Upcycling Unwanteds - Peer Comments

1. Fiona Lee

2. Stan Darmawan

3. Sam Whipp

4. Emily White

5. Guida Arezzi

Project 3 - Upcycling Unwanteds

Floppy Disk Lamp Shade



Don’t know what to do with those outdated, obsolete floppy disks lying around in your house? Or don’t you even know what these are? It doesn’t matter, it probably wont even slot into your computer anymore because they stopped making slots for them in computer cases years ago! So what do you do with them? Don’t chuck them out! Turn them into lampshades!

The construction is easy, and only requires four things:
Floppy disks
Paper clips / Bobby pins
Sewing Needle
Fishing Wire

Then all you need is a basic knowledge of sewing, or if your extremely lazy, just use the bobby pins / paper clips for the whole lampshade joinery!

The idea is simple, after taking the inner plastic disc out of the floppy disk plastic enclosure, it is simply folded in a particular way, which is then sewn with fishing wire or paper clipped / bobby pinned together, and voila! You have a myriad of different ways to join and connect these double circled pieces together to create your own fun and interesting lamp shades!

You can cover your current table lamps to make fun and interesting light patterns (see left image of poster), or you can even slot them over your christmas lights with the ball shapes (see right image of poster). Anything is possible with the floppy disk lamp shade!

Richard Seymour and Dick Powell: Designing Dream Machines

This video is primarily about the design process as a whole, and all of its steps which make a design either a success or failure. Seymour and Powell both talk about how there are various stages in designing which make a design, truly a successful design. These stages involve not just individual work, but also group discussions and market research for a greater understanding of the target market and also a wider mindset when designing as working in groups allows for thoughts to be expanded, rather than limited when working individually.

I found this video very useful in my future years of Industrial Design because it shows me the right steps to take in order to design successfully to a market all the while keeping within the client’s parameters. I will consider all factors and steps shown in this video to help me in designing ‘dream machines’, in the near future.

Industrial designers as a whole can benefit in the same way as I did, with the knowledge that designing is not just an individual act, but a notion with a whole lot more entangled within it. There are hints, tips and clues all over this video to help industrial designers become greater than what they already are, and to help them succeed further in their careers.

Annie Leonard: The Story of Stuff

Product life, sustainability, global warming, consumerism, power, politics, are all factors of everyday life which every person who lives in this world has to consider or at least experience. This video shows just that, at its core, and at its most inhumane. Annie seems to exacerbate the evil of consumerism, and how the U.S is one of the biggest contributors of that factor, along with most of the other factors which every day people have to consider or experience each day. It seemed the video wasn’t primarily focused on educated the audience about product life, and recycling, but more about attacking her own country about their approach to a stable economy, and how unjust and not right this system is.

Industrial Designs can make use of this video by taking into account the life span of their products, and each step of the design, from its gathering of materials, to manufacturing, then consuming, then disposing. Each factor needs to be considered, but also, what needs to change are the parameters in which designs work in. It’s all well and good that designers can produce products which are environmentally friendly, but if the client or manufacturer does not want it, because they think it will not bring them profit, then it is a problem of the client and manufacturers, and not of the designers.

What I can learn from this video is that in order to grab the attention of the good-willed consumers of today’s market, one needs to design products which are environmentally sound all the way from material collection to product disposal, but not only that, the product must also be appealing enough to sell itself to today’s heavily influenced consumer market of current trends.

Postal Presents - Peer Comments

1. Jonathan Biet

2. Cori Eom

3. Valerie El Khouri

4. Brett Rushbrook

5. Chelcie Nielsen

Project Two: Postal Presents - Model Maker's Spray Can Rack

Imagine you were a model maker; you continuously make figurine models day after day, and you have several dozens of spray cans of every colour of the rainbow in your cupboard. Rainbow… don’t you sometimes just wish you could display your rainbow of colours of spray cans, just as proudly as you display your figurine models?

