Talk To The Workers

As I finish my chair one last challenge has risen- how to attach legs to the fiberglass base! When I dropped my fiberglass piece off I talked to a worker who after discussing my dilemma for a while posed the thought, what if you fiberglassed the legs into the chair… so the stainless steel legs would be held into the chair with fiberglass. As I've been thinking about this deciding if this is a viable option I've considered the pros and the cons. 


Pros:
1) It's a one step process, you can shoot the fiberglass seat with the legs sitting on top of the mold allowing you to shoot the connection at the same time. This is incredibly important now as we are about to head into Memorial Day Weekend and my final critique is next Friday.
2) According to the man who chops the fiberglass for a living, the fiberglass is incredibly strong and won't break.


Cons:
1) If this is such a good solution, why has no one done this before? 
2) What if this fails… Is a failure like this really accepted during this project? It's taking an educated risk, and is that alright?


I still am not sure what will happen but I hope it's good news!

Inspired by the motion pictures

I often blog about movies since I see a new one every week. However last week I went to see Thor and was pleased but saddened at the same time. At its core, Thor is a film about a guy with a really big Wakko Hammer (Animaniacs reference, also known as a mallet) versus a guy with a really big glowing ice cube. However once you get past its dismal plot, the art for it was astounding. Every aspect of the movie was well thought out and fit the scene extremely well. Although this seems like a small detail, it's rather important. As much as I love the Aeron Chair it bugs me when a movie is showing a conference room for either a start up company, or just a rather poor company and the table is surrounded by furniture that costs $3,000 per piece. Thor however didn't have anything out of place and infact helped push what we consider to be possible. This level of detail is what made the movie truly enjoyable.

Famous Chairs

When you think of a famous chair, chances are it was designed by a man. This has a lot to do with the fact that for a while only men really entered the workforce, and how time really allows a product to reach it's true potential. With this in mind, I still think that there need to be more female furniture designers. I hope in the future, after time has increased the desirability and popularity of a chair, this image can be recreated with women involved.

Blogging

I like to use blogging as a way for me to express my thoughts of design in a virtual way. It's easier to express my thoughts on my designs and progress especially when it comes to my chair and to my progress in my design communications. I wish it became a daily activity for me and I hope to try to improve that in the future.

Who is Calli?

Calli is my chair. In fact she's the first product I've given a female personality. I like to feel like she's a self portrait. She reflects me, weird spelling of a name as well. She's made of fiberglass and stainless steel. Although when I set out at the beginning of the quarter I had a design in mind, and a material in mind, however these 2 things disagreed and became impractical when combined. Things were compromised and the design stayed and material changed to something more forgiving, like fiberglass. I'm very excited for the result.

Inspiring Quotes

"In order to create something that functions properly- a container, a chair, a house, its essence has to be explored." Walter Gropius


"Evoke an emotion; allowing the user to be transported making an ordinary time be an extraordinary day."


"When you're comfortable, you're free from pain and trouble."


I think people forget what makes a product great, and we need to go back to the basics. Just because it has the latest technology doesn't mean it's a good idea. 

Progress Report

I think this quarter for design communications I've been doing better then in the past. I really try to create dynamic image boards and final renders, and am pleased with my progress so far. Gotta keep pushing though! :)

Update on Callie

Currently I am in the process of designing Callie- my calla lily inspired fiberglass chair. My design process focused mainly on ergonomics, and the idea that you can create a comfortable chair without cushions, is coming along. Currently I am hand carving pieces of foam glued together, to be more ergonomic. This is my mold. I use plaster to create test samples of what the mold will create, then I alter it to be more visually appealing. Next is to adjust the foam to be more comfortable. After I have created "the most comfortable chair" I can I am going to use a grid system and translate the foam model to the computer. I was originally going to 3D scan this, however the prices for a student are ridiculous. I eat ramen noodles every night already, I can't afford to get a complex model that may be so intricate it shows all of my imperfections from my rough model. After I create a 3D model of my foam, I am going to have it milled out again in foam. This is to create the most perfect mold I can since fiberglass will show all of my imperfections. Then I will send it out (or personally) create a fiberglass mold. This is an intense process and I'm trying to get the most work done every week I can. LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Herman Miller

I thought I would take the time to express my love for (in my opinion) the best furniture company in the world, Herman Miller. Herman Miller is incredibly successful, not because they have famous designers from all over the world design pieces, but because they do their research. They have studied why things work and why things don't. This is what allowed them (or rather my hero Bill Stumpf) to re-design the "perfect chair." He created a product that was flexible enough to be adjustable for every user, but also rigid enough that it provided enough support for every size. Bill once said, "I work best when I'm pushed to the edge," he said, "when I'm at the point where my pride is subdued, where I'm an innocent again. Herman Miller knows how to push me that way, mainly because the company still believes — years after D.J. DePree first told me — that good design isn't just good business, it's a moral obligation. Now that's pressure." Bill wanted to design beyond the landfill, and actually create a product that would help humanity. This really is an inspiration. Out of all the designers to meet, I would have loved to go out to dinner with Bill and pick his brain. 


Remember- "Good design is a moral obligation."

Y3 Blender

I'm discovering that one of my favorite design exercises to do is to take 2 different topics, mash them together and see what happens… what if pepsi developed a laptop- what would it look like and how would it function? what if Dasani created a phone etc. etc.

Recently for class I have developed a blender for the company Y-3. For those who have never heard of Y-3 (like me) it's a high end designer brand under Adidas. They use high end materials, and modern designs in their fashion.

Their current line was apparently inspired by rock and roll. Some overwhelming themes of the current line are overwhelming asymmetrical bold lines, the contrast of black and white with a simple bluish/ purple color as the accent color. I tried to take these common aspects and reflect them in a market that they have never and probably will never go into… the blender market!

Inspiring Designer

Lately for the chair quarter I've been inspired by Charles Eames.
When thinking about the chair project I've realized a couple of things. 1) It's not just the design that sells the idea, the material is incredibly important. Eames took bent plywood out of context and revolutionized the chair industry. Now a bent plywood chair is common, still cool, but common. He took fiberglass and molded chairs that fit comfortably. The material is extremely important.


The other thing I've realize is, learn from life. Leonardo da Vinci once said… "Through human genius in its various inventions with various instruments may answer the same end, it will never find an invention more beautiful or more simple or direct than nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking and nothing superfluous." Nature has perfected the system, don't try to beat it, learn from it.

New Portfolio!

Here is a link to my new portfolio. 


http://www.uc.edu/webapps/propractice/industrialportfolios/Fearing_Jenni_12.pdf


It has been completely revamped refocusing on the products and the process to the products. The folks at Chamberlain critiqued it for me and I am very thankful they did. Although I haven't incorporated all of their comments, I definitely took them into consideration. One thing UC doesn't really encourage is having pages about CO-OPs. Mostly because of confidentiality, many students feel they can't show anything. However this isn't necessarily true. Just because you helped design a future product doesn't mean you didn't learn something from it. I feel like an important factor for many businesses isn't necessarily to see that you designed the latest ____ (fill in the blank with product). But rather to see how you came about that, the process. I wouldn't hesitate in putting pages about CO-OPs in your portfolio, you spent 10+ weeks there, go for it!