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! :)