Wow, I was up until 12.30am last night and up at 6.30am this morning to make sure I had everything done ready to go straight into the workshop today. (Geeky, I know, but I am loving this course and really want to get the most out of it.)
So, here’s my homework:
Inspiration word (futuristic) board: CSM furniture design inspiration word board (The idea is that as you’re designing, you keep your user profile and your inspiration board in front of you at all times. The user profile obviously helps you stay focused on who the item is for; while the inspiration board can help you take the design in different directions – you can even change boards to explore different ways of tackling the brief.
Top three ideas drawn up as ‘general assembly’ drawings (a 3/4 drawing, a front elevation and a side elevation to scale):
The chosen design was the ECG chair, which is designed around the user’s three favourite seating positions. Each length is based on the equivalent length of her body and each angle is the exact angle at which she sits in that position. The seat allows (from L-R) sitting with knees up, sitting cross-legged, and reclined sitting with legs outstretched.
Some little adjustments later using my ‘little men’:
…and I was into the workshop! Woo hoo! A long day of hard work (and a little inspiration from the wonderful Helmut who was running the workshop that day) and I made my chair!
Isn’t it stunning?! I am so proud that in just four days I have gone from knowing nothing to designing a chair and producing a scale model! I am in love with it!
The stainless steel should have enough ‘give’ that despite being metal, because of the exact measurements and angles, it should(!) be comfortable. The hot pink / orange acrylic was added to give support to the metal – I wanted something that was either completely invisible or made a feature of; obviously went for the latter! It really gives the design energy and movement (in keeping with my fidgety user!) and gives the impression that the chair is floating off the ground.
This week has been incredible – I’ve been on a high all week. I’m not sure I’ve ever had so much fun in four days! Massive thanks to Rock, Helmut and the rest of my class!
