Posts Tagged ‘ industrial design ’
I was throwing out a bunch of old papers the other day and came across these rough sketches of a lamp idea I had (as well as a thumbnail of some tripod-like zero gravity creature?). This is very rough work but it looked good enough to share, and the design is something I should consider carrying out for design week in Toronto or something.
A scale mockup of a lampshade I’m working on. In its current state made entirely from paper and uses a couple strips of tyvek binding tape to fasten the volumes into their final shapes. The tape is intentionally left exposed on the exterior of the lampshade. I’m trying to take materials normally thought of as cheap and elevate them to a desirable finished product.
If you are in Toronto between April 16 and 19, head up to the second floor of the Gladstone Hotel and take a gander at the recycled skateboard tensegrity sculpture I made with Ryan Wilding.
One of my lamps now resides in the home of a nice lady near Rochester. I think this was the first Bomba sold to the United States.
Nice detail shot of the cleat function and a rope whipping technique I learned.
So on this blog I tend to post the sketches and pixel art I make for fun. I often don’t post much of my ‘day job’ designs and I intend to change that to a degree.
Here are some photos of the project I’m in the midst of wrapping up. It’s Fugitive Glue’s take on the classic sling deck chair. We wanted to give it a different flavour in its geometry and replaced the traditional ‘kick stand’ support with a rope and cleat allowing for much more user interaction and experimentation with the angle of the chair. Instead of canvas for the sling, we are experimenting with reclaimed PVC billboard material, as well as decommisioned kevlar sails.
Below are photos of the alpha model which was used to determine the final geometries, cutting lengths and drilling points. It is made mostly from cheap scrap plywood, laminated to provide enough strength. While the structural members of this chair are exaggerated in width, the chair still provides accurate ergonomic data for us to apply to thinner, stronger material. The sling is a quickly sliced-off portion of an advertisement banner that has been clamped on.
Remy Godzisz, one of our summer interns takes a well earned nap in the frame he helped me design and build.
This is our beta prototype made from maple. The wood began as rough-sawn planks that we planed down and carefully cut into the final form. The chair is held in its desired geometry by twelve feet of nautical rope tied off at a horn cleat. It’s a very simple, fun and secure system that can be learned in seconds.
We were eager to test out the beta frame so we transferred our hasty sling from the alpha and tried it out. Works great! Ryan engages in some modeling shots.
Intern Nicole Wong tests critical functionality.
Yee! I’m so stoked for this chair!
Update: I’m still makin’ stuff. Deets to follow.
An idea I’ve been sketching and modeling for a stool that uses mostly plastic straps and zip ties to hold itself together under tension. Cutting or loosening the straps would allow the stool to collapse and flat pack.
Would you buy a rug like this?
Structural and process mockup. Really wishing I had a laser cutter handy but damn I love papercraft.
Referencing back to the Ekranostool concept from around Christmas I’ve been thinking of designs for furniture constructed from foldable panels of corrugated cardboard. These stools are composed of three major pieces, the cushion, pillar, and base which are held together in compression by bungee cords.
I made some rough polygon models in Silo 3D and sketched over to flesh them out a little but I’ll need to get onto something more precise like Solidworks in order to gauge the angles correctly.
The other week I picked up a Baldor belt grinder off of Kijiji, which was technically ‘used’, but had so little wear it appears as if the factory which originally bought it had promptly shelved it in storage. It has a nice wide two inch belt that is perfect for doing flat grinds and I’m excited to get using this for some kitchen knife ideas. In the photos above you can see a low carbon test I made of a paring knife with oversize blade for a more general purpose tool. The blade has been flat ground but the rest of the tang has just been blanked out without grip mounting holes drilled or surface finishing.
I had a brainstorm yesterday for a small stool made from corrugated cardboard. I want to try prototyping it this week. I want to make something that appears intentionally ‘designed’ but has enough ad hoc flavour to prevent it being stale. In other words, some proper scut.
It’s been a while since I’ve done any vector work. Still has the same frustrating productivity curve I remember, where getting initial structure correct is such a chore, but once established it’s wonderfully fast at making variations.
