End Of Year- DIY Product Design Project

DIY-Kids portable shelf Shaun The Sheep style.

Since design is all around us,and the design process is a complex cycle, which we have studied in our Product Design class. We have decided as a Product Design class that we are going to apply what we have learned in a practical way. Brace yourself, as we are going to see the Product Design Cycle in action!

I have chose to make a kids portable shelf that is based on the cartoon ‘Shaun The Sheep’. But before I start explaining the steps to make the shelf, first I want to explain the product design cycle which is broken down into 7 steps.

Brief -> is basically finding out what is the problem in the market and trying to come up with solutions for it. So I was not sure of what to make that if a business produce will actually sell. However, since the teacher gave us ideas of what we can make I liked the idea of a kids shelf but I wanted to make something that you do not see very often. I wanted something that the children will find it easy to reach to since most shelves are hanged on the walls. Having two younger sisters has helped me by knowing what will catch their eye and make them want to have it. Research->is the next step done after the basic ideas of the new design. I went on Pinterest and searched for kids shelves, I saw many ideas but the one that caught my eye was a sheep shelf. I liked it because it can be portable depending on what materials you use to make it, children can have an easy access to it and it is similar to cartoon character that my sisters like to watch which means that they would like a shelf like that.

Specification-> is finding out the particular requirements of the design after you are done with the research. After I figured out what I wanted to create I started thinking of how I wanted it to be. Since I was going to give it to my sisters after I am done I wanted to make it suitable for them. So one of the requirements was to change the color of the sheep shelf to match more with how my sisters are, so instead of having the sheep white I decided to have it pink so if it is to be sold in the market it would stand out and not look like an ordinary sheep.If I was to make the sheep shelf for someone with special needs I would add wheels on the bottom of the sheep so instead of them carrying it they would just need to push it and it would move. I wanted to make the sheep out of something that would not cause a lot of harm but can be recycled later on, so I decided to use plywood.Another reason why I chose plywood was because it is very light which will make it very easy for children to carry it around. Also if it falls on anyone it would never hurt them because it is very light and not thick. Plan-> is making a brief outline of how the product should/would be. So after I decided on what I wanted to make and also how I wanted it to be I made a quick sketch of how I expected it to be after it is finished. -See picture of sketch below-. I also decided that I wanted the sheep shelf not to be too small or too big I wanted it a suitable size so it will not take a lot of space, also that it would fit normal size toys or whatever the users want to place on it if it is to be sold in the market. Furthermore, I had a plan of the measurements that I need to have in order for one piece to go through another, and I made sure that the gaps were not too big or too small.

Design-> is when the business has the outline and a brief idea of how the product should be and then starts making it. After I had my brief sketch of how I want the shelf to be I started gathering the materials I needed to make the shelf. But before I started making the shelf I took in consideration of what materials I wanted to use that will assure me that the shelf will be standing up straight and will be able to carry things because if a factory made it and it was not stable or strong enough to carry things then nobody would buy it because it would be a waste of money.After I had everything sorted I started making the shelf. Test-> after the product has been designed it has to be checked to make sure it is actually doing what is meant to do. After the sheep shelf was half way finished I could see that it was not very stable until I put the shelves on which made it stand straight and not wiggle. Then I got some items like books, toys, etc. and put them on the shelf to see if it was strong enough and it was, and it was not shaking like it did before i placed the shelves.Evaluate-> is basically when the product is judged whether it will meet the consumers’ wants or not, also if it is worth the amount that is set for it. I think that if my product is made in a factory it will sell in the market, because it will be done professionally with no flaws not like my version.

Now let us talk about how to make a sheep shelf in simple easy steps. But before we start I will first talk about the materials that I have used.

You need:

• Plywood- However any other material could be used
• Paint
• Paint brush- It can be any size you want
• A tool that cuts wood- I used help with the cutting because I did not know how to use the machine
• A thinner- to make the holes in the wood
• Superglue/ silicon- to attach the shelves with the body
• Pencil and paper- to do the outline of the body before you trace it on the wood to cut it
• Gloves and unwanted clothes- to wear to avoid paint spilling on your hand and on clothes you like

So I started off by first drawing the different pieces that were going to get attached together to make the sheep. After I had my drawings I went and traced them on the plywood, then I used some help with the cutting of the plywood. After the pieces were cut I took measurements of each piece to decide where to make the holes, so that all the pieces will fit together without any problems. After I decided where to make the holes I had someone helping me with opening them and making sure they are the correct size. Afterwards, I attached all the pieces together and the body of the sheep was formed, and they all fitted together perfectly.

