This assignment was all about branding, working for a real client company to design a real solution in a way that compliments their brand and their values, both physically, ethically and resposibly. The brand we worked for was a Vegetarian/Vegan food company, so the ethical and responsible issues we had to consider were a very big part of our concepts and the entire process was built around their express desires to see an eco-friendly and vegan-friendly product.
A strange way in which this manifested was during the final stages of the project, where my team and I discussed the manufacturing of the product, and I had realised out of the blue that we cannot use cheap glue. The reason for this is because if we buy cheap glue in bulk, often times you can’t find out where it is sourced, and what processes were used to make it. Since the glue sticks that I personally own were Ethylene-vinyl acetate (or EVA) I did research into this, and found that it can be made with plant-based waxes, but more often use animal-based wax.
These kinds of considerations posed ethical challenges we hadn’t experienced thus far in our studies which was fun to try and deal with, and we learnt a lot in the process. I also learned of some eco-friendly food-safe materials such as molded pulp and cocoa paper, which are also vegan-friendly and fit a variety of packaging types. My main gripe with this subject was our team’s last minute change of direction impeding our final product, but I’m happy overall with how it ended up.
Robot
Much like Packaging, I’ve yet to write a full breakdown of my studies in this part of the course. For me, this project was a challenge through and through, nothing quite fit. To start off we listed as many ideas as we could – some good, some bad, didn’t matter – and we were advised to try to make a robot, which would, in one use, crack an egg, and in the next use, return to its default position and state.
We toyed around with the idea of other egg-related machinations, such as slicing a boiled egg with a knife (—possibly a little on the dangerous side of things—) or perfectly cutting the top off a boiled egg in a similar fashion, but using a wire-pullling mechanism to grip the egg and contract. In the end we settled for the original idea for cracking a raw egg.
This was probably a bad move. I say this because the amount of considerations this takes to materialise is magnificently mind-boggling. First you need an internal mechanism strong enough to break it, then you need a way of making sure it doesn’t go everywhere, then you need a method of extracting the egg from wherever it ends up post-crack without making matters worse. It is a lot to think about and a lot to try and process for our first time building a robot. Not being able to iterate functional concepts due to deadlines and material costs hindered our process somewhat, and given the oppurtunity, I think a better (and less messy) route would be one of the boiled egg slicing mechanisms, which are far less demanding in terms of use.
I picked up a lot over the course of this particular subject. I used Pinterest to create quick mood boards to convey a sense of the art movement or theme I was trying to adapt my work to fit. I found this majorly beneficial since it saved a lot of time I’d otherwise spend trying to find related images on google, which is nowhere near as tailored an experience as Pinterest can be given the paramaters of what you’re looking for.
Structuring my research in this way helped me to identify common elements of art movements, for example, in streamline products, there can be found many parallel equidistent rib lines and stretched shapes. These convey a sense of speed, which is integral to constructing a streamlined form. The memphis style is the most clear-cut and plain obvious of these, since the similarities between the products are striking and overthetop. I especially loved without with this style, seing it as an outlet for untraditional, often weird possibilities.
The route I went down for my final memphis styled product really focused on this concept of untraditional un-anthropomorphic design (anthropomorphism having been a main focus in my constellation studies, this was quite freeing) as I tried to challenge the end user’s expectations of what a desk fan looks like and how the parts could come together. I intentionally came up with ideas that looked “off”, that seemed topheavy or unstable, but could easily be crafted in such a way that it stands upright.
Affordances in Design:
While the main focus of this project was on the usability of products, and the interaction between product and user, and tailoring said product to fit said user, I took a lot of enjoyment from working directly with the client. The constant idea proposing and iterating and incorporating helped build a friendly rapport and allow us to gain a great understanding of what they wanted from our design.
Because of this we could highlight key expectations from the perspectives of each individual in the client team and find a way to bridge the gap to a functional product that caters to both of their needs. For example, one of our clients wanted and expected something more businesslike almost – a robust stationary system with technological prowess but not necessarily an attractive form or a simple control method, while the other much preferred things like intuitive touch controls and portability.
My main takeaway from this project is the level of understanding of design affordances and perhaps the entire system as a whole you can attain from user testing by just handing out a model, assessing what the client expects it to be and what the client wants it to be. We deeply considered physical interactions with twisting actions, such as twisting a cap on the control unit with milled edges as a method of changing the volume and twisting the two halves of the product to adjoin them. We found that the firist of which was instinctively easy for them to figure out, while the latter was not very obvious.
