Back to school kiddies!

Ah, summer went so fast. It was busy, and I'll get you up to speed quickly.

Moved back to my parents house (Grand Rapids, Mi), got married (best part of summer), went to Cozumel, Mexico, moved to Ann Arbor with my new wife (Kara Mia!), worked full time at bike shop, started school today. It was a great, busy summer. I'm not sure if I want it to end!

But either way, it's back to school! Design!

I've had one class so far, More w/ Less. It's a sustainable design course with Jan Hendrick, one of my profs from last semester. I'm quite excited about it.

My courses are

More w/ Less Jan Hendrick-Anderson

This course focuses on developing a sustainable material future; how material use and form are integral to designing objects, and how to design with a keen eye on resources, energy and environmental impact. The visual/physical form language of sustainability is an important component. The focus is hands-on with direct approaches to reducing the carbon footprint of objects by way of planning, fabricating, testing and evaluating functional prototypes. This practical approach is supported by readings and course literature, discussions and demonstrations.

Smart Surfaces (I am super excited / nervous about this course) John Marshall

Smartsurfaces offers a collaborative, project-based learning experience in which artists, designers, architects and engineers come together to build physical systems and structural surfaces that have the capability to adapt to information and environmental conditions. The course operates as a multidisciplinary, hands-on think-tank where participants pool their knowledge and skill sets to work together to produce environmentally sound and socially responsible projects. Public exhibition of these funded projects provides an opportunity for participants to present their work to a wider audience and to review their achievements. Projects make use of the resources available to all participating university units, such as: parametric modeling, digital fabrication, networked sensors, micro-controller programming, and energy harvesting using solar cells and nano-structured materials. This course is a collaborative endeavor led by three professors who will advise and contribute to all team projects. Teams will make use of visiting lecturers, specialists, site visits, and relevant stakeholder organizations.

Making Furniture John Baird

Students carry on the tradition of propping up our skeletons by considering ergonomic, economic, esthetic and engineering aspects of making furniture -- as preparation to designing and building well-crafted chairs, tables, or other furnishings that entice the eye, tease the mind, and cradle the body. Students with skills in 3-D computer modeling may use 3-D models for visualization and for cutting out parts on a computer-controlled 4-axis mill. A refresher on joinery and characteristics of wood provided. Some "sketching" in 3-D materials to aid invention of furniture ideas used. The final project is one or more pieces of furniture that manifest a vigorous conceptual and formal synergy.

ADP 3 Tech/Environment Joe Trumpey

This is the last of the A(rt)D(esign)P(erspectives) courses that I'm required to take. I've heard good and bad about this course, it is either amazing, or a total waste of time. Tales of making friends with trees have reached my ears. We'll see.

Thanks for reading.

I didn't even know they gave A+ at Michigan.

Well all the grades are in. It was a hell of a semester. I am way better for it and much smarter than 5 months ago. I ended with a Pass, B-, B, B+, and the elusive A+. Heck yeah, Designer Bootcamp! Worked my butt off and it payed off big time.

I'm working at Terra Trike for a month and a half before the wedding June 19th. I'm really thankful to have the job with the way the economy is. I'm both glad and annoyed that I have 2 more years of school left. I've got 5 under my belt already thanks to the engineering to art/design transfer. I am so incredibly ready to be done with school, my younger sister even graduates this weekend. I am really happy for her and really wish I was graduating too. I've had my college experience, I don't care about parties and how much you drank last night one bit. It gets old sometimes having classes with people who were in middle school when I was graduating high school. Most people I have meet at Michigan A&D are great, mature, creative people who I'm very glad I know. But man oh man, there are some exceptions. Thanks to all the good ones.

On the other hand, I'm kinda glad I'm not graduating right now. The economy is in the toilet, it's trying to climb out, and is making progress, but it's certainly not in a good state right now. I'm glad that I don't have to start my career right now and have two more years of school for the economy to right itself. I have friends who graduated last year and this year who are still looking for jobs in their fields. I don't envy them right now.

Anyways, if I do anything A&D related over the summer, I'll post it. Such as, when I get a free moment (read after the wedding) I'll post pictures of the finished ABS plastic salt and pepper grinders. They are awesome.

Thanks for reading!

The Semester From Hell

Well grades are rolling in one by one. So far I've got a B, a B+ and a Pass. I'm waiting for my last two classes. 

