Fixperts
We hit the ground running with this 4 week long project! Myself and Li teamed up with a common goal, to improve someone’s life for the better. In this project we were tasked with ‘fixing’ a problem of our fix partner. In our case, our fix partners name was Sarah. She has had both of her hips done over the last 7 years and experiences difficulty getting out of chairs, bed and the car.
Over the 4 weeks we interviewed and observed Sarah to gain a deeper understanding of the area that needed improvement. After discussing initial ideas with Sarah, she proposed we looked further into getting out of bed as that’s where she struggled with most. We built prototypes out of cardboard and we also 3D printed handles to find the right size and grip we wanted for our product.
Our Final Design: As seen in the first picture of the slideshow, we have a clamp to secure the product to the bed, the main body work like a crutch where you can adjust it to different heights and still have the same security when using it. Finally, the handle. It is a round grip that allows our fix partner to grip from any angle in the stages of getting up and out of bed.
“I feel so safe with this” – Sarah
UL | 3rd Year | Semester 1 | Design Studio (Community)
Visual Storytelling
The aim of this project was to choose a product with interesting functionality and usability properties and create a visual document detailing the different functions of the chosen product. I chose the JCB Mitre Saw. This was completed on Affinity Designer, which was my first time using it.
Over a 6 week long project I became familiar with the software and developed new skills.
The third slide showcases the sketches I drew and worked off of when creating the drawings through Affinity.
UL | 2nd Year | Semester 2 | Design Visualisation
The Stirling Engine
The Stirling Engine Project was completed on SolidWorks over an 8 week period. During this time I learnt how to build, create drawings, render and animate on the software.
Check out the animation through the link here!
UL | 2nd Year | Semester 2 | Product Design & Modelling
Product Presentation
For this project I chose the House of Aria Parise Pearl Necklace. The concept of the project was to choose a product that aesthetically appeals to me and then to use photography, Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher to explore the combination of photos and graphics in three different ways.
I set up different shots both inside and outside, looking at what props I had available to me, for example glasses, mirrors, trees and flowers.
UL | 2nd Year | Semester 2 | Design Visualisation
Chain Reaction
The aim of this project was for one component to knock off the next one, causing a reaction, a domino effect and create continuous motion from the beginning to the end.
A 400mm x 400mm board was provided for the project to be contained within with the sky being the limit in terms of height.
A combination of wood and cardboard created the structure and the features.
Seesaws, pulley systems, tracks, ramps and tunnels all featured within the project with a variety of marbles, pool balls, bouncy balls, hot wheels cars and weights to create the chain reaction. Check out the video here!
UL | 2nd Year | Semester 1 | Design Studio 3
Shaping a Sphere
The idea of this project was to begin with a cube of modelling foam and the outcome was to be left with a high quality finished sphere.
The challenge behind this project was to not use any power tools, the process should be solely handmade.
Sanding blocks, small files and surform shavers were primarily used. We began with the cube, filed and shaved it down the a cylinder and from there layer by layer gradually shaped a cylinder. Once that was completed to the desired shape we were able to choose a colour to finish it off.
The base was 3D printed.
Ul | 1st Year | Semester 2 | Model Making
Milestones Project
This was a group project where I was paired up with another classmate of mine, Niall, and our objective was to create a product for a child in the age range of 1-2 years that would develop their fine motor skills. The development of fine motor skills at this age are so important as they are the foundation blocks to performing day-to-day activities like eating or dressing. Hand-eye coordination is also developed as it requires the smaller muscles to manipulate small objects.
We developed ‘Sorted Shapes’ where the aim of the game is to get the shapes from one side of the ring to the other by manipulating the shapes through their respective holes.
An important part of this project was to use pre existing products and scraps to build our project so in ours we found dowels, cake boards, wires and other materials we could find around us.
UL | 2nd Year | Semester 2 | Design Research in Practice
Shampoo Bottle
This was my first project and introduction to the software Blender. Here I had to design a travel sized shampoo bottle with inspiration from a chosen brand, so I chose Mugler, with a focus on the fashion rather than the perfume bottles.
I looked at the different styles and catwalks over the years and found there is a recurring theme of abstract and geometric shapes within the styles. The third slide shows where I drew my inspiration from for my shampoo bottle.
UL | 2nd Year | Semester 1 | Digital Modelling & Prototyping
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