This term I had the task of putting together a dissertation proposal to highlight key areas of study for my dissertation next year.
“I am exploring the problems imposed by the rise of technology – Artificial Intelligence (AI), 3D printing, etc. – and how it pertains to design and manufacture. My focus will be specifically, but not entirely, limited to the field of product design, my personal area of study. I want to explore both sides of the common ‘man vs machine’ argument used by critics that surrounds not only modern design practises (as skilful hand-made or machine-assisted solutions are often preferred to automated or machine-made solutions) as well as it’s applications regarding existing products and their systematic removal of human interaction in favour of ease-of-use solutions.”
I had decided to adapt several disciplines I had learnt throughout constellation so far into my field of study, Product Design, in some way. The key areas I’ve studied the most over the course of my degree are General Affordances, and I have many references for this including Donald Norman’s book “The Design of Everyday Things”. Melding what I’ve learnt so far with my own ideas on the future of technology and how it pertains to product design, I was able to come up with a simple aliterary title.
“Inherently Inhuman, The Technological Takeover”. This might seem a little playful, but it stems from the areas I discuss in the proposal. The term “inherently inhuman” refers to a part of my conclusion where I state that any product removed from the human element of design is as such. Artificial Intelligence is what this proposal is all about. Pondering the simple question of whether art and design (which has recently become more and more technologically-driven) could evolve to completely remove the need for human interaction. And if so, should it?
I begin by documenting General Affordances briefly from the words of Norman, and explain its use in modern product design. This in turn paints the human being as an essential part of product design, one without which a product fit for humans is impossible due to AI’s inherent lack of culture, experience and thought. Culture and experience are so valuable to the affordances in design that you could, as Norman describes find yourself trapped behind a mysterious door, and likely have no idea how to open it. If the door has no lever, no handle, no push/pull sign, no card reader, no button, how do you open it? There’s such variety in the way in which we interact with products because we know how, wether from lived experience or cultural expectations.
To elabourate on the subject of AI, I chose to reference a book called “The Most Human Human”. I became aware of this early in my research, and originally watched a reading of it on youtube by the author himself, Brian Christian. What fascinated me about this book was it’s unique first-hand insight into artifical intellegence, from the view of a real human selected to take part in the Turing Test, a test designed to measure AI up to real humans to determine if AI could become truly intelligent, and fool unsuspecting recipients into beliving it is the real human above the others. Another point he hammers in is that while throughought all of human history we have looked to animals to compare and measure ourselves, ever since the introduction of computers we have instead compared ourselves to machines. These computers have changed what it means to be human. So much so that even the term “computer”, originally a metaphor to describe a machine that could compute like a mathematician, now the very reverse is true. A person who is smart, who can compute, is computer-like. What was once like us we are now like.
A part of my proposal
Another thing I wanted to bring back was the theory of wabi-sabi, from my previous essays. The reason why I believe this is a good fit is due to its nature as, what I consider, the most human form of design. To err is to be human, and this view of the world and creation is purpose-built to make the most out of nature. Natural forms, intentional mistakes, imperfections to remind the beholder of simpler times that weren’t dominated by screens or technology you just can’t escape from. It is a breath of fresh air in design and I believe as such that it perfectly outlines why AI couldn’t completely beat us in a test of design.
Finally I want to explain more areas in which I feel that technology can’t quite measure up to humans. One of which is the ability to tackle human issues, without causing more in the process. Where a human would cause an issue by solving another, he or she would likely iterate and try something else to attempt to stomp out all problems, bugfixing. A machine would only be aware of the poblems its solutions cause if a human told it there was a new problem.
From that note I aim to reach a conclusion that promotes technology in design, but as less of an enemy to humanity, and more of a mere fraction of a symbiotic relationship of man and machine that I geniunely believe to be the likely next step in human evolution. Human guided AI design is a very real possibility when you factor in the computer’s ability to solve logical problems better than a human and the human’s ability to meet physical and artistic desires better than a machine. Humans can learn to interact with machines, while machines become more and more human. Eventually I think they could reach an equilibrium.
In this assignment, the goal was to study affordances in design and to then design a product for a target audience with these affordances in mind. The purpose of the project was to end up with something that a potential user would immediately recognize through their understanding of affordance. So, in essence, this means the product would not only have to look like what it is intended to be, but it’s physical and digital features would need to meet our cultural expectations (correct icons, button has depth to afford being pressed etc) and the more personal expectations of our target group.
