INDN 342: Sketch Development

The sketch development for my furniture design project is a very long and at times arduous, but I'm really enjoying the amount of development I'm getting the chance to put into my projects. The project is very much still a mixed bag in terms of my direction for it. I'm worried about working on the project and then reaching a point where I've made a bad call and just have to roll with the design. I'm rather worried that I won't be completely pleased with the result of the furniture.

I have lots and lots of ideas floating around in my head, but I'm concerned that the ideas just aren't good enough. I know what the ideas are based around in terms of what I want them to do and how one interacts with them, but at the same time I also want to find a design that I really want to pursue. And I want to find that idea soon.

The two ideas that I'm developing at the moment are based around the same basic concept. I want the stools to interact with each other in a way that allows them to come together and form one single piece of furniture. This piece of furniture may form the same function as the previous two separate components, or it may fill an entirely different function. The first iteration of that idea looks at the way two stools could come together and interlace to still form one single stool, by way of the way they are designed.

The second idea that I initially pursued, but am no longer looking at, analysed the notion of the perfect fit and how it could be expressed in a pair of stools. The stools wouldn't be the same height, but would look at how the user might interact and play with the stools. The stools would fit on top of each other perfectly, the molded form of the top one sitting perfectly on top of  the seat of the lower one.

 The method of interlacing proved to be very challenging, as the design obviously would have to come apart, meaning making two identical stools that would slot together in the way I desired was almost impossible. I have a mind for manipulating things in 3D, but this unfortunately was a little beyond me. The interlacing was a really fun thing to work with however, and offered both an interesting challenge as well as a lovely rhythmical approach to the forms that the other design concepts didn't.

The third concept that I looked at started out with a look at the Yin/Yang symbol, and how both parts are actually identical, yet they slot together in a way that isn't inherently simple or linear. This sparked the concept for a third design, one that looked at the different ways a set of identical stools would be able to fit inside, above, and below each other, all at the same time.

The design that I presented at my presentation for the final idea was seen as the design that offered the most potential, whereas the other two were more implicit in the way they fit together. This one had the most potential for surprise, as well as the ability for capturing the "!" moment that I really liked about Nendo. The way the surprise could be conveyed could be very dependant on the way that the stools fit together, or it could be based on the material selection, and how everything works in terms of materiality.

The way that I looked at the stools allowed for the design to progress in a very linear way. Now that, that right there is really damn boring. I want to break the mould for this project. I want to be able to make something that really stands out and creates a unique silhouette or has a certain uniqueness of character. Something that gives it that wow factor and makes it have a certain effect on the people that see it.