Pooper Scooper Ideation

Last night I decided to change my pooper scooper idea for Designer Bootcamp, and that's after working out a different idea pretty well, but never being happy with it at all. It was best described as a collapsable hiking pole with a fish net on the end. It was for the elderly. It was boring, and unimaginative. 

So I changed my target consumer. Namely to one that could bend over easily. 

I'm working on a design that is A: inspired by existing designer home appliances and tools such as the Dirt Devil Kone, and B: takes it form language from the word 'scoop'. I'm aiming the product at young, urban 20 and 30 somethings who are living space challenged, style savvy, environmentally conscious dog lovers.

Just some ideation from last night.

Thanks for reading. I'll post how it turns out!

Two Weeks.

Phew, only 2 weeks left this semester. Everything is happening all at once, each studio has a project due in the next week and then I've got a week to really pull my sophomore review together.

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!

Heere Mousey Mousey! Part 2

Testing has occurred. I tried model one and two.

First, Model Two is below.

I made model 2 longer so the ramps were less steep and made it easier for the mouse to climb up.

I also added a side door, held by magnets so you can easily get the mouse out after you've caught him.

There are heavy steel bars along the floor so he can't knock the whole thing over and get out!

Thanks for reading!

Heeere Mousey Mousey!

In designer bootcamp we are making humane mouse traps. Pretty much having fun with simple mechanics and physics to catch mice!

We are limited on our materials and systems we could use to: bass wood, acrylic/polystyrene, gravity, magnets, elasticity, and wire forming. Also, the simpler the better.


I designed mine using the simple principle of a trap door. All the mouse has to do is walk to the cheese and he is caught! The doors flip over and the doors latch against each other so the mouse can't push his way out. Some people had these rather complicated designs where it was dubious to think the mouse would actually even set off the trap.





This is my first model, after presenting it to the class last week I'm changing the trap doors to lay closer to flat to the top surface and be easier to trip when the mouse walks on them, adding a small door on the side ramps to let the mouse out once you've caught him and improving the graphics.

The new exit door.

I'm showing it on Tuesday with the improvements. Hopefully Shaun will bring some real mice and we can test these suckers out!

Thanks for reading!

Thumb Replacements For Tired Hitchhikers!

A week or two ago in Designer Bootcamp we learned how to make these super simple molds. Simply mix two playdoughy compounds together (I forget what they were made of) and mold it around what ever you want, we did our fingers. Me specifically, I did my thumb. You let the chemicals do the their thing and it sets up with a duromoter much the same as a bouncy ball.


Then, you fill the molds you just made of your thumb with epoxy! We did both clear and white epoxy. It was amazing the detail that the mold making got. Even the ridges on my knuckles and the lines on my skin!




Really this was all just to learn a new process, not for a certian project, but it was pretty fun. It's also nice to have a day where your not 'on' all day. Our class made that's what she said jokes the whole 3 hours. It was good.

Thanks for reading!

myPod Docking Station

For Designer Bootcamp we're designing the standard, the everybody makes one at design school, the ubiquitous iPod dock. This is actually the second iPod thing I've designed, the other was a speaker dock back in mech. engineering (link is to some old concept sketches, the actual manufactured one sucked, my group knew nothing about design, they decided on some super boring design that didn't work). This one is much more interesting. I didn't have to rely on engineers!

I had a few criteria for myself on the dock

-easy access
-display iPod
-charge/sync iPod
-easily store ear buds
-keep the aesthetic of Apple and the iPod
-good design semantics (simple to understand how to use it)

My basic original idea. (out of many, we all had to have several concepts worked out).

The initial foam model, ear buds stored in lower compartment.

The iPod lays down over it all covering up the unsightly ear bud cords, just displaying the sleek lines of the iPod.

Prototype #1 was built with Rhino (the Mac beta! it works well) and Adobe Illustrator, then made with laser cut 1/4"MDF board stacked, spray painted, and then vacuum formed with clear polystyrene over it. The clear material really gives a beautiful shine on top of the red coat on the base.

I learned with the foam model that the ear buds need a deeper cavity to store them with out pushing up the iPod, so, I made it deeper and wider by cutting the back supports for the iPod body into pillars, acquired almost 1.5 square inches!

Of course, it's got syncing/charging ability!

The red color doesn't really hold the Apple aesthetic (unless you look back at those old colorful iMacs!). The next iteration will be white. Also, I want to round out those hard edges on the inside of the dock, give them a small radius as hard corners are rare on Apple products.
I'm also concerned with the bulk of dock, I'm going to look into slimming it down.

Up next, refinement of the current prototype #1.

Thanks for reading!

Laser Cutting 101

Yes, I've had lots of experience with the laser cutter before, but for Designer Bootcamp we're getting some more! Shaun wanted to see where we stood on our thinking in 3-d, so we made 4"x4" cubes and 4" diameter spheres on the laser cutter out of foam core. They had to fit together with friction. It was pretty fun actually, easy assignments are always appreciated!

I tried to make my cube feel like a building with a friction held pillar system.




My sphere, nothing to amazing really. It's a sphere!




We're working on iPod charging stations currently. I'll post my ideas on that soon.

Thanks for reading!

Gonna kill me or make me strong (like Super Man strong).

This is going to be one tough semester. One and a half weeks in and I'm tired like we've been going for a month.

The culprit is chiefly Sketching Ideas. I'm certainly going to get better at drawing, of which my skills are admittedly, at best, weak. Over the long weekend we have 13 hours of drawing. A good amount of time, the majority of it on 40 concepts for a new R2-D2. That's actually pretty cool, robots are sweet. Oh and we have to go to the Detroit Auto Show this weekend to take pictures. Fun (not really). I have little interest in cars, but hopefully the interesting concepts will make it bearable.

Designer Bootcamp and Dimensional Languages are going well, I'm enjoying both, neither is a huge amount of work, yet. I'm sure I'll get some really busy times when those two get going.

Either way, I've got to get to class. We start the Penny Stamps lecture series tonight, a U of M A&D prof is talking, Nick Tobier, I had him for ADP II, and really like him. Really cool guy.

Thanks for reading, I'll post some images later, maybe some of my concepts for R2-D2.

All New Semester, All New Problems, All New Issues

Well, I had three glorious weeks at home, but all good things must come down, or all objects must end? Who the hell knows? Either way classes start on Wednesday and I'm a bit nervous. This is my first semester taking pure product design classes (Designer Bootcamp, Sketching Ideas, Dimensional Languages). I'm a bit intimidated by my profs, I think because I don't know them really that well at all yet, and it's the first time I've heard about my profs before the class starts.

I am excited however for classes. I switched schools to take product design classes. I'm looking forward to them. I'm decidedly not looking forward to CFC III. Worst. Series of classes. Ever.

Wish me luck! Thanks for reading!