The product we began to build was to be a music device, but as to what kind of device was up to our partner group since it was them we were designing for. So in order to know where we go from here, we had to be paired with a target group and find out what they like, what they expect and what they want.
We started off this assignment with rigorous planning and testing, which ended up becoming a theme every week. This way we could make sure that at all times whatever additions or developments we had made were accepted by our target audience, and the affordances of the product were clear not only to us but to the target we were paired with. I enjoyed getting our ntoes together every week as it really helped bring our ideas out and understand where we are in the project and what needs to be done.
UI Design
User Feedback
After several stages of interviews and planning we eventually knew all we needed to know about our testing group. We knew what kind of music they listened to, what shapes and colours they liked in their products and the context of use they desired for their product. From all of this information we narrowed our ideas down to 3 basic forms.
I created a cylindrical design based off of this basic digital sketch I made. It was designed to be two units, a left and a right channel, which would come with four stands – two wall mounted stands and two desktop stands. This would hopefully appeal to both of the target group’s members and show a great deal of considerations into the ease of use and versatility of the idea. I started modelling this in styrofoam but I realised trying to cut the apple-core shape into the stands was a great deal of hassle, so I shortened the base (since in practise it would only need a small PCB for a rechargeable battery and USB input, possibly some LEDs) and kept it cylindrical. Our of the three designs this was the most well recieved. We assessed the ideas by tallying them for their affordances, their appeal and ease of use among other standard product design factors.
Following this we all decided to develop the cylindrical design individually. During this stage I was a bit overactive with my ideas, branching off into several developments and considerations in terms of form and affordances that really weren’t all that necessary. The size kept changing, the interactions kept changing. This was mostly due to our testing group consisting of only two people – with radically different opinions. For example, one wanted modern/sleek touch sensitive controls and one preferred bulky, classic buttons. At one point the volume was controlled in 3 different ways on the physical product alone, a twisting motion as seen in picture #2, a touch sensitive light ring à la Amazon Alexa and plus and minus buttons. This solves the issue of catering to both people but it makes the product confusing and defeats the purpose of the assignment.
Initial Idea Testing
Concept Development
Initial Prototype
Final Prototype
Another change made at this stage was instead of having a charging unit and a speaker unit like in the foam model, we instead had two speaker units – a control unit with physical interactions which would – at least by default – play the right channel of stereo audio, and the base unit which would play the left. This idea came about since one of our target group wanted stereo speakers and the other wanted something more static, a single unit. When we amalgamate these two ideals we get a hybrid that can be paired together in coupled mode (held together by magnets, top charges from bottom, bottom charges via USB adapter) This caters toward right handed people if since naturally you would pick up the unit on the top and move that away from the base, ensuring that the base unit is on the left and the control unit is on the right. It is entirely possible to get this wrong, but when we tested it we found that they usually did it right.
The only minor problem with this design we found was that by using the speakers via a wired connection, the right speaker / control unit (the most important one) would be the only unit to lose power whereas the base unit would always be at full charge. This can be solved by using bluetooth connectivity and letting them both deplete power somewhat evenly. I have a Nintendo Switch at home, which has a similar problem – two controllers can be used seperately of the handheld console and will deplete charge individually at somehwat different rates – but it has never been too noticeable since whenever I’m not using it the controllers are charging from the console itself. Perhaps people using this product would do the same and charge the speakers in coupled mode when not in use. But we can’t bet on that, further considerations and adaptations can definately be made in terms of power consumption.
After more user testing and conferences with my team we simplified the whole thing, and ended up with a pleasant equilibrium between our conflicting feedback. We would have the touch sensitive light ring, giving it a nice continuity with the similar design on the app, but we would also have pyhsical buttons in the center of the control unit (right speaker). The catch is that following our final stage of user testing, one of our target group suggested making the buttons level with the top of the design, and pushing them in slightly. This way we have a sleeker design that appeals to both users.
This assignment was all about design movements, and learning to analyse forms, colours, materials and finishes used by examples of these various movements and incorporate them into an inspired product. In a sense this is to design a product as I ordinarily would for subject but using historical art, products and fashions in place of brand alignment.