With this easily flat packed and simple spray can rack, you can quite simply, display your vast array of spray can colours in a rainbow form, as both an aesthetically pleasing industrial design piece and also a simple form of organisation of the many spray cans that model makers have available at their fingertips.

The spray can rack is made of Acrylic perspex because it is a cheap and cost effective material that is also readily available. The cutting diagram for this product is very simple, five identical rectangular pieces which slot into two larger semi-circle pieces. This make for a cheap and cost effective laser cutting process because it is very simple and does not require much time at all to cut, even with a laser cutter.

If there were no size limitations to this project, the amount of slots for spray cans can easily increase, as all that needs to be added is more semi-circles of the same size, and readjusting the rectangular pieces' lengths so that they all slot into each semi-circle correctly. The limits to this spray can rack can be endless as every extra semi-circle piece adds another four slots to the rack, and can be continued indefinately.

This design could have been improved by making better use of the negative space around the ends of the semi-circle just before it hits the surface, as there is enough space to fit two more slots so that two more spray cans can sit in the rack, making a total of 6 spray cans, as shown in the last two pictures before the poster, however this design is limited to only fitting 4 spray cans, because of the lack of the use of negative space in the design.

Ross Lovegrove: Organic design

Organic design seems to be the only thing on Ross Lovegrove’s mind. He is quite literally as he said it, ‘Captain Organic’. He believes in form and the philosophical aspects hidden behind form. Through watching this video it was clear to me that the message he was sending out to me, and most probably to other industrial designers, was to take risks when designing. Don’t always follow the market trend in order to just earn money.

He believes in the driving notion to be different, and create designs which will benefit lifestyle in the future, in a natural and organic way, not just in its form, but in its entirety, that is, construction, materials, interaction, affordances, design elements, the whole lot. This idea was exacerbated in the final example he gave of his ideal car design. Although most companies ignored it, his philosophical reasoning behind it was, to me, perfection at its best. I agree that the shape of the car did not look as aerodynamic and sexy as todays concept cars, but what it does for you, your surroundings and your environment was amazing.

For me, this video meant a lot. It showed me that designing is not just about making products which are similar to todays market, but to design products which are different, in ways which benefit the users, physically, emotionally and philosophically. Although risky, designers must be risk takers in order to change the world we live in and our natural perceptions of what is right and what we prefer in our products.

Bad Design: Service Button at Fujiya Restaurant

Experience Enrichment - Peer Assesment

Project One: Experience Enrichment - Peer Assesments

1. Nicholas Walker

2. Fiona Lee

3. Julian Chow

4. Charmaine Chen

5. Glenaldy Janto

Project 1: Experience Enrichment - BC Clip

What the design is about:

Businessmen are always meeting new people and clients, and the need to constantly give out contact details is a must in order to keep in contact with clients, co-workers and friends.

The ability to quickly and easily give out one’s business card is essential, especially when there could be a big opportunity in business success if the person you just met is well known and successful. Not every businessman carries several business cards when they’re out of the office, so this design caters for the need to always have access to a supply of business cards at any time.

My design is a fashionable accessory for businessmen which also works as a business card holder. It was designed to look like a very simplistic accessory that could be worn by all businessmen in the breast pocket of their blazer, whilst also having the ability to store their personal business cards wherever they go.

The breast pocket is usually an untouched pocket for most businessmen who wear blazers, and this clip-on styled card holder makes this opportunity, allowing the user to conveniently store their business cards hidden behind their breast pocket, whilst also looking smart, fashion-forward and professional whenever they wear their blazer’s.

What the BC clip does:

The BC clip is a clip which hangs on the breast pocket of a blazer, whilst also being able to store business cards. The aluminium strip is held together by magnets which acts as a support to hold the clip in place whilst also being the cover for the slot to fill more business cards with.

