Statement of Intent
My mentor, Abby, is a second-year Interior Design major, which is the program I will be applying to as well. While we were only able to meet up once, I felt that I was able to gather a lot about not only her design preferences and material tastes but who she is as a person and her values as well. This was also aided by communication through text, and social media, from which I found aspects of my inspiration and insight into her interests and design preferences. I wanted to take a very practical and empathetic approach to this project, while still aiming to explore new techniques and materials. One of the most important things to her as a designer is sustainability, so this was the aspect I made my number-one priority in this project. I also wanted to keep her interests in music and collecting vinyl records, and her design tastes and love for thrifting in mind throughout my process. After exploring various ideas around materiality and possible final products, I decided to create a set of unique drinking glasses with an accompanying carrier, all from recycled materials. Following various iterations, tests, and explorations, the final glasses are a set of four repurposed mason jars, engraved with a custom pattern, with a foldable carrier and box constructed from thrifted vinyl record covers. I used her cat’s unique markings to create the shape within the pattern, drawing additional inspiration from the movement and form of mid-century patterning techniques. This addition drew in a personal element, while still blending seamlessly with and adding to the complexity of the design as a whole. One of the thrifted record covers featured a cat’s face, which I used in different places on the carrier’s exterior to give a subtle hint to the detail on the glasses. The use of repurposed and reimagined materials combined with modern techniques prioritizes sustainability and offers a reveal similar to uncovering a hidden treasure at a vintage store, while creating meaningful dialog between the packaging and the gift itself.
Ideation
I started off my ideation process was getting in touch with my mentor! We arranged a time to meet up for coffee, and ended up having a lot in common, which meant I was able to really understand and resonate with many of the things that inspire and are important to her. Based on what I gathered from this meeting, I was able to come up with an outline for potential concepts.
After class discussions and exercises, I felt that I gained a better understanding and perspective of the impacts packaging can have on the perception, and even use of a product, which was an important piece for consideration in the design of my gift. Keeping this in mind, I continued building upon my concepts, informed by conversations and mini-reviews with my instructors and peers. I also created sketches for what I imagined some of my ideas could look like.
From here, I began crating physical models from my sketches, which I was able to get feedback on when we conducted a small peer review of our models during as a class. These models included two iterations of glass sets and carriers, as well as a tote bag and record display and holder. A few of my classmates who were knowledgeable about vinyl, unlike myself, were able to give me the little (big) tip in our review that records can not be stacked the way I had modeled below, but instead to be stored vertically. Luckily, I was already starting to be drawn in other directions not as directly related to my mentors love for vinyl, although it was a fun concept to explore!
Following discussion with my instructors and reaching a point of feeling that I had reliable options if things did not work out, I decided to take the slightly riskier route of creating a glassware set for my final gift. Creating a completely new piece or set from recycled glass scraps would not be an option due to not only time constraints, but accessibility and practicality of the necessary processes. However, I was prompted by my instructors and by my research to look into other ways to work with glass to achieve a result similar to what I was aiming for in initial ideations.
Iteration & Production
I began the production process by collecting materials, which is something I knew would be an interesting part of the process, as my primary material was glass, repurpose-able glass, specifically. One of the possibilities I was prompted to look into that really struck my interest was repurposing empty wine bottles into glasses. I researched into the different shapes and types of wine bottles, and created some preliminary sketches for what the resulting glasses could look like. Because I would not be able to incorporate a custom element through traditional glass working methods, I shifted my focus towards etching pattern into the glass as a possibility.
As I was searching for my materials to begin final production, I explored with the previously mentioned addition of pattern into my composition. Something I noticed when I was getting to know Abby during our meeting, in addition to her love for her pets, was the distinct marking on her cat’s forehead. When considering pattern, I decided to play with the form of this marking using patterning techniques on Illustrator. I kept mid-century and retro-inspired characteristics in mind when creating this pattern, as this is one of the sources of inspiration that Abby shared her interest in with me.
This was a relatively quick and spur-of-the-moment part of my process that would end up becoming the central anchor for the gift as a whole, as I was excited about the possibility of etching this pattern into the glass set, which would add a unique and personal touch. Feeling confident in this direction, I worked on figuring out how to obtain the materials I would need. Because wine bottles were difficult to come across, especially when attempting to create a coordinated set, I ended up investing part of my budget into four soda bottles that I liked the shape and size of. After researching the best methods for removing the tops from bottles, I got started with the process by scoring around the circumference of the bottles. I was lucky enough to have access to a laser cutter with a rotary insert, which allowed me to easily achieve this.