The 3 styles I worked with were the 1930’s streamlining movement, the ultra-modern minimalism trend and the 1980’s Memphis design, the latter of which I feel I engaged with the most. Over the course of the assignment I learned new ways of finding inspiration, new methods of communicating ideas and grading my designs based on how well they fit my form analysis of the chosen field.
I decided very early on that I wanted to take a different approach for this assignment. Whereas before the bulk of my work would be hand sketched rough ideas, which I have always been somewhat nervous about, I would instead turn this into a strength by switching to digital sketching where appropriate. So first thing first, in the week leading up to the assignment, and the first week of work I became somewhat adept at using a digital sketching tablet.
Although it took a while for me to get used to the pen and tablet and learn my way around Autodesk Sketchbook, I found that applying my knowledge of 3d form and projection from the sketching tutorials last year to a far more versatile and editable form of communication (digital sketching) yielded a very beneficial result. Things that were quite difficult for me to draw at a smaller scale for fine details became very simple with the ability to zoom and resize and laying out an attractive page of sketches can be streamlined with the ability to move and rotate sketches to fill a page of any size.
In addition to this I also found that using sites such as Pinterest to sort and group related images, products and artwork was a great way of finding inspiration for my ideas. I think this is down to the attractive interface and the constantly updating homepage giving me new ideas. I feel this is a much more beneficial approach to mood boards and ideation than standard google searching as I had done beforehand.
Of all the styles I worked with, Memphis was considerably better for me. I found using nontraditional and inspired forms more freeing than the standard forms I would for a brand alignment project. The appeal to me with this style were the unique blend of basic, almost childlike 3d shapes mixed with inspired patterns, a blend of hard and soft materials and textures.
For the fouth and final part of the assignment I decided to apply this industrial design process to a specific theme. For this theme I picked Back To The Future II, one of my favourite films of all time. I picked this specific entry in the trilogy because the 1980’s view of modern america (2015) has always been a standard to which I have compared the reality of “the future” growing up. The idea of hoverboards, flying cars and 3d movie poster holograms was always fascinating to me, and carries the same kind of optimism as the streamline movement we covered in the first week. However, I found this a somewhat challenging theme as the film packs a strange blend of forms, and very minimal materials and textures. Some parts are hard and plain whereas others are smooth and patterned. For this reason I specifically fixated on things that belong in the ‘future’ setting (the self tying shoelaces, the flying cars in the background, the police hoverbike, and the famous “pepsi perfect” bottle from the diner scene – but not the diner itself which felt very retro-1980s).
Unfortunately, I fell behind in this subject assignment, and due to this I don’t feel like the end result I submitted was indicative of the skills I had picked up this term and the level to which I enjoyed this assignment. I thought this assignment was the most fun of any I had engaged with so far, and I would love the opportunity to go back and produce more embellished and more detailed ideas. Even if only for my own peace of mind I will spend time over the Christmas break practising the skills I have picked up this term and this could be the perfect subject for me to play around with.
This term was filled with challenges for me as a creator and as a writer. There has been a lot of conflict of ideas, a lot of indecision and a lack of clarity compared to this time last year. I think it stems from my subject work, which so far has been very outside my comfort zone. I’ve always took an interest in creating a solid form, a product that speaks to me as an artist or a more technical product that appeals to my experience in design. There’s certainly been a lot of this but early in the term I couldn’t see it. I was very unhappy with the assignment but I’ve come to respect it. It kept me very busy in the latter half, I had far more work I needed to do than I realised. It dawned on me that I need to get out of my comfort zone if I’m going to learn and I need to push myself to attend all I can attend and complete all I can complete.
In amongst my struggles with subject this term I had to study for constellation. However, due to some sort of mishap on either mine or the staff’s part I wasn’t told where to go for constellation or what study group I was in, and I didn’t manage to find out until three weeks into the study. Unfortunately in the time since then I’ve been busy non stop making up for the first half of my subject assignment. In light of this I decided to approach my essay in a slightly different way. Last year my summative essay was submitted having missed my chance to have it reviewed by my tutor and as such I had a lot of doubts about the essay itself. Whether or not it made sense, whether or not I got the points I wanted to make across to readers. In a tutorial for Lived Experience this term I realised that the disciplines the group taught us about are so closely related to my subject that I already had ideas of how to start writing. I also realised shortly after that not only my subject was related to the study, but my essay from last year was as well. In the first half of the essay where I talk about the process of creation from an animistic world view, I found ways to link up all my points and my hypothetical expectations to the principles of wabi-sabi. So that’s what I’ve done. I’ve took parts from last year’s essay and I’ve married it to the principles I’ve learned this term.