What the final production model should be made of:

In the final production product, the choice of materials would have been slightly different. The aluminium strip would be replaced by stainless steel, as it removes the need for the zinc washer that I attached onto the aluminium so that the magnetic force being exerted from the magnets could draw the aluminium towards the magnet. A smaller hinge, the size of the aluminium strip (20mm) would be used, so as to compliment the minimalistic design. The main body would be made from either an aluminium or steel sheet, which could also be encased in black leather to enhance the luxurious look of the fashionable card holder.

Justifying design decisions and approach:

The model was made in MDF as making the entire body out of a single or several sheets of aluminium or steel was out of reach. Each MDF part was put together with superglue to reduce waiting time for drying, and then sprayed with several thin layers of black acrylic paint and then with a few layers of dull cote spray. I chose to have a ‘matt black’ look as I thought it would look more luxurious than a glossy black card holder, as the glossy black could be considered a cheap ‘plastic’ look.

The aluminium strip was used instead of steel because I couldn’t get any access to steel sheets as thin as the aluminium strip. I experimented with a thicker 3mm aluminium strip, but the bending process kept creating errors and mistakes and it would have taken too long to perfect. A brass hinge was used to allow the ‘L’ shaped aluminium piece to be lifted whilst still being connected to the body of the card holder. ‘Two part Epoxy’ was used to join the aluminum strip to the brass hinge. Brass was used for the hinge as it was the only material available for hinges of that size.

I decided to use magnets as a form of connection between the aluminium strip and the body of the card holder because I figured that it was the cleanest, and most simplest way of connecting the two parts even through the blazer breast pocket. However, because aluminium is not affected by the magnets, I attached a zinc washer on the aluminium strip, because zinc is affected by magnets. In the final product, steel would have been the better option as it is affected by magnets, and also eliminates the need for the zinc washer.

BC Clip Pleasure Analysis:

Physio-Pleasure:

• Magnetic connections between the aluminium clip and the card holder body for ease of use and convenience.
• Slots for fingers to glide through with ease
• Angled body for a comfortable grip on the hands
• Leather encased body for a luxurious and elegant feel.
• Placed in the breast pocket so it does not obstruct space in the trouser pockets.

Psych-Pleasure:

• Knowing that you will stand out
• Convenience of always having a business card handy
• Never worrying
• Looks like no other product on the market
• Nothing too technical or difficult

Ideo-Pleasure:

• Makes use of the hardly ever used breast pocket in blazers.
• Never need to worry about connection parts breaking because the design uses magnets.

Socio-Pleasure:

• Talking point for other people as they have never seen anything similar before.
• Makes the user look professional and fashion forward.
• Exclusivity
• Improves relationships with potential business partners

Yves Behar: Designing objects that tell stories

Through watching this video, it became very clear to me that the main idea that Yves Behar was trying to create was a sense of value within every aspect of our lives. Albeit in the initial stages of design development, to the workplace, or even in our everyday use of objects. There is always a pigment of value in different forms. What Yves was trying to convey in this video, in my opinion was that he wanted to merge all of these values, or as much values as he could, in every aspect of design, in order to create one single greater value which ties everything together, which in essence could eventually change the world.

I learnt that from watching this video, there were so many technological advances within the design world that it still amazes me that we as humans are even capable of designing such wonderful products. The jaw bone bluetooth earpiece was particularly one of my favourites, as I particularly liked the idea of the device detecting the users jaw bone movement, and which in turn will automatically perceive this action as a user talking on the headset, and so the device automatically blocks out all external noises to help in providing clear conversations.

Industrial designers could particularly benefit from watching this video as it shows designers to not only thing about the ‘skin’ or the outside appearance of the object, but however think about the merging of technology, along with the values attached to using this product, and trying to link it to a single, larger value which ties all similar objects and values together, in order to provide a more exciting and promising lifestyle in the future to come.