Then I took measurements of the lengths from one end to the other to be able to know how long/big my shelves should be. After I had the measurements of the shelves and I cut them I placed them where they are meant to go, then I super glued them in the holes they are in so they are stable and help the body not to move/shake.After the actual shelf was built and ready I started painting it. I wanted to paint it pink, but because I had no pink paint I got red and white paint and mixed them together and they gave me the color I wanted. I painted it the body pink, the neck and legs white, and the hair and tail and the nails black.

To conclude, if I was to do this again I would use other different types of wood that are also easy to carry. If I would use plywood again I would try to find a god quality or a brand new one, because the one that I used was the package of a machine so it had some broken pieces. I would also pay more attention to the measurements I took, because the legs were not all the same sizes and lengths. Lastly, I would spend more time decorating the sheep to make it look better and more eye catching. But overall I was happy with the outcome of this project even if it had a couple of things that could have been improved.

http://imgs.su/users/25384/1430510725.jpg <- Link to mood-board.

The first steps.

The cutting of the pieces part 1.

The cutting of the pieces part 2.

Attaching all the pieces together.

Painting the sheep.

Meet Shaunita!

Design sketch

NESTLÉ – GOOD FOOD, GOOD LIFE

Nestlé is the worlds largest food company with about 1.1 bilion dollars in sales per year. it was started in 1905 by Henri Nestlé and since then it has grown to have 447 factories and 333,000employees working in 194 countries. In this project i will discuss how this multinational company uses sustainability in its production .

The following data has been collected from Nestlé’s own website (www.nestlé.com). Nestlé aims to have no waste output in 10% of their factories in Europe by 2015, in addition to these aims they are hoping to achieve a 25% reduction in energy consumption per tonne of product since 2005. by 2013 Nestlé has managed to reach their objectives as 12% of their factories now run on zero waste. the company also managed to reduce energy consumption per tonne of product by 23% since 2005, achieving their aims 2years in advance. Nestlé aims to improve efficiency, productivity and quality which will result into producing more with less resources. Nestlé is also working to improve their packaging by using Ecodesign for Sustainable Product Development and Introduction to minimise waste from packaging. Results show that Nestlé saved 66 594 tonnes of package material in 2013. Nestlé also aims to improve performance and functionality of their packages while using renewable material in the process. Neslté aims to expand the use of natural gas in their refrigeration units and this they have achieved by fitting all their new ice cream chest freezers with natural refrigerants. By introducing these changes, Nestlé aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions per tonne of product by 35% by 2015. In addition Nestlé claim that 17% of their key materials in production are responsibly bought using their Responsible Sourcing Guideline (RSG) guidlines. This company prefers to purchase their raw materials directly from farmers rather than a third party as this benfits the farmers and makes sure that their products are bought at a price that allows the farmer to lead a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. Nestlé works closely with the NGO The Rainforest Alliance and alongside the farmers they work to produce the highest quality coffee possible while securing the livelihood of the farmers. At the end of 2013 62000farmers were working with Nestlé and the Rainforest Allience providing 84% of Nestlé’s coffee. All of Nestlé’s suppliers are carefully chosen making sure that they have the same environmental values as themselves. Nestlé wants to protect all ecosystems and they are strongly against deforestification, therefore Nestlé’s aim is to make sure that their products are not associated with deforestification. Another point that Nestlé is addressing is information to customers. Nestlé aims to provide customers with information of environmental improvements and challenges. This food company is constantly working on improving their products environmental performance therefore they are giving their customers scientific data guiding them while choosing their products. Training is another aspect with Nestlé’s high attention. They aim to have environmental sustainability as a key part of every employees training therefore encouraging their employees to have this in mind in day-to-day activities in the workplace as well as home.

Nestlé being the worlds largest food and beverage company lead the way in using environmental sustainability as a key factor in their business operations. Its only a matter of time before this principle is addopted by other food companies following in nestles footsteps creating a better, more environmentaly sustainable world for future generations.

Nestlé worker showing the low waste from production

Nestlé’s zero waste output factory

Nestlé’s international training fascilities in Switzerland where sustainable environment is a key aspect

Nestlé’s sustainable coffee produced in assosiation with the Rainforest Allience and local farmers

The best way to spend an evening with your family is to get your hands invovled in craft!!!