My sophomore review went pretty well, Ed West (a professor) only called me lazy 3 times, he has a bit of a rep for being a jerk and he lived up to it. I'll update on that when I get all my grades back and give a big semester run down. I'm so relieved to be done with that semester, it was really hell and shall from here on be referred to as the "Semester From Hell". Yep, crafted by the devil himself (OK, maybe not that bad, but I didn't sleep much that's for sure). 

On a good note, I'm done with the CFC series! They are a poorly conceived series of classes on Concept, Form and Context. Michigan could do so much with these classes, but really squanders the opportunity. Like so much at Michigan, your experience with a course is so heavily biased by which professor you get, each one runs what is supposed to be the same course, differently by section. It's really just luck if you get a good section. I got a good one for CFC 3, and that made the class better, but these classes  could be so much more! 

I am back home at my parents now (Grand Rapids, Mi) and working at Terra Trike again for a few months before the wedding on June 19th. It's really nice to be back, I can ride my bike, see my fiancee (the best part by far), and not constantly think about school. 

Thanks for reading!

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!

CyCle. An Everyday Solution to an Everyday City.

I presented my commuter bicycle concept to my Sketching Ideas class yesterday. It went really well. I'll let my images speak for my design and the target consumer. 

This project was conceived, rendered and presented in a little over 3 weeks.

Oh, the presentation went perfectly. I was told I had a great idea and certainly the best delivery of the idea. One classmate commented, that my presentation convinced him that he needed one too! Which, is good!

Thanks for reading!

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!

Ribbon of Dirt - Inpiration

I presented my latest CFC project today for the nature inspiration project.

Here is the run down.

Ribbon Of Dirt

I derive much of my joy and fun in life from small ribbons of dirt winding its way through the woods. Hours upon hours spent exploring these ribbons have thoroughly accustomed me to their specific bobs, drops and twists. But although I know them like a lover, they surprise me and challenge me and leave my body and soul thriving for more. In the same way a person can be spontaneous, so can these sporadic ribbons of dirt. New obstacles fall and are thrown in my path, but they simply are highlights on each new ride through my own personal amusement park.

Like a roller coaster I ride the natural dips, the natural hills. These ribbons are my muses where I work out the complexities and concerns of creative life. Every new ride clears my entirety, like a brand new day, and gives me the inspiration to carry on creating.

Pete Hall




My class mostly liked it and appreciated the way I had arranged it on the wall. I was quite happy with myself, I had this one pretty well thought out and had answers for most of the their questions (example, why did you not have it come in from white to color like you have it fade out? Well, because I know where I've been, what's ahead is always changing and new. Pwned that question.).

Thanks for reading!

Welcome!

Thanks for moving over with me to theprocessoftheproduct.

I'll be keeping you updated here from now on.

Thanks for reading!

Blog Changes Coming

Think of this as a P.S.A.

In a weeks time, I will be changing the web address that this blog is posted to. Currently you read me at aplusdequalsm.blogspot.com but in a push to give myself a unified web presence under the PeterMartinHall. banner I will be changing this site to more reflect how I use this blog as a sounding board and an update medium on my projects and less as my base on the web. I hope to have my digital portfolio site umich.edu/~petemh be my professional web home base. I will continute to use my flickr and my Facebook as my social and less professional web base. If you'd like to be Facebook friends with me, search me (Pete Hall, see I'm less professional there, I drop the r and the Martin!) and send me a message your a follower of this blog. Make sure you send me the message, other wise I might now know who you are!

So, since this site is about how I work through design issues and projects, the site will be changing to theprocessoftheproduct.blogspot.com in one weeks time. So next week Thursday, March 12, the site will be switching over. Make a note and preemptively bookmark the site, it won't be live yet, but you'll be prepared!

Thanks for reading, I hope you all make the jump with me! And no, I will not be jumping on the Twitter bandwagon anytime soon. I don't have that much to say!

Ant Farm

I presented the ant farm today in CFC, it went over quite well, I'm pretty happy with it.

The ants are doing great so far, and for only being in the sand for 3 days, they've started to tunnel a bit even. I only seem to have lost one or two ants so far (that's lost as in they've died, not gotten out), I assume they died when Kara and I put them in.

The piece was presented on a pedestal with my placard on the front explaining the piece. Shiva seemed to like it, and people kept coming back over to see it throughout the course of the class. Which I'm taking as a huge compliment. I think this may be my first cfc project that everyone likes, professor, class and me! Normally, I like it and the prof likes it but the class doesn't, or (more common) I like it kinda, but am unhappy overall, and no one else likes it either, so everyone liking a cfc piece of mine is a nice change.