Don Norman: Emtional Design

In this video, Don Norman speaks to his audience about design where emotions have been used to alter, modify, or improve certain aspects of designs, to give designs, in an essence, a sense of artificial intelligence which imitates the human mind. He believes that designs based on emotions is leading us to the wrong path in the design world, as it makes simple tasks, like changing the volume on a car stereo, a lot more difficult than what it actually is, as given by the Mercedez Benz example depicted in the video.

The thought I found interesting about this video was that designers actually intend to make useless designs or designs which stand out, purely just on a social context. I still believe it to be quite a large waste of resources, time and money to manufacture and produce designs which are aesthetically stunning, however are functionally useless, like the gold plated version of Phillipe Starcks' Juicy Salif, which was not even made to be used, but rather to be talked about.

It was interesting to find that emotions have become a main factor when designing products, usually in the context on fuctionality, as a mimic to human emotions, or to suppress the unwanted human emotions, such as fear when driving at high speeds.

Emotional design can be seen in many aspects of the design world today, it may not necessarily be the most functional, or environmentally friendly, such as the Hummer car, or $13,000 watches, but they are designs which depict a certain status to the owner. Designs become conventions which the social community labels a user of particular designs to be in certain market or focus groups.

Industrial designers could find this video useful as it says a lot about the direction to which design is heading towards, and the constant failures resulting from it. It could possibly be a hint to other designers to either stay away from emotional designs, or to be an inspired by it, so that other designers can successfully implement emotional driven designs and rid humans of the constant negative emotions which we all do not wish for in our lives.

Task 2: Good Design - ALLONGÉ GSB

At first thought, creating a poster for an already successful design seemed easy, as all of it's main features and functions were already highlighted in the description of the award winning design. However, as time progressed, it became quite clear that this task was actually a lot more difficult than I first thought. The task of heavily summarising the description in just a few sentences, whilst also reflecting on the visual design elements, it became quite clear that the challenge was not only to make the poster neat, and aesthetically pleasing, but also to consider the use of positive and negative space in order to enhance the visual appeal of the poster.

The idea of the rear view of the car coming out of the page was actually accidently, but I considered its positioning and I found it to be actually quite pleasing, so I stuck with it as I believed it gave direction to future decisions in the design of my poster. In saying that, the shadows of the interior picture was actually a result of the decision to make the car come 'out of the page', as the shadows seemed to give the poster a little more depth and third dimensional element to it.

The main challenges which I came across in this task was initially the issue of proportion and scaling when enlarging a photo from another source. Then the next challenge which I came to believe to be quite frustrating was the task of creating borders. It didn't seem to work for me after a good hour of playing around in photoshop so I decided the manual way was best, which was to draw four straight lines in order to make the border.

The last problem I seemed to have encountered in the final stages of my poster project was the hard copy. The print was warped and shifted along the page and so the print was not in aligned with the proper paper measurements, and hence the poster does not look anywhere near as pleasing as the online submission. I did not re-print the hardcopy poster as each print set me down $3.80 so I figured that the online submission would be the first source of visual assessment rather than the hardcopy.

All in all, I think that my final poster (minus the hard copy) looks aesthetically pleasing and almost resembles an advertisement in a magazine for the award winning Allonge GSB hearse.

David Kelley: Human Centred Design

David Kelley brings the viewers towards another dimension of product design. He introduces a broader definition of design, one that is influenced by human behavior in order to give rise to new areas of focus and research for innovative design solutions. As a result, designers have become more amalgamated into businesses, giving designers a greater role in the market trade.

From watching the video, it became clear that design has evolved dramatically from the first products ever to be designed. Designs have not only just become objects and tools, but have also become a part of every day living, as they help to further improve the needs and wants of the varying consumers markets of today.

A strong example of this was shown in the presentation of the Prada store in New York, where designers have put together a system of technological innovation which helps to better improve a customers experience whilst in store.