Had enough of presents being scattered around the tree with no order looking messy? seek no more as this reindeer offers a unique and creative way of presenting your gifts under the tree and the best thing is it is simply build by your very hands! Earn ur bragging rights as the ultimate craft king by creating this one of a kind handmade marvel! This reindeer will create wonder amongs your friends and putting your skill and creativity as the main focus of this years christmas gathering!

my classmates and i decided to decorate our school office in a unique and attractive way. we paired up and tasks were split to each team and later we would bring our finished projects together to create the finished product in our office as youll see later on. my partner and i decided to make the raindeer carrying gifts accompanied by a handmade carpet. this is was our senior year project and we are all proud of what we have accomplished. under the watchfull eye of our design teacher Mrs Olga we created a home atmosphere in the center of our bussy school office.

to save time we bought the raindeer (but i will tell you how to make it later on), some white paint, a silver ribbon and come rope. we covered all our surfaces including ourselves to minimise the paint getting everywere. we used my schools paint brushes and the school camera to record our progress and final result. for the carpet my classmate used a rectangular piece of cardboard, 2types of rope (in our case a silver and gray type) and some thin pieces of string. a pen would come in handy alongside a ruler.

FOR THE DEER:

1. use a saw to cut the wood in the desired shapes. one piece must be for the head, one for the antlers,the legs and the tain. ull need a rectangular shaped piece of wood to created the base of the deer. then ull need small narrow pieces of wood,each the same length as the rectangular base.

2. glue all these pieces to make the deer as shown in the picture below

3. place the deer on the protected surface and use a paintbrush to apply the white paint evenly on all the surfaces (make sure to consider having to move the deer so leave an area unpainted till the end allowing you to move it around)

allow the deer to dry before applying a second coat of paint preventing dripping if too much paint is applied in the first place

FOR THE CARPET:

1. Cut the cardboard in the desired shape and size

2. us the pen to draw equally spaced diagnal lines on the cardboard. after that make 2 lines close to the edge perpendicular to the previous lines. it should look something like this:

3. cut along the lines until the cut meets the perpendicular line you have recently drawn

4. use the thin string and tie it tightly through these cuts along the cardboard. the string must be directly on the equally spaced lines

5. use the strings to weave in the rope. seperate the rope in to the two different colours. take one piece and weave it first under the first string, then over the next,then under the 3rd string. repeat next with the next colour except now start in the oposite order (over,under,over etc) this step should look like this:

6. continue this pattern until the end. place a black material on the end to cover up the loose ends

FOR THE REINDEER NOSE:

1. take the rope close to one end and make 4 loops around your four fingers

2. spread your fingers in the middle to make 4 loops perpendicular to the first loops

3. place a marble in the center

4. make another 4 loops oposite those loops (there has to be loops on each side of the marble)

5. tighten it up to create a ball, paint it red and glue on top of the nose like shown:

this project has brought my whole class together like never before and for the first time in our long school career we worked as a team. it has been a pleasure to do this project and leave something at the school to remind them of the 2015 graduates

The Product Design Cycle

In this assignment we will be talking about the “Product Design Cycle” and the stages the product goes through before it is actually released to the consumers. We will also discuss each step in detail.

I liked the definition of the word “Product Design” on Wikipedia and it was “Product design is the process of creating a new product to be sold by a business to its customers. A very broad concept, it is essentially the efficient and effective generation and development of ideas through a process that leads to new products”. It is basically the activities required to bring a new product to the market. Under the Product Design Cycle there are seven steps and they are: brief, research, specification, plan, design, test and evaluate. It is called the “Product Design Cycle” because every step that is done you go back to the previous step whether to check the research or the plan and it just keeps going in a circle hence the name “cycle”.

Brief-> is basically finding out what is the problem in the market and trying to come up with solutions for it. It is also  compressing ideas of the actual new design and which also states the goal(s) of the design/product. It is basically the brainstormed ideas of the inventor on designing what product should be made that would satisfy the consumers or be useful to them. For example, consumers are not satisfied with the winter boots in stores because they do not warm the feet so it would be good for a designer to come up with a way to fill the needs of the market/consumers.

Research-> is the next step done after the basic ideas of the new design. Basically trying to find  if there are related products in the market like your design, which assures that you are not copying someone else’s idea. Also if there are products that are similar it helps you to analyze the product and see if there are any problems with it and try to work on improving it. For example, realizing that there are similar boots of what you want to produce, they do their job quiet well which is to keep the feet warm during the cold weather but they do not look nice which is not making the women happy so the designer has to think about what style/design would make the women happy.

