met her in-person to get to know her better before designing her gift. My objective for this project was to make a gift that was both thoughtful and useful while also showcasing the craft that I have learned throughout this year. Taking into consideration my recipient’s love for books and drawing, I designed a pencil case that looks like a book on the exterior. To make the gift more useful, I turned the hollow interior into a customizable storage space using notches along the sides and multiple different sizes of removable dividers. Since I knew there were going to be extra dividers that were not used inside the case, I created a drawer within the spine of the book pencil case to house them while they are not in use. I also had the quote that I chose, fittingly relating to both design and books/stories, engraved inside the top cover. To encase my gift, I wrapped the box using book pages of Romeo and Juliet as a nod to her love for theater and to hint towards what was inside. I believe the main principles of design present are unity, variety, and proportion. The main elements of design are form, space, shape and line. I primarily used plywood, wood glue, and the laser cutter to create my gift.

Production

Figuring Out the Structure and Finding Measurements

Here, I mapped out where the notches for the dividers would go and how many different types of dividers I was going to make. I also came up with the idea to adding different sections of wood on top of a slab of wood to be the notches instead of trying to engrave them, so they were more sturdy and accurate.

Figuring Out the Hinges and Adding in a Drawer

As I was figuring out how I was going to install the hinges, I realized I needed to add an extra section of wood on the left side to have something to glue the hinges to. That space was pretty wide and I was concerned on how to utilize so it wasn’t just a heavy block of wood. I then soon realized that I could utilize that space to be a drawer for the extra dividers.

Starting Illustrator File- Making Spacers

Once I found all my measurements, I started by making spacers of the consistent measurements that I’d be using throughout designing the box. I made a spacer that was 3″ to help me with the distance of all the notches and a 2mm spacer for the actual notches since that was the thickness of the material I was using.

Creating the Dividers

Using the spacers, I created the horizontal and vertical dividers, making sure they were the correct width and height. All of the notches of the dividers were three inches apart, 2 millimeters wide, and halfway down. I also split some of the dividers in half so she could have smaller sections in the case.

Creating the Cover and Drawer

To make assembling everything a little more easier and accurate, I used the dividers previously that I made to help me make thin sections of etching so I could easily place the wood notches where it needed to be.

Using the sections, I enlarged them to be the height of the book and become the wood pieces for the notches.

The black box represented the width of the secret drawer and I adjusted the bottom cover to fit both the drawer and storage section. The top cover was split into two for the hinges/ opening.

After adding the quote on the inside of the top cover, I went back and turned everything back to black and white while also adding some final details, like the lines on the borders so it looks more like book pages.

Laser cutting and Gluing All the Pieces Together

Book Spine/ Drawer

Inside Borders/ Pages

Top Cover

Since my plywood was so thin, there was no way I was going to be able to screw in my images. Instead, I used super glue and taped it down so it wouldn’t shift. I also realized that the backing of the book spine that holds in the drawer was slightly interfering with how the front cover was closing, so I sanded that part down into a more rounded point.

After letting my hinges glue overnight, I tried opening the case and realized that I glued one of the hinges of crooked. I removed both of the hinges using acetone and took more precaution by marking where to glue.

Wrapping the Gift

To wrap my gift, I wanted to use book pages from a book that was no longer being read. I found a copy of Romeo and Juliet (the Sparknotes version) when going through my collection and knew it’d be perfect since my mentor was a big fan of theater. I cut out a bunch of pages, including the title. Then, I taped all the pages from the back using masking tape since it was easy to rip. Once I wrapped the gift, I tied a piece of string in a bow around it and lined it up with the cross that I made with the page borders.

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