Ideas Development 1

 Since my initial ideas post, I started researching more artists in depth and analysing various existing products. I suggested different ways in which I could develop my work. As we are in week 6, it was time to finally complete my designs in order to start working on software.

I started off by sketching out all of my initial ideas on one page. I used a digital software called 'procreate' to achieve this. 

These are the designs that I came up with. The first one is the cupboard that could transform into a table, an open storage area and individual shelves. I also wanted to include a chair that has a stool underneath it that could be taken out and used for either leg rest or a stool around the house. I picked out my favourite design from my initial ideas in order to start developing them. 

I decided to start my development by one of the most important features of the bundle which includes the cupboard that transforms into a table.

In my initial ideas, I needed to take into consideration the function of it and the technical aspect too, not only the aesthetics. The way that I envisioned that the table would be formed is by unfolding the top layer of the cupboard. However, I quickly realised that this would not have enough support to hold it in place so I would have to place two hinges which will be very visible to the user. I discarded this thought as I feel like it is not nice to include very visible hinges. 

I started brainstorming different ways of creating the table. One way was to incorporate a sliding mechanism. The other way was to create a compartment that you would be able to pull out in order to form the table. This was inspired by a folding fan and I also included it in my initial ideas. The last method was to pull out the sides of the design. However, people will not be able to study efficiently as the cupboard will be in their way.

I am not satisfied by these solutions and I feel like they would not work with my design. I decided to set this function aside in order to focus on the aesthetics and see if I come up with any other design. 

What I decided is that I want to be largely influenced by the De Stijl movement. Not only did I talk about implementing the pattern of the movement, but I also want to introduce cubism in my designs to make them geometrical. Squares and rectangles might represent a white canvas for creativity which is related to one of the symbolic meanings of purple.

I am fascinated by cubism and I feel like it is the most appropriate design for university students in order to make it more universal and entice multiple people. It will match with various room aesthetics, therefore, increasing purchases.

Berlin Chair (1925)

The first two designs were inspired by the Berlin chair designed by Gerrit- Thomas Rietveld. I tried a more bold approach to the asymmetric design by expanding random sides of the cupboard as a means of becoming more abstract and asymmetric to resemble De Stijl. 

In the first design, the planks on the side that are hanging could be considered a safety hazard as someone could easily trip over those. Additionally, if the cupboard is meant to open and form a long rectangular storage area, the planks on the sides would bump into the wall and it would cause a problem.

For the second idea, I removed the safety hazard blocks and elongated the vertical planks. This was inspired by the idea of having some personal space to work in and creating dividers in order to keep all study material contained and organised in that space. 

From my own personal experience, I accidentally knocked things down my desk as I constantly have a lot of things on it. I am constantly rotating my sketchbooks or adding different materials which causes the table to be full. This accidentally knocks out things from the sides as they are being pushed. However, if I had this boundary dividers, maybe I could stop that from happening. 

Stacking cabinets        BoxinBox (2015)

These two ideas were inspired by Frank Lloyd's stacking cabinets and the boxinbox by Philippe Starck. What I really liked about the stacking cabinets was the leg support. I feel like that is such a unique structure and would look really nice on my design. I liked the outcome of this very much and I was definitely planning on including it in the next stages of my design.

I realised that I needed legs as it would not be able to open properly without them. It would interfere with the ground and cause problems.

The second design was inspired by the BoxinBox. I really like Starck's use of plastic so I decided to incorporate it in my own design. I also noted down that the inner part of the design would not be transparent in order to avoid the user from observing what's inside. 

However, this made me realise that this design might not be ideal for this project. This is a more elegant and high-end design that I would not be able to imagine in a student accommodation. 

I should not over-complicate my designs with fancy aesthetics, instead, I should create functional and effective pieces.

 

I decided to proceed with the idea inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright as I really liked the geometric yet asymmetric shape created. I decided to keep elongating features of the design to see how I could implement these aesthetics in my design. However, I realised that the complex feature in the design was the legs. Adding the legs with complex, elongated planks on top did not look very cohesive or nice as it was way too complex.

I thought about adding a board on the third and fourth idea which would be made out of a magnetic board in order for students to hang up important reminders or use it as a whiteboard for notes. I feel like this is such a good idea and I would definitely purchase something that includes this feature. This is food for thought as I can consider it at a later stage, once I finalise my design.  

However, looking closely at this idea, the legs underneath would not work out. I will use Dizz Concept as an example as to why it would not work out.

Pop-up Kitchen PIA (n.d.)

This was my inspiration behind the cupboard opening and transforming into a long rectangular storing area where students could display items they wanted to be visible in their apartments like figures, books etc. 

