Milwaukee Institute of art & design pre-college industrial design
The chair project
For this project, our job was to find the issues we faced with our current computer chair, and fix them by creating our own chair out of cardboard, which was supposed to support our weight. Above was the final presentation and product of the project, which unfortunately I did not have enough cardboard to completely finish, however it did hold MOST of my weight in the end. Below are the notes and all of the research and thinkings for the project. Some of the notes are very random, or just doodles I made on my paper while I was thinking.
In the summer pre-college Industrial/Product Design course with MIAD, our job for the initial project was to find the issues we faced with our current computer chair and improve them by creating our own chair out of cardboard, which was intended to ultimately support our body weight. First, as with all improvements, I had to find the current issues of my chair. Some of the issues were that the curvature of the backrest of my chair was much too convex and was rather uncomfortable on my lower back. I would prefer a chair I could lean further back in, as it would be much more comfortable. I would also like a tall back, to work as a headrest. I also did not like the original texture/material of my chair, because the leather was slightly tacky, however this would be changed as we were making the model out of strictly cardboard. In ideating, I wanted to experiment with as many different materials as I could however, and worked with anything I could get my hand on to create new shapes and comfort levels. After modeling my three strongest ideas, I decided to move forward with the 2-triangles approach, creating a nice balance of both lounge-style chairs. In creation, I found that I did not have enough cardboard to make the backrest as tall as I would have liked, which means I did not meet the original intention of having a headrest. I also found that after creating the 2 triangles for the backrest and the seat, it did not have much stability. I used the small amount of remaining cardboard I had to create some smaller triangles to add within, creating a little more structure. The final test was the supporting weight reveal. It did not quite support the entirety of my weight; however I think perhaps if I had used a stronger glue to attach both pieces, it would.
Redesigning the packaging for the egg
We also did a project to which we created an item that redesigned the packaging for an egg to solve an issue, whether it be that current packaging is inefficient or non-recyclable or just to improve the overall design. Unfortunately, I did that project on a different computer and was unable to find the finished presentation file as I no longer have that computer, however I do have some of the workings and pictures of the product to show below. I recreated a simplified slideshow that is close to what my presentation of the final was.
After completing the chair projects, we moved on to The Egg Project. For this, our goal was to redesign the packing for the egg. Again, as with all improvements, I had to find the current issues of the egg carton. Some of the issues I found were the material, as styrofoam is not very environmentally friendly. As this is such a common household necessity and if mass-produced, I had to consider how many of these are purchased and how much styrofoam is being thrown into the trash. The packaging also takes up a large amount of space in your fridge, so I wanted to make more use of the vertical unused space in the fridge rather than the floor space. I also planned to improve the convenience of counting your eggs, a way for you to know how many are left without having to physically count. I began ideating everything I could about an egg; every possible measurement and interaction with different materials. I experimented with different small-scale packaging of eggs as well, for a solution to the number of eggs you receive in a package. For example, a single individual living alone, may not want a dozen eggs at once, as it would cause more food waste. I also tried the eggs-in-a-roll idea, making use of that vertical fridge space that would only house 4 eggs at a time. I decided on continuing with the zig-zag interior box idea. This not only made more efficient use of the vertical space in your fridge, as well as made it easier to count your eggs, with the sides being punch-outs that you would remove every time you needed an egg. The material could be made out of a sort-of biodegradable cardstock or Bristol board. The inside features this zig-zag design so the eggs would be protected from touching one-another, but also be easy to remove. Initially, I meant for these spaces to only hold one egg each, however I found that they actually comfortably held two eggs. Ultimately, this final product met most of my initial requirements and intentions for new packaging and I was content with the final product.