Specification-> is finding out the particular requirements of the design after you are done with the research. This helps to be able to transform the product into reality.

Plan-> is making a brief outline of how the product should/would be.

Design-> is when the business has the outline and a brief idea of how the product should be and then start making it.

Test-> after the product has been designed it has to be checked to make sure it is actually doing what is meant to do, for example checking if the can opener that has just been made can actually open the cans. Also to check if the product could be improved or if by any chance could harm the user e.g. it has a sharp end that could cut whoever is using it.

Evaluate-> is basically when the product is judged whether it will meet the consumers’ wants or not, also if it is worth the amount that is set for it. Also after all this hard work did the designers actually create what they wanted to or not.

To conclude, after I did this project and researched all the data that I needed I have realized that it is not as simple to make a product even though it seems that it is, also the fact that the product goes through so many stages till it is actually how we get it in the shops.

Christian Louboutin: The French Success Story

Louboutin with his famous “sammy red-bottoms”

Life Story:

Christian Louboutin was born on the 7th January 1963 in Paris’ 12th arrondissement. His father Roger (cabinet-maker) and his mother Irene (homemaker) were both from Bretagne and had another 3 children along with Christian. Louboutin at a young age felt as if he was adopted due to having much darker skin than his family so instead of searching for his family he invented his own history from Egypt since he loved pharaohs. At the age of 12 Louboutin was expelled from school an astonishing 3 times and decided to run away from home. His mother Irene at this point decided to allow him to live at a friends house. He had alot of oposition during his decision to drop out of school but an interview with a famous Italian actor Sophia Loren boosted his decision as she too dropped out of school at the same age but still succeeded in life and got a degree later on in life. Louboutin stumbled across his passion by accident on a trip to the museum where he encountered a sign stating that high heels were not allowed in that area. He was fascinated by the high heel, the design as he said is like nothing he had ever seen before. Louboutin soon found himself running out of sketchbooks as his mind overflowed with brilliant designs. He also received further inspiration from a book called vivier’s designs given to him by a friend.  Louboutin started dreaming of his own footwear designs in the early teens and at the age of 18 started working for the famous designer Charles Jourdan. Louboutin fascinated by world cultures ran away to Egypt in his teens and spend a year in India before returning to Paris in 1981.

Work:

During his young life Louboutin sketched footwear. He went through a punk phase when he was included in a few movies including the 1979 ult classic Race Dép and the Homosexual Century. Louboutin landed his first job in Folies Bergeres, a cabaret where he assisted performers backstage. He was also on the citys party scene as he was known to party with Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol. Louboutin’s return to Paris in 1981 with an amazing portfolio of women’s high heels resulted in him receiving a job with Charles Jourdan. It was with this job that Louboutin meet Vivier and he soon found himself an apprentice in Vivier’s atelier. Louboutin later became a freelance designer where he designed women’s shoes for many worldwide influential artists such as the amazing Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Maud Frizon. In the 1980s he left the fashion industry to become a a landscape gardener and to contribute to Vogue but Louboutin found himself missing shoe designs and  finally decided to make the big step and set up his very own company in 1991. Louboutin was backed by 2 investors and made an incredible start to his successful career by having princess Caroline of Monaco as his first customer. Princess Caroline boosted the publicity and reputation of Louboutins freshly started business in an interview for a fashion journalist where she complimented Louboutin’s designs. Louboutin’s moto was to make “women look sexy, beautiful, to make her legs look as long as he can”. In his first year Louboutin sold 200 pairs of shoes, today this number has been extended to a massive 700,000 pairs per year. Louboutin also expects his revenue to raise at an astonishing 40% per year. 95% of the business annual income of 300 million dollars is only from shoes, with the other 5% from handbags and purses. Louboutin has around 56 stores located worldwide serving a variety of customers from average people to high Hollywood celebrities.  Louboutin’s shoes are priced from 495dollars and up, with a custom made shoe priced at 4,000 dollars. Today Louboutin employs 420 staff and receives 250 million dollars revenue per year.