The placard read,

Ant Farm

I aim to explore the harnessing of the environment by humans for our own benefit, be it frivolous, harmless uses like an ant farm or more serious uses, both in implementation and effects, such as disposal of pollutants. We dramatically change our environment and are thus limited by it, as we use our resources inefficiently we change the physical properties of what makes our environment, our environment. I aim to show this through ants constricted in an ant farm. Much the same as humans, the ants are constrained by their environment and they change their environment as they move the dirt but they are ultimately constrained by it and they changes they make. There is only so much space to move dirt in the ant farm, just as we only have so many resources.

Similarly, if we pollute a freshwater lake and abuse its ecosystem, we lose the lake as a source of drinking water and food. The ants only have a limited food supply; they must efficiently use what food is supplied to them to keep their colony alive. When their food supply runs out, they die. When we ruin our environment, we face the same pressures and consequences.

Pete Hall







The actual ant farm itself is made out of laser cut 1/4" clear cast arylic and an acid that melts arcylic and then lets it harden again to create a seemless bond where two pieces of acrylic meet whose name I can't remember.
The ants are harvester ants (who can apparently bite!) and have a limited food supply of seeds and other foliage and are living in simple sand substrate. I got them from antsalive.com.

Thanks for reading!

Ants!

I bought ants a while back. Their still in the mail, I hope they make it here by Wednesday for my CFC Ecology project (I'm making an ant colony!). I bought it from one of those sites you never knew existed, but when you need them, hey! there is a site that sells ants and ant food! AntsAlive.com!

Thanks for reading!

Conceptually Unfinished

Ah, CFC, how I dislike you.

So, the unnatural project for CFC III. I find it so hard to spend time on CFC classes in general, I'm more interested in my other courses, that my CFC projects really end up suffering. Case in point, the unnatural project.

My idea was to do something with a little Hindu girl named Laskshmi in India born with 8 limbs (4 legs, 4 arms) because of being born with a parasitic twin attached to her at the hips (no extra head). She was revered in India as a goddess, specifically the goddess Lakshmi, who she is named after. The rest of the world did not. So I was going to picture the little girl coming out of a lotus flower (which the goddess is normally pictured coming out of), thing is, I waited till last Monday to start. It was of course due Wednesday! So my lotus came out nicely, but I didn't give myself enough time to make the girl work, so I left it out. Big mistake.

Alone the lotus flower was nice, but had not one bit of concept. Opps.

The frame was made out of some nice stiff jewelry wire and lots of masking tape.

Then I wrapped it in pink tissue paper.

Added some green leaves and viola! a lotus with no concept!

Oh well, it's over now. I'll do better from now on and actually give myself time to work on CFC, no matter how uninteresting it is.

Thanks for reading, and Shiva (my cfc prof) if your reading this, sorry for coming to class with such a poor project.

826 Michigan Window Robot

I can not believe I never posted the finished 826 Michigan robot! I just realized that my header image here at A plus D equals Me and my welcome image at my website, umich.edu/~petemh, both use the robot and I've never really shown him here! So, here goes!

Well it's pretty simple all together actually, the robot was made as an incandescent window dressing model to attract attention night and day to the 826 Michigan robot storefront. 826 Michigan is a "non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write." After tutoring there a few times for CFC II, I did the robot as way to give back.

Why a robot? Well the original 826 tutoring location in San Fransisco had a clause in it's building lease that they needed to have a store front, so they put up a pirate supply store, kinda as a joke. Except now the store is very profitable and helps to drive the free tutoring programs for the kids. It is now a tradition for all 826 locations around the nation to have a store front, Michigan chose a robot supply store and called it Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair. How awesome is that for kids, get tutoring at the robot store! If you want to visit, it's here in Ann Arbor at 115 East Liberty Street a few blocks away from campus towards Main St.

826 Michigan Storefront

The robot himself (if it was a real robot, it would be programed to be a guy I've decided, a guy robot who waves hi!), was designed in Adobe Illustrator, and made out of 1/4" amber acrylic which was laser cut and then stacked and fastened together. His eyes light up when he is plugged in and his whole head glows! Which, of course, is awesome!





Hope you like him, it's one of my favorite things I've done at Michigan. I mean a light up robot? Please.

Thanks for reading!