1. 14:37 21st Dec 2009

    Mind-Full Final Project Personal Documentation

    For the Mind-Full Final project I worked on the prototyping face and form development of the idea.

    The form was inspired by a chopsticks stand. The look we wanted to accomplish was stylish, elegant and clean. Because of the components we were placing inside the object we needed it to be a two piece element for it to be able to open and replace the pieces inside of it. The other consideration for the form was the “clicking” function it had, this was another reason for it to be a two piece element, for it to work as “button”.

    This were some of the sketches we had on the first instance:

    Go to picture 1

    Some of the materials tried in the protyping process were paper, vellum, translucent acetate, black vinyl and balsa wood. Go to picture 2

    The translucent acetate was the material that we chose for the first iteration. With this we had a two piece element. The material allowed the LED light to be visualized from any sides. From group considerations and suggestions from other classmates the privacy concern became an issue for this material.  Go to picture 3

    Our next step was to find a material that will cover either one of the elements of the whole 2 pieces or just a portion. The black vinyl was a really good choice because it gave us that elegant and clean look we were looking for and allowed us to prototype by letting us cut and fold to create the object from a template (Go to picture 4) as we had been doing from the beginning.

    With this new material we prototyped two models, one that had a black cover, so that the light was seen just as an ambient light on the bottom piece. On the other hand, we developed another model that was all covered in the black material except for the face facing the user, for a user that was more concerned with privacy issues. (Go to picture 5 and 6)

    The last consideration I had on the design process, was creating some 3d renderings to visualize the future of the object, with wireless elements and real materials. (Picures 6 and on)