Notable Projects:

Christian Louboutin created designs unique to his style. his style from the start of his business in 1991 has been deeply loved by the worlds high-class and celebritiy, this has been proven by princess Caroline of Monaco being his first customer and publicly complimented the french designer on his work. later on in his career Louboutin continued to add stars and celebrities to his client list. Christina Aguilera, Joan Collins, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Marion Cotillard, Nicki Minaj, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kim Kardashian were all at some point clients of this french shoe masterpiece creator. Even Sara Jessica Parker wore a pair of Louboutins shoe’s to her wedding, Britney Spears wore a pair of Louboutin’s designs in her famous music video “If U Seek Amy” that were not available to the public clients until a month after the music videos release in 2009. Louboutin brought back the Stilettos in the 1990s and 2000s, and designed many different styles of these shoes with heels over 120mm tall. Louboutin is famous for incorporating jeweled straps, bows, feathers, patent leather and most famously red soles. His most popular red bottom high heel are commonly known as “sammy red-bottoms” which even have a specific unique colour code. Louboutin is also known not to give any shoes away not even to family as he thinks giving shoes away is “unimaginative”. Louboutins biggest client, Danielle Steel, is known to have 6,000 pairs of Louboutin’s shoes and is known to purchase 80 pairs at a time. In 2011 Louboutin introduced a line of mens footwear in Paris. it is romoured that Mika, a famous musician, asked Louboutin to design all the shoes for his tour and that this kick-started Louboutin’s mens footwear creations. in 2012 Louboutin partnered with Batallure Beauty LLC to create Louboutin Beauté to enter the luxury market and this product would be available in 2013. At the 2012 Grey Groose Winter Ball, Louboutin designed his dream bar to benefit Elton John’s foundation featuring Louboutin’s much loved Egyptian style designs. In 2011 Louboutin published a book for his 20th anniverasy published Rizzoli featuring his most iconic designs and insights on his imfluences and photos from personal archive. Louboutin held a competition for design students at Parsons New School for Design who graduated in 2010 and 11. In 2012 he was comisioned by Disney to create a modern Cindarella shoe to be limited produced. Also in 2012 an iphone app was launched featuring all necessary info such as seasonal collections.

Awards: 

Louboutin won the luxury institute’s annual Luxury Brand Status Index (LBSI) for three years, also his designs were declared the most prestigious womans shoes in 2007, 2008 and 2009. By 2011, Louboutin became the most searched shoe brand online.

 

 

Pop Art

Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid-1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular culture such as advertising, news, etc. In pop art, material is sometimes visually removed from its known context, isolated, and/or combined with unrelated material. The concept of pop art refers not as much to the art itself as to the attitudes that led to it. 

 

Profile of a Product designer: Ross Lovegrove

In this assignment we’ll be talking about Ross Lovegrove, his life as a product designer, his notable work, and his accomplishments.

Lovegrove was born in 1958 in Cardiff, Wales. He graduated from Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University), finishing with a first class BA in industrial Design in 1980 and then went to the Royal College of Art, London in 1983 where he completed his master of design.Ross Lovegrove worked for several years for Frogdesign,Hartmut Esslinger’s design agency in Altensteig, Germany where his projects included collaborating on designing the Sony Walkam and computer chassis for Apple.Then Lovegrove became a designer at Knoll International, for whom he developed the bestselling Alessandri Office System.His work has been extensively published and exhibited internationally including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum NY, Axis Centre Japan, Pompidou Centre, Paris and the Design Museum, London, when in 1993 he curated the first permanent collection. His inspiration mainly comes from organic forms and structures. Nature and art were and still are Lovegrove’s life.

Ross Lovegrove is a designer and visionary who’s work is considered to be at the very apex of stimulating a profound change in the physicality of our three dimensional world. Inspired by the logic and beauty of nature his design possess a trinity between technology, materials science and intelligent organic form. In 1986 Ross Lovegrove returned to Britain and opened a London practice jointly with Julia Brown. In 1990 Ross Lovegrove founded a practice of his own, Studio X, also in London.

In 1993 Lovegrove was commissioned  to assemble and organize the first London Design Museum collection.In 1996 Ross Lovegrove designed “Crop”, an armchair with a soft seat in organic forms. Also in 1996 Lovegrove designed “Bone”, a chair with a maple frame, a wood that really does, in its natural state, recall bone shapes. In 1997 he designed “Magic”, a startlingly innovative chair with a seat that seems to be hovering in space with no support as it is only fastened to the back by the top of the apron to the back. His work was shown in many exhibitions around the world, here are some of them: -‘Ross Lovegrove-Design’, Danish Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen 1998                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       -Liquid Space table and chandelier installation for Swarovski Crystal Palace, Design Miami 2008                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       – Host of CNN ‘Just Imagine’ documentary presenting a vision of the world 2020