According to Leonard Koren, author of “Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers” this principle revolves around three core values highly appraised by ancient Japanese culture. “All things are impermanent.” “All things are imperfect.” “All things are Incomplete.” This wise way of looking at the world plays a massive role in creation and design. For example, a chair that is considered “wabi-sabi” may seem old, withered, chipped, possibly the legs aren’t quite level to the ground. It seems like something handcrafted, and that adds a lot to personality. This way of approaching product design is highly appraised in modern times. I think this is due to our culture’s desire for a simpler life, a humbler life. I argue that in amongst the bustle of modern western life, where everything is mass produced and technologically advanced, a simpler product is symbolic of escapism. It tells us that while our jobs, our hobbies and our passions may be different, we still share a common link with our ancestors, our appreciation of art and of things that are not necessarily perfect, but work all the same.
Given the time I would love to revisit these ideas and write something completely new. It is a shame that this term has been so hectic for me, but I will strive to push myself next term in preparation for my dissertation. I hope to learn about more fascinating concepts such as these I’ve covered so far since year, and I’m very excited to see where my studies will take me.
During this year in my studies, following My Life as a Spacecraft, I shifted my written focus onto the course entitled How Things Are: Embodiment, Matter, Ecology. Some of the works we examined and read include Aristotle’s hylomorphism and Tim Ingold’s book “Making [Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture]”. As supplementary reading material I also read the article “From Seduction to Fulfilment: The Use of Anthropomorphic Form in Design” by Carl Disalvo and Francine Gemperle to learn more about general affordances in design that could potentially aid our studies in matter and form.
Over the course of this topic I realised just how similar what I took in from it was to my life as a spacecraft in terms of the concepts it described, the use of embodiment and how both could closely blend in with my product studies and the way in which I can utilise what I learn in them. While I didn’t end up writing too much about embodiment itself save form its practical use in anthropomorphic design, I figured out quite early on that this study into matter and embodiment could link with my product design studies in general affordances – how things are designed to be used by humans, often taking on anthropomorphic qualities to appeal to our own set of personal and cultural expectations.
One of the things we learned about in a later session was “hylomorphic world view”, a form of thinking prevalent for most of recorded history, pioneered by the likes of Aristotle in ancient Greece. This view highlights human importance in matter and form, how man is at the forefront of creation. This didn’t sit right with me in this day and age, since I have no cultural or religious reasons to feel like humans are superior in any way to the rest of life itself.
The more I read into the subject of anthropomorphism, the more it seemed to flow from the same vein of Ingold’s animistic views (wherein all products are matter, grown rather than made) despite being almost polar opposites. Where anthropomorphism would see things designed for human use, animisticism would see that humans are only a small part of the chain of events that lead to the construction of products. And when I put the two together, I came to the realisation that these affordances didn’t apply to just people of different cultures and backgrounds, but could apply to animals, plants, forces in ways unexpected. I struggled for a while to find a way to link these ideas in written form, and I spent a lot of time going back and adapting my words in a way that clarifies my points. I think in the end the idea of man-made design became more of the antithesis of my essay, the villain of the story so to speak.
I wanted to explore what products meant to life other than human life. And in doing this I found my first major link. It was hidden in plain sight the entire time. When we create things for human use, they become an agent, an influential factor in the creation of something else later in time. As Ingold states, tools aid us in creation of items. But the same is true for the items themselves, they aid the world around us in infinite ways with each passing instant. Even though we think we use tools to create products, and use products to satisfy our needs, we are still contributing to a global time-lapse of creation and transformation of matter that started at the beginning of the universe and will end if it is ever no more. The system of creation expands in complexity and reach over and over and never stops. Nature’s application of the mathematical principle of chaos theory.
In chaos theory, the “butterfly effect” describes the phenomena that a single seemingly-inconsequential event could have world-altering effects on a much grander scale than imaginable. This is a trope of time-travel science fiction, where the hero would already know the outcome of events from personal experience, but something they did in the past would drastically alter the outcome of the future – leading them to their conflict, their tragic mistake that they need to fix in order save the day in the end. See: Back to the Future. In my context of breaking down hylomorphism and pushing my idea that world is working in unison it takes a slightly different and more profound meaning. It describes a world in which, as Ingold states and as previously mentioned, innumerable complex systems (forces, agents, tools, humans, animals) all contribute to the transformation of matter. This became my thesis, to explain my thoughts on animisticism and how creation is a worldwide collaborative effort.