By opening the design, more space is formed. Placing the legs with such a particular and complex design, would not allow the cupboard to open up effectively. The leg design consists of two rectangles that intersect. Those rectangles would act as an obstacle as they would block the doors from opening up. It would shift the centre of gravity and cause the cupboard to collapse. 

I decided to draw a quick sketch from a side view to demonstrate what I mean. 

The green side shows the part of the cupboard that will be opening to the left. Looking at the legs, they are fixed in both part, the left part which is stationary and the right which will be moving. By adding those legs, it would not allow movement of the cupboard. Additionally, by moving the legs to the left side of the design in order to place them on half of the cupboards width, would shift the weight of the cupboard causing it to tilt.

At this point of the designing process I started getting frustrated. It was either an option of changing the function of the cupboard opening or discarding the leg design. I did not realise at the time that this function would cause so many inconveniences and would be close to impossible to design; therefore I discarded the legs. 

Zig-Zag Chair (1934)

I spotted out the issue in the previous design and attempted to fix it with this one. Instead of adding those legs, I manipulated that design and combined it with the De Stijl principle to form blocks of different asymmetric shapes. 

I realised that I really liked the idea of including dividers at the side of my cupboard in order to contain everything that is inside. I combined this function with the table function and came up with this idea.

I decided that I was going to create a foldable design inspired by the Zig-Zag chair by Gerrit-Thomas Rietveld. The dividers on the top surface would be the legs that would unfold once you pull it downwards just like the image drawn.

The legs of the cupboard were inspired by the stacking cabinets. I took the basic shape of that and manipulated it to make it more unique for my design. I did not want to copy the same design so I used the concept of the rectangles. 

However, I quickly realised that there is another issue with this design. This design works perfectly well if the cupboard is close. When the cupboard open, the top surface of the desk would be hanging and it would not look good. I decided to draw a sketch once more to illustrate what I'm saying. 

This sketch shows how the table looks like from a side view. The top two sketches illustrate how it will look like once the cupboard is closed. It works perfectly well when the cupboard is closed. In the first sketch, there is a dotted vertical line that shows that the width will be halved once it opens.

In the third sketch, it shows that the table and legs will be hanging as the width of the open cupboard is now half. This might be a safety hazard. 

I did not comprehend the gravity of the open cupboard feature would have and I underestimated what it could limit in my design. In the next blog post, I will discard the function of the opening cupboard inspired by Dizz concept and think of another, more useful function. I do not consider the open cupboard to be a vital function as the thought behind it was for people to transform their rooms and have the opportunity to openly display items. However, I believe that I can find something more useful. 

Discarding ideas and being forced to come up with new ones is something that will always occur in the design industry. I need to take this as a learning lesson and push through to find a new, last minute function that could replace this one.

I was hesitant to post this as I thought that I did not benefit from this. However, it is important to note that everyone benefits from mistakes. This shows how much I miscalculated the features in the initial ideas and how drastic the modifications in the design and the products are.  This shows the work that is put into each product which is not seen by the consumer.

WHAT this blog post made me realise: This blog post made me realise that designing something always has its ups and downs. I definitely did not realise how many complications of the design I underestimated in my initial ideas, thinking that it would turn out good. It is important to realise how ideas might look good at first but then not work out as they are not practical. I am definitely discouraged after this blog post as it was very time consuming and I am slightly panicking as we are in week 6. However, I will think of ways to change my design in order to continue with the process and develop my other ideas too. 

It is also important to maintain a positive attitude and approach and not give up. There are many good ideas that are discarded or do not work out because of multiple issues. This is a slight inconvenience I can surpass by focusing on what else I can do to fix this problem.

 

One solution is to remove the function of opening the cupboard and storing it like that. That was the problem area that caused the design to not work out. I feel like I can think of another function, perhaps more beneficial for a student, and make it work out as I do have some development that really excited me. 

WHY did I not consider materials so far? It was pointed out by my tutor several times that I did not mention materials. Undoubtedly, materials is one of the most important and crucial factors in this design. However, as seen from this development, I mentioned several materials such as wood, plastic, magnetic whiteboard. My strategy is to always finish the development, then research my materials and then finalise what I will be using. As of right now, I still do not know what I am aiming for, so I want to finish these development ideas before I proceed to materials. Researching materials from know would be overwhelming and a hustle as I do not know what to target and I would keep coming back and forth, unnecessarily. I am definitely planning on researching materials, processes and components used in this design by the end of this week!

This blog post made me realise how much patience designing takes and that not everything you come up with will be a perfect idea. I had in mind to create six items, however, I might need to change and modify one of the functions to make it more accessible and functionable. This is definitely an overwhelming part of the process, but it will be worth it in the end.