1. Research

Before iterating, I had a conversation with my mentor to gather some basic information by asking some questions.

Some key terms about the gift: coffee, Lucien Kroll, minimalist, nature, functional.

Quote

I just simply searched “design quote” on Google and tried to find the most resonate one.

“Bad design shouts at you. Good Design is the silent seller.”

-Shane Meendering

Exercise 1 Best Gift

The best gift I received was a watch given from my father for birthday. There are few reasons. First, I didn’t expect the gift. And then, I like the watch! From perspective, the key points of a successful gift are surprise, connections, between the donor and recipient, and the gift is human centered around the recipient.

Exercise 2 Packaging Design

Before making the gift itself, I spent some time on packaging, because the packaging is part of the gift and essential. The packaging could create different effects such as surprise, implication, etc.

The object I choose is glue. I was mainly focus on how to show the power and stickiness of glue. I used black stock paper as the whole package and white paper stock as visual illustration to have black and white contrast.

2. Iteration

My gift is focus on things around coffee from the beginning. I was thinking how to improve or change the user experience of coffee making. I watched many videos about making coffee using coffee capsules, trying to find some problems during the process. There are few options such as coffee mug and coffee capsules holder. The first idea was coffee capsules holder and I sketched out some ideas.

However, there is not much space I can expand since this is a ready-made product and it is not connected to the quote. The coffee capsules holder is the product for pre-used coffee capsules. What about some possibilities of used coffee capsules? I could make some decoration from it or a plant pot. The coffee capsules are the perfect size for some microgreens at home for decoration. And she also likes nature. The plant will be the connections between me and her. It would be a great decoration for her home.

The single plant pot is so boring, so I want to make multiple plant pot holder and combine them as a whole. When I making a test holder, the way that how they connected brought me inspiration. The package could also be connected by crossing the gaps between them.

The next step was to somehow recombine the package into a new plant pot holder. I tested few cubes.

I also used Bristol to test the holder and package and tried to figure out how to make them as a whole. Language can’t really explain how it work out, but making and testing brought me solutions.

3. Concept Statement

This is a project that I design a gift for the mentor. The recipient is a senior interior design student, Aurora. She likes coffee, baking, and playing video games. About design, she likes green, minimalist, and got some inspirations from Lucien Kroll recently. Her ideal home is a loft or apartment in a city with balcony and nature. After I know she is a big coffee person, I was mainly brainstorming around it. I thought about the whole process of making coffee, even things before and after this. There is not much space I can touch on and expand on it, but the key part is the coffee capsule. This is the part that exists from the beginning to the end. The first idea was a coffee capsule holder. However, it’s too specific and not creative from my perspective. Then, I stepped back, reviewed the information and looked for more inspirations around coffee capsule. I brainstormed some ideas about what can I do with the used coffee capsule. Finally, the final idea came out: making coffee capsule as a plant pot. Based on quote I chose, I want the package become part of the gift and could be deconstructed and reorganized into coffee capsule, plant pot, holder. The change of coffee capsule into plant pot is also part of the deconstruction. There are many examples of deconstruction in interior design. I hope she could get some inspirations from recombing each pieces and have fun with growing plant.

Line, unity and scale are intended used in this project. Different scales of pieces combine as a whole and form lines and geometric shapes which bring aesthetics. The material is 1/8-inch-thick wood board. Everything is cut by laser cut.

4. Production

After did the measurements and some modifications, I started to make the template.

Thankful to multiple measurements, I don’t need to do any modifications after the first laser cut, but I need to adjust the laser cut setting in order to completely cut through. I was so rushed to do the laser cut, so I don’t have time to take photos. Since the gaps are precise, the connection is pretty smooth.