Next was the more nerve-wracking part of the process. Following what I found in research carefully, I set up a system of exchanging the scored lines of the bottles between hot and cold in short intervals. This ideally allows the tops of the bottles to snap off in a clean line. However, this process proved to be for those with more experience, as every one of the bottles ended up breaking far beyond their score lines. This was not helped with sanding, as it almost seemed to make the jagged edges more of a concern, in addition to causing more breakages.
Due to the limited budget of $15, which I had already spent half of, I couldn’t risk more attempts, or the time for this technique. I had to rethink my options, and even considered moving on to one of my alternative plans. However, after looking through what I had in my own home, I was able to find multiple mason jars that had been untouched, and decided that they would serve the purpose intended for my concept. I considered repeating the technique above to remove the screw tops, but I had a limited number to work with and decided that I had already taken the risk that this project’s time frame allowed. Keeping the original form of the mason jars, while not originally intended, ended up being a reinforcement of the repurposing part of my concept. From here, I went ahead and added my pattern to the mason jars with the same laser cutter technique used to score the bottles, but instead with etching. This required some brief calculating of the circumference of the jars that needed to be etched, and fitting the pattern to this size in the laser cutter’s software.
The etching turned out even better than I expected, as this was a new process for me, especially with a design that had to stretch the full circumference of the glass. Because the main component of my gift was complete, I moved on to what the container would look like. Referring back to my earlier sketches, I was aiming to create a carrier that would allow the the glasses to remain the featured element. After searching for potential materials other than wood, which I was not confident would give the design what it needed, I looked into potential wire carriers. This material would complement the shine and texture of the glass, while still allowing them to be always visible. I found a wire carrier for under $1 at a thrift store, and looked into ways I could restructure it to take the form I wanted.
However, the process of cutting and reshaping this type of wire would have been a stretch in the time frame of the project, and I was advised to look into alternatives. At first, I was disappointed in this outcome, but eventually came to understand why alternate carrier designs would be the better way to go. Keeping sustainability at the forefront, I found inspiration for foldable drink carriers, which are typically meant for wine or beer bottles, although I was able to adapt their basic concepts to fit my project.
Most of these carriers are constructed from cardboard or heavy paper materials, and I knew a set of four glasses would require a material with this type of stability. However, I wanted to tie in my mentor and the gift itself into the packaging as much as possible. With this issue in mind, I came up with the idea to construct and design a carrier entirely from thrifted record covers, which were my second material used in my composition. I found a collection of random, and cheaply priced records at a local thrift store, choosing them primarily based on their color schemes and imagery and how they might coordinate with the design. The cat was an especially valuable find, as it would become a way to subtly tie together the gift and its packaging. Using images of the records I found I was able to create a basic layout for what the carrier could look like, guided by the standard 12×12 size of record covers.
After receiving feedback from classmates, I decided to alter the design to one that would better encapsulate and compliment the gift. From here, I started the design and construction of my final carrier.
A central box contains the glasses, with diagonally crossed dividers that pay mind to the movement of the pattern on the glasses. The carrier’s side panels also come up higher proportionally to the base and glasses, which is something I felt elevated and balanced out the form slightly.
I started the construction process with the box, using the proportions of my model above.
Next, I used my model net to begin building the full-size carrier. I created a basic layout with measurements of it as well, so that I could arrange and secure the various pieces of record covers with intentionality and to the correct measurements.
Once each piece of the various record covers was secured using hot glue, my third and final material in this project, my mentor’s gift was complete and ready to be presented!
Reflection
This project was challenging, yet exciting in so many ways that I had had yet to experience before its start. The main aspect of the project that really made it so unique was the fact that that it was our first time designing for a real-life client other than ourselves, besides the usual project objectives. The constraints of this project also allowed for wider exploration of materials, especially since each person’s concepts were so vastly different. I feel that I really took risk and explored in materiality with this project, and although not everything went exactly as planned, especially with the bottle cutting technique, these processes still led my work in a slightly different, but equally as unique direction. This also goes for the packaging of my mentor’s gift, for which I originally planned to use a more elegant wire material, but instead used vintage vinyl covers that not only fit with my mentor’s interests, but tied perfectly into my overall concept. It was also such a rewarding thing to see my mentor’s reaction to their gift, and just to see my work having a positive impact on people, no matter how small that impact is and even if it’s just for a brief amount of time.
Portfolio Project
The page showcasing my final Gifting Design project can be found through the link below!