The (somewhat) Finished Product

I realized, when it was a little too late, that I only posted once about my vessel project for project two. So here is me playing catch up and informing you about what all went down with my vessel.

After the day of cutting with Cotter it was time to sketch. I quickly had ideas for one item that I was really interested in creating a box for, my flash drives and my external hard drive. I had other ideas for items to go into boxes too like my cards and ID's, pens and pencils and my Ipad mini. But none of them really struck me as fun or gave me as many ideas as my flash drives and external hard drive did. 

After the sketches came prototypes. I went to work on my prototypes quick and was pretty impressed with myself, even though they really weren't that great, but they got the point across. But once I brought them into class everyone kind of had the same thing to say about mine. They are just boxes, nothing big and fancy to them. No organic shapes. All designs that don't have to be done on a band saw, when that's what we should be designing for. Even though they were kind of fun, with sliding sides for openings and one that looked like a robot, they were just an ordinary box. So it was back to the drawing board.

I decided to make a word map and play off the flash drive idea. I looked at my sketches and just thought of things that you associate with flash drives. Computers, technology, usb ports, etc. And then I saw it. I looked at the shape and design of one of my flash drives. It was right in front of me the entire time. A simple rounded box with a curved line in the middle. That would be my box design.

To try and not make this incredibly long, since I still need to add some photos, I'll post the rest of the project on a new post. :)

Messing with blocks; It's a dangerous business

Project 2 is underway in my BDS 102 class and this project is about finding something of value to you and constructing a vessel for that object. The vessel will be some kind of box. Today in class we got to go down to the Common Shop aka our work shop in the design building, and play with the band saw that we will be using and get acquainted with it, along with meeting the various sanders. Here are some photos of what I did on the band saw today, mostly messing with curved lines, really just trying to follow a line that is on the block. 

Cotter, the head hancho in the common shop was beside me and drew a line on my block and said, follow that line. So I tried, I wasn't exactly close to his line, really off actually, but it helped me get to know how the saw works and feels. He gave me a lot of pointers and helped me to understand how it all works and what to do when I start working on my block.

This is where Cotter drew a line and asked me to follow it. I didn't do so well, haha! I'll get better though!

 And this is Cotter's line and his cut, following it almost perfectly. He also has more experience but was demonstrating for me.

Final Design - Wayfinding

Photos from Early Solutions to Wayfinding

For our wayfinding project, my groups initial thought was to have lines that you would follow from the lobby of Strong Hall to the Bursar's office downstairs. After seeing it laid out on the computer and thinking about it a little more we realized this would look very odd in Strong and not work well for this project. Although leading someone with lines might work for others, it would not work out well for us.

Ethnography Reflection

In both of the ethnography readings I liked how they talked about really talking with people and watching people. The idea of “what people say vs what they do” was a pretty interesting point to me, and it’s very true. They may say that they eat healthy all the time and you see them eating at McDonalds and later at home with a box of cookies at their bedside. I think it’s a really smart way to get good information from people.

I also like that they really break down the process of ethnography. Getting deeper into what you are trying to convey to the reader. Defining te problem and rethinking that problem, defining the contexts and defining the sample, and so on. 

It’s getting to know your audience/user and making what is beneficial to you and them.

Summary of "Design Moves" by Sharon Helmer Poggenpohl

Summary of Reading

“Design Moves” by Sharon Helmer Poggenpohl

In this reading Sharon Poggenpohl describes how design engages the user and how designers should look at the way people look at design. We should see how the user interacts with the design to better understand the design and the user. 

Poggenpohl talks about a “designers hidden moves” and describes them as being helpful tools for the designer  to follow. Poggenpohl talks about engaging the user to help create a more fitting solution and making abstract ideas tangible, among other ideas.

Poggenpohl also describes four basic kinds of prototypes that every designer should use and how they can work together. They are conceptual, behavioral, procedural and apperance. They can work together to help a designer see what should be changed or enhanced.

Wayfinding Inspiration

For our first project this semester on wayfinding, I looked it up to see what it really was or could be along with seeing the images in class, and I really liked what I saw. There was a lot of big text, bold colors and great design, especially design packages overall, but there was no way my group and I could do anything like that in just a couple of weeks. And even though we couldn't do it all, it doesn't mean I can't dream up how I might use these things for my project or for any kind of wayfinding on campus.

Now I would like to share some of the photos on wayfinding I found, like, and drew inspiration from and say what I would do on KU Campus with these ideas of wayfinding.

This photo I liked and we could actually use in Strong, the building my group chose. It already has some signs similar to this, they are just more horizontal and stick out farther and have a yellow, serifed text on them. I think this text looks much better and the design is very sleek and modern. I think something like this or maybe just a happy medium of the two would look great in Strong Hall.

I liked this photo because I like the layers and color use to show different areas. I think this kind of idea would work well in building with multiple floors, obviously, and we could even incorporate KU colors or just one color with different tones. I had originally used this idea for my group but scratched it later because it was just too much and too modern for the style and feel in Strong Hall.

I liked this photo mainly because I like the sleek, modern look and how contrasty it is. I like the orange popping off the white and grabbing your attention. This could be used in any of the drab, gloomy looking buildings on campus, just to give them some new life. No offence KU, I love you :)

I like the idea of wrapping big text around a corner to grab attention from multiple angles. A group member of mine, Jake, thought of doing this for our group with one of our signs that leads to the stairs. I think this could be really cool and useful in any building on campus. It might even be cool to have it in all of the buildings just for some cohesiveness throughout campus.




So those are just some of the inspirational photos I have saved up on my flash drive. I have some others and I might blog more about those another time. But I definitely want to keep these images around for more inspiration on other projects that might come up.

Have a great weekend!
-Rhiannon