3DD ROTATION - SUPPORT

The main objective of this weeks rotation is to think differently about design and 3D forms, we never simply started a design from scratch instead we used the most unlikely starting points. Initially, we began with lines, shapes, fruits and numbers as a starting point for a design such as a floor plan of a house, an item of clothing or a rabbit hutch. Surprisingly, I found this technique quite useful as putting pencil to paper is often the hardest stage of a design. By starting off with something completely unrelated and random, it gives you something to work with. This task was completed on A1 paper with pens, pencils and markers as an initial sketching or brainstorm process. 

Following this process, we each had to construct something that could support a water bottle 30cm in the air, however we could only use one sheet of A1 paper, roughly 40cm of masking tape and no other materials. I constructed a cone design which worked very well and was the most successful product I produced today in my opinion.

The final task was to produce a chair or any object that could support our full body weight 30cm in the air. For this task we could only use four sheets of A1 cardboard and the whole product had to be flat packed. This provided some difficulties however I adopted a slot mechanism that was structurally sound and stable but quite boring. The stool could be deconstructed into sheets but ultimately it was a bit square, which was what helped it hold my body weight. Overall I enjoyed today's tasks because it forced me to look at designing differently which I probably would have never done and I enjoyed the creative challenges posed by restricting materials and limited equipment.

The first page of sketches using random starting points for
example making a rabbit hutch out of the shape of an orange.

The second page making watches out of the tread pattern
on my shoe and making a vehicle out of shapes

My rabbit hutch which used my favorite fruit,
an orange, as a starting point.

A shopping centre complex which used one
horizontal, one diagonal and two vertical lines to
create an ariel floor plan

An improvised mp3 player/headset

The pattern created using five felt tip pens
simultaneously on my water bottle holder

To create a pouch-like volcano opening to the
cone, instead of cutting the top completely off, I
folded back the paper so that there was room
for adjustment and flexibility to hold the
bottle tightly.

The final product ready for testing

Thankfully, the cone shape provided sound structural
support and the folded pouch-like technique helped
support the bottle and hold it tightly in place. I was
very pleased with this product.

I resorted to using a tried and tested, simple slotting method to secure the boards in place.I found this worked well because the boards fit very securely together.

This is the final stool with some more
slotting to increase structural rigidity and a
single sheet of card placed on the top to sit on.

This is a view of the interior structure of the stool, the slotting
mechanism works all the way through the structure, I found
this was the best way to make it stronger.

Images - Author's Own 23/09/13