so much for knocking…

…opportunity is pretty much beating down my door. Yesterday, I got some fantastic news–the College of Architecture at Georgia Tech is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and there will be a big celebration/bonanza/party at the end of the semester. For the event, Tristan Al Haddad will be creating another installation for the Architecture building, and my furniture design class will be designing, fabricating, and installing the seating for the event!  The overall focus of the class is to design parametrically, so that a design can be easily adapted and customized while maintaining design intent, and the installation will be focused on reactivity, kinetic motion, how the body exists in space, and “first spaces.”

Some questions to drive our design:

How can one systematize not so that the design becomes fixed but so it becomes flexible?

How can we define structure? Structure is simply parts and the relationships between them.

I feel like this opportunity is a once-in-a-lifetime deal–also like our studio trip to New York. I never imagined how rich this semester would be… I might not sleep much between now and April, but I feel like these next few months are going to be some of the most rewarding ones of my life!
Over the weekend, I need to work on building a portfolio, finalize the form for my kitchen appliances, develop the interface for the appliances, create a mood board for the furniture project, finish up my Alias project, and study for the materials exam. I better get to work!

unstuck

I feel like I hit a wall in the form development stage a few days ago, but I’m working my way out of it now. I just need to keep sketching, and then I need to sketch some more. So, for this occasion, I’m going to choose to sketch rather than to blog.

time for me to fly…

So, I think I’ve got a pretty solid volume of research for all three of my appliances at this point. Now I just have to move into sketching. This is really the part of the process I have the hardest time with. It seems like most people enjoy this part, but it’s really challenging for me. I feel like I need to know all the details before I put pen to paper, but that really limits what I come up with. I have to try to be more loose with my sketches so that I can come up with more interesting ideas. That’s assuming I can come up with ideas, period. I think I just need to get to work. I’ll post my progress as I go.

improvement

I’ve been thinking about my project a lot today. The focus has shifted a little. My “kitchen machine” is a food processor, blender, and mixer all in one, but that’s only one product. The purpose of the assignment is to design three. So… what about the other two? The premise of the kitchen machine is that there is one motor for all the appliances. This one motor powers any kind of activity you’d need to do in the kitchen which is based on a spinning blade, hook, etc. So, what other activities are there that can be shared? There’s water heating: steaming, boiling water for tea, coffee, etc., cooking noodles or rice. There’s also dry heating: toasting, baking, broiling, grilling. I’ve got two very different directions I could go with this.

One–Large Scale. Redesign a range/oven/kitchen machine so that it takes up minimal space. Maybe they could still be one volume. Would that bring me back to the original problem, though? It seems like it could be a good idea. The ultimate kitchen tool. Any other kitchen appliance beyond these would just be a convenience–even a microwave isn’t really necessary if you have a range and an oven.

Two–Standalone. Have separate items, resting on counter or mounted to wall/cabinets/countertop. Each item is a mega-appliance–the boss of its appliance type. You have the kitchen machine, immersion heater, and dry heater. I suppose these would be most likely to result in three separate forms. But my question is, do you really need a toaster oven AND a large oven? Do you really need a water heating vessel other than a pot and stovetop? What if you only need the small ones–that could be an interesting approach.

I’m just not too sure where to go from here. I worked really hard all last week, and now I’m starting to feel like I won’t have anything concrete by tomorrow. I was headed that way, but now I feel like I’ve just hit a wall. Hum.

On a different note, I’ve been watching YouTube tutorials today, too. One of my new goals is to be awesome at sketching. I’m pretty mediocre right now, but if I practice enough, I could probably get pretty good. Marker and pastel renderings look so awesome–I’d really love to be able to do them well. Then again, with 3D computer software, is it still worth learning how to crank out a really hefty sketch?

workin’ hard…

Today I went to some retail stores (William Sonoma, Macy’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, Crate & Barrel) and interviewed the sales staff. I asked questions about how people choose the products they’re going to buy, and I got some interesting answers. One of the more surprising ones was from the guy at Crate & Barrel, who said the more “sophisticated” customers tend to think that multi-task appliances (read: the foundation of my concepts) are gimmicky and lower in quality. That made me start thinking–I know these “kitchen machines” exist. I’ve even used one. I believe. But I’ve never seen one in a store. The closest I’ve seen are combination blenders/food processors. So, I started investigating. Apparently, they’re mostly popular in Europe. Here in the U.S., there’s a very cult-ish following for them. Health nuts and people who do a lot of baking are really into them. These are people who cook all of their meals at home. If they’re dedicated to these products, that means they’re good. They work. So, how can I prove to everyone else that they’re good machines? I was starting to feel like I should give up. If people don’t know about it, they won’t want to buy it. However, now I’m starting to feel like I may have stumbled upon a Mr. Coffee moment. Maybe…

Also, I’ve been researching patents. Lots and lots of line drawings and fine print. I figure if these appliances have been mostly the same for 50-60 years, there has to be a pretty good reason why. So, maybe I can learn a thing or two about motors and gears and how these things work. Nifty.

…in progress

So, I’m about knee-deep in Amazon reviews. I’ve been looking up products which are similar to what I want to design (they’re called “kitchen machines”) and checking out what people like and dislike about them. It’s given me some ideas. First of all, I think it helped me find my target demographic. I think I’m going to aim this toward housewives. Not necessarily Mrs. Cleaver types, but women who do the cooking in their families and enjoy it. In the spirit of feminism, I’d like to steer clear of perpetuating stereotypes, but I think there are still plenty of people who fit into my target demographic without having to force them into it. From the reviews I’ve read, one thing that absolutely must not be sacrificed in order for my design to succeed is the functionality. It seems like the thing that makes people satisfied with their kitchen machine over another product is that it gets the job done. It’s a powerful and well-designed machine, so I need to put an emphasis on communicating that. However, people also seem to value quietness during operation.

Anyway, I’ve got some work cut out for me. Hopefully, I’ll be able to sell these concepts by Wednesday!

3 products

mixer, blender, food processor

I hope these aren’t going to be boring choices… My plan is to integrate a shared motor among all three devices. I’d also like to take the approach of improving cleanability and usability over conventional forms.

Time to get crackalackin’…

It slices! It dices! It Juliennes fries!

Today marked the beginning of our new project–the kitchen appliance family project. I’ve seen other students do this project for two years, and I’ve been looking forward to it. I just want to do a good job with it. That said, I feel a little rushed to figure out which three appliances I want to design. I want to have a meaningful connection between the appliances because I feel like that’s an inherent part of being a “family.” I’ve thought about including some sort of shared element among the three, maybe a heating element or a motor. Is this really innovative, though? I’d like to do something unique and interesting with this project, so I don’t want to do something that’s been done a million times over. On the other hand, I want it to be useful and desirable, too. My personal philosophy about kitchen appliances is that no product should do only one thing. Devices that do this, such as toasters, are kind of a waste of space. A toaster oven is much more versatile, and to me, that makes it a better product. If you’re going to buy a piece of equipment to live forever on your kitchen counter, it better be well worth the space it takes up. That being said, there are some times when you may want to use two (or three) machines at the same time. How can I choose three appliances that wouldn’t overlap? Or better yet, how can I allow the appliances to overlap without inconveniencing the user? Most urgently, what are three appliances that are worth improving?

3 words

My 3 words to inspire my dinnerware set design are:

casual, gentle, compact

It should be casual enough to be used everyday. The form should appear gentle, not overly harsh or complex. Also, it should be able to be stored neatly.