The most intriguing design in the store which I found to have most interest in, was the virtual fitting display monitors. Whereby, customers and store staff make use of the multiple RF scanners around the store to pick and choose which item of clothing which fascinates them, and the virtual fitting program allows a customer to see what the actual item looks like on them without the need of actually putting them off. I found this as a remarkable discovery and of which could eventually even eliminate the need for dressing rooms in stores as the virtual fitting guide is a lot quicker, and less tedious than trying on items of clothing.

Design focus and direction changes as time progresses, and not always will the same methodology and approach to design bring about success. That is why it is almost imperative for designers to be constantly up to date with new discoveries and opportunities within the design industry, with the designs in David Kelley’s presentation being a adequate source of guidance towards what the focus is in the world of design to this present day.

Task 1: Shape of a Scent

Initially, I thought that the task of visually representing a scent seemed a very difficult task, however, as my mind started to visualize and think in a more ‘out of the box’ manner, it was clear that in order to represent a scent, it must first be brainstormed and mind mapped to a point where a clear or at least a convincing sense of direction can be established.

The scent our group was given was ‘O’, and it smelt quite feminine and fruity at first, however, as time progressed and as we thought about opening the satchel, the smell was evidently quite strong and perhaps a little masculine, as the fruity smell seemed to dissipate, and the more masculine scents came into play within my nose. The main categories which our group found to be most useful in visually representing our scents were complication, floral, and feminine.

The actual process of putting pen to physical moulding was quite difficult. Words which seemed to have a visual meaning turned out to be more complicated than I initially thought it was.



The focus of the first image was to create a simple rendition of my train of though when I smelt the scent. The main thought moved from a simple strikingly obvious feminine fruity scent, to a more masculine yet metrosexual scent with a slight fruity aspect to it. This is shown through the different levels and shapes of the surfaces. The straight cut square edged surfaces dominate the figure as it was the main overriding though, whereas the circular surfaces represents the feminine aspect with is curved surfaces being indicative of a woman’s curvaceous body.



When creating the shape in the second image, my goal was to create an emphasis on the feminine category of the scent, as the curved like surface was representative of the curvaceous and slender feeling of a woman’s body, which exacerbated the feminine aspect of the scent. The straight flat surfaces we’re a representation of facades, as the different angles of flat surfaces is representative of the different directions and emotions I felt when smelling the scent. Whereby, the biggest example of a change in direction of thought was when we moved from a feminine scent to a more masculine but still a faintly fruity scent, which implies a more metrosexual type scent.



The third image and the final image are similar to each in their idea, with the last one being the final figure that was presented. The idea and thought processes behind each design was very similar though. In that, they were both trying to convey the story of my thought process when smelling the scent. For the third image, the story begins more at the centre, at the main body of the figure, with the interestingly simple curved tube being indicative of the scent being a feminine scent, with the curves resembling that of a woman’s body (as stated above). The next piece in the focal point is the open flower with the weird twist in the middle, whereby I was trying to represent the twist and change of thought direction after opening the scent satchel. The ideas of feminine visual aspects and moved towards a more masculine aspect, which exacerbates the complicated category in which our group agreed upon. The last part in the story was just a further rendition of the masculine aspect with the (almost) straight edges of the square shape at the end of the figure, representing a clean cut shaven man.



The idea behind the final image is very similar to the third, in that the only major changes were the the focal point started with a simple line vector which twirled in the beginning to show the sense of complication and confusion when deciphering the scent, and as the trail continues, the thickness of the tube began to become larger and larger to represent the more broader and bigger body shape of a man, as opposed to the thin slender shapes of a woman, as was indicative of the thinner tubes in the beginning. The rest of the body’s shape had the same explanation as the third image, with the only modification being that the open flower had a twirling tube which was coming out towards to viewer, and getting larger and thicker as the twirl opens up more, which further strengthens the idea behind the change of thought processes of the scent being more masculine than feminine.

All in all, the task was fun, challenging, and a bit disgusting (just trying to get the plasticine off my hands). If more time was allocated, a more solid structure could have obviously been formed, but I was still satisfied with my end result.