I realized looking back through my posts this semester that the only class I'm really blogging about is CFC 3 and Designer Bootcamp (to a lesser extent). That's really a shame, because all my classes have been really interesting and challenging.
I don't think I've really said much about the myPod since the first model, but I'm finished with it now. I don't have any pictures of the finished model, it went into a display case pretty quick. So I'm waiting to get it out and take some pictures. You can check it out at my website, umich.edu/~petemh. I'll probably end up posting the finished images there first.
I'll just get you up to speed on Dimensional Languages (a design semiotics course) and Sketching Ideas here quick.
For dimensional Lang., we spent the first half of the semester working on buttons. I felt we were kind of spinning our wheels, the project should have lasted half as long, but I believe now that I felt that way because I was never really engaged with the project and never completely understood what Jan Hendrick (the prof) was trying to teach us. For the last month we've been working on salt and pepper shakers, or grinders in my case, that are inspired by prose, poetry and factual text on salt and pepper. It's been one of the most challenging project I've ever worked on, but I am really learning allot about the intimacy and language of form.
I spent most of the project trying to encompass both a salt and pepper grinder in one form, but really got stuck and never really moved past something that looked like a finger. So, I completely reworked the design this past week, working on grinders that for one, separated salt and pepper like normal, and worked on a squeezing motion. You squeeze the lever, it turns the grinder. I'm ironing out the form details this weekend and I'm going to have the most promising forms printed on the rapid prototyping machines from Rhino and pick my final model from there. I'm really excited about this project.
My first sketch model.
The creepy finger version. The whole thing rotated about the cut lines. Salt came from the top, pepper the bottom. The grand failure of this model is that I have to explain that to you.
Even if the idea did suck, I didn't let it go. Here are Rhino models I pretty much wasted my time on. Oh well, learn from your mistakes!
Early squeeze versions.In Sketching Ideas, we've spent the whole semester drawing. Not still life or figure drawing, but drawing out ideas so as to effectively portray your concepts. It's pretty much an industrial design sketching course. Which is just perfect. It's taught by a designer for Ford, Chiwei Lee, who is pretty awesome himself. I've never had as much work for a course as I have for this one, but I am certainly getting better at sketching.
I'm working on my final design project for Sketching Ideas, we got to define our own project. I'm working on designing a commuter bicycle for people in the city and am trying to look at the bicycle and it's accessories as a system, integrating everything together to work as one perfect machine. Of course, being a biker, I am in love with this project. It's a hell of a lot of drawing though.
Oh and for our final project in Designer Bootcamp, we are all working on a few different projects as a class, I picked redesigning a pooper scooper. I'm not as invested in this project as I am in the bike, but they can't all be the coolest project ever.
Oh, and of course, there's always sophomore review to think about right now too. I've got the basis of it together, my theme is Simple Problems Are Incredibly Complicated. I'm focusing my presentation, which is pretty much a summing up of the past two years of A&D, on the myPod, salt and pepper grinders, ant farm from CFC III, commuter bicycle, and my branded baby puzzle from CFC II. I've still got some planning and to do for the presentation, which is April 24th for me.
Oh, my digital portfolio has been updated. umich.edu/~petemh Tell me what you think!
Thanks for reading!