A part of my essay (not final).
The idea of bringing together everything I had learned into this essay title came about in one of the final study group sessions, where we were asked to present ideas for essays on sticky notes. I had written down about the studies and disciplines that I had learned over the weeks on a few different sticky notes and I hadn’t realised exactly how they could all come together at the time, save for the points previously mentioned. I showed my ideas to the tutor and he immediately made the connection between my points, and so I used these notes to come up with the thesis and antithesis of my title:
Matter, Creation and Product Use from an Animistic World View
This essay will focus primarily on the influence outside forces (agents) have on the creation (or growth) of a product, describe my thoughts on why nature and man-made design are not inherently different, but work in unison, and subsequently aim to explain my ideas that the world is an infinitely complex collaborative effort that sees us working with active materials in order to further the evolution of all matter in time.
Summary:
In light of my written work in animistic views and natural collaborative creation, I am motivated to try and create a product in the future that factors in more outside influence from these agents than would contribute in a controlled environment. For example, I would like to try and create something outdoors on a windy day and examine how it influences the form, the matter of the resulting product. I think this could make for an interesting learning experience for me.
Over the course of this year I’ve had so many fun creative challenges and gone through so many new and unique ideas that shaped my learning experience. I came into this year hoping to pick up new skills and enhance the skills in design I already had.
I feel I’ve achieved what I set out to do in this regard, having learned new skills and techniques for sketching, rendering, shaping and sculpting many materials into tangible 3D models. The ability and the resources to take my ideas and manifest them in a physical form is something that I’ve always wanted. Though I had previous experiences in design at college and school and even at home, nothing I created ever had an intended real-world purpose, to solve a problem or fit in a real-life context.
However, there were things I wish I’d done more of. Real world time constraints and external pressures prevented me from getting as much done as I had intended. In contrast to this, in some areas of my work I’ve shown out-of-the-box thinking and drive to do more than was expected of me. I feel this is demonstrated best with my early digital models, which were not made with CAD. I had applied my pre-existing knowledge of 3D modelling using design/animation software Blender, which I was taught to use way back in College, to create a digital representation of a few ideas in the earlier projects, as well as to demonstrate function and form to group members I’d worked with.
My favourite thing this year was re-learning digital modelling from the perspective of Product Design rather than Game Design/Animation. The fundamentals of the tools used are vastly different, while many processes and basic functions are shared. I found that with CAD modelling, shapes are formed far less organically in a calculated and mathematical manner, whereas with Game Design and Animation in tools such as Blender and Maya most of the creation of models is based on perception and far more free-form than CAD.
I look forward to continuing to learn new skills and better communicate my ideas in the next academic year. I hope to substantially improve my sketching ability and my rough modelling, as I struggled with confidence in these areas, and subsequently missed out on a lot of potential work in the ideation and concept stages of design.
An early version of the CAD model I created for my end of year presentation. Based on my first project at the start of the year.
Here is a quick collage of a few of the designs I took to the CAD modelling stage:
The first is my original model, showing the basic shape of the project. The second is an example of one of the ideas I had for an alternative shape. The final models show the proposed internal structure and the tilting mechanism I had intended to use. I also made a few renders demonstrating the context of use for my presentation.
I am very happy with how my CAD skills have progressed in a short time, and I currently feel like this is my strongest and most confident area of work so far. I think I should allocate more personal time to developing CAD models for more ideas in future projects to play to my strengths a little bit.
During this stage I had decided to narrow my work down to only a few ideas. These included the simplistic “hourglass” figure and the aero-inspired design. I took both of these into modelling. Eventually I settled on the latter. The basic shape is inspired by an existing product Mission produces, which is a large speaker system.
Internally, the structure is minimised to allow the sound to travel through the cover/filter from all directions. Externally the shape is designed for as much speaker area as possible. The stand is tilt-able, allowing even more control over sound output, and the form itself is as minimal as possible based off my peer/tutor feedback.
In retrospect, I feel I should have worked to make the basic shape of my concept idea more distinct from the product I was inspired by. I spent a long time thinking about this shape and I was struggling to find an alternative that had the same wide area of output and visual appeal. Given more time I would revisit this and make something more unique and unusual as I had originally planned.
Product Design (BA) 