Blog for Creative Design and Prototyping CourseMy documentation for course exercises and project are available on this blog.
Written by Onur Özüduru

For the project of course, there were two options to make prototype: surprising device or personal seating furniture. I chose to design and make prototype of a seating object.

During the course my ideas about my project changed. My first idea was to create a foldable chair that can be used as a bench for multiple people to sit and capable become an arm chair when it is folded. However, I got stuck on deciding design. While I was trying to find new ideas or solutions, I got idea from one of the cards that we used in exercise. There was “Repeating” as design idea.

I decided to make small chair that can be easily made and sized for the person who would use it by idea of repeating same pattern. In my design, I tried to make one module of the chair and user can be arrange the wide by cutting more modules.

I used cardboard to do it because it is easy to use and easy to carry. Design was aimed to be simple therefore, there is one body design and one combiner. I made the legs as this to place them more combined on the vector space. Point is to use less material and being able to cut one module by one cutting job.

First, I cut a small version of the design to see is there any problem. And of course, there was a problem, pieces for combination did not matched with the material. After some trials, I found the measurement for my material.

I had these weird shapes at edges of the combination pieces to add modules together. After test version had been success, I created a larger version. However, I decided to put one less piece and to use empty place as module combiner, it was more robust than previous solution.

Below images shows the last prototype. I thought, it is used with a pillow on it. However, I could not find a pillow to put on it and take a picture.

Reflection

During design and cut process I learned many things such as the solution to combine modules, how idea can be changed, and getting help from these idea cards.

There were some points that must be noted. First of all, design was robust enough to stand but it was possible to move it left and right. This problem might be corrected by adding 90 degrees combination pieces. Actually, I designed it in Inkscape, it must be designed in a 3D tool. Since, it is easy to decide measurement for material.

At the end, I made a prototype that matches with my goal and learn how to make prototype.

SVG file of the design can be found here.

In this exercise, we had a challenge to find a solution for keeping an egg to break after dropping it from a high distance.

Class is divided as two groups of three people. First of all we tried to find solutions for the challenge individually and note them on post-its. Then we made morphological analysis of every people’s solutions. Below images show my solutions and the last analysis.

My favorite solution was below one that came up from a friend. Isn’t it cool?

After we divided into teams. In my team, we decided to merge lots of ideas which were wrapping it, putting it in a case and then put a parachute on it. We were allowed to use materials in FabLab. We used bubble plastic and balloons with a plastic case and straws to keep parachute open.

First challenge was in FabLab from 2nd floor to 1st floor.

And it survived! After that we went to our engineering building and repeat the process from 3rd floor.

And it survived again! It was very fun to do it. In addition, I learned a new method to find solutions.

Reflection

In this exercise, we mostly spend our time to make the prototype. However, I learned how to work with post-its and what is Morphological Analysis. The best part about post-its was it was easy to organize ideas on board. Because, the categories that you saw in images was not created directly. First we analyzed ideas then put them on board and created new categories and change their place based on that.

Today we learned three creative ideation methods.

• Property mapping method.
• Mind map method.
• Brain-writing / 6-3-5 method.

We had 2 individual tasks and 1 task with 5 people group.

Task 1: Property Mapping Method

In this task, it was asked to choose five living things and five man-made objects. After that, I followed the below steps:

• Combine them.
• Select pairs that seems interesting.
• Create new concept by using the a <man-made object> like a <living thing> formula.

I created 4 concepts by using my pairs:

• A bicycle with wheels like a snake.
• A frog car to jump a place when there is traffic
• A bird-computer, the computer that makes calculation by using birds. They will solve problems to get food and these solutions actually will be the logic gates in CPU.
• Flying Phone. When your phone realized it is falling down, it will begin to fly and land on the place that it began to fall.

All of them are crazy but it was fun to imagine to live in a crazy world.

Task 2: Mind Map Method

In this task, the topic was mosquito. First everyone created their own mind maps, then we combined them as one.

I imagined them as bad boys of the town who are called as MosQ before begin to create.

Task 3: Brain-writing / 6-3-5 Method

In this method, everyone propose 3 ideas about the problem then pass the sheet to next person. After receiving other person’s sheet, two actions can be done: improve the previous idea or suggest a totally new solution. This process goes until everyone ends up with the first sheet they have at the beginning.

6-3-5 refers 6 people, 3 ideas, 5 minutes. We were only 5 people so, it was 5-3-5 in our case.

Below picture shows the sheet that I began with at the end. The first column belongs to me and it can be seen how it went during the exercise.

Reflection

Today, I had fun more than other lectures. It was very nice to learn ideation methods and going crazy while creating new ideas. At the beginning, I could not be sure about what was the point of doing this but, after exercises, I got the point.

In addition, I learned it is better to sketch your ideas than only writing them.

In this exercise session, we worked as 2 people teams. First we picked a design problem and tried to create solutions by using heuristics cards.

Each person had 10 random cards to use during the exercise. In team work, we merged our cards so we had 20 cards as team.

Steps in exercise were:

1. Select one of the problems that is listed in the class.
2. Individually, propose at least 5 ideas by using your cards.
3. Present your ideas to your teammate.
4. Decide one final idea with your teammate and sketch it.
5. Explain your team’s the idea and tell which cards are used.

Select a Problem

The problems in the lecture are listed below.

1. Design a product for a summer-like experience in dark and cold winter in Oulu.
2. Design a novel salt and pepper shaker set.
3. Design a product that utilize sunlight for heating and cooking food.
4. Design a product that uses leftover FabLab materials.

We decided to go for problem number 1, Design a product for a summer-like experience in dark and cold winter in Oulu.

Find Ideas by Yourself

I got my 10 random cards to create my ideas. The important part was these were only design ideas so, it could be very crazy. Also, in some cards it was suggested to go for crazy ideas.

The first exercise sheet and my cards can be seen as below images.

I came up with five ideas by using five cards. My ideas were;

• Building an underground summer city and living there during summer. This is inspired by the card which says mimic the nature. I thought during winter some animals live under the ground so, we can do it too (Nope!).
• Creating a berry picking area in huge greenhouse. One of the cards was about adding idea to existing product. I added berry picking idea to greenhouse.
• Sunbath during winter. There was a card in my hand which said “Extend Surface”. I thought there might be very large solarium and people can hang out under it like they are on beach.
• I designed one no snow area with repeat card, there would be fire places to warm up.
• And with subsitute way of achieving function card, I thought replacing water with mosquito spray smell in shower. In that way, you can smell the spray during summer too.

After we created our ideas, we presented them to our teammate.

Create The Idea

After we talked about our ideas we decided to merge some of them and create one huge dome that mimics summer inside.

Reflection

I think these cards were very useful in creation process. They inspire and give idea while building your design.

After I saw these cards, I decided to use some of the methods on them during my project design process. My topic is creating a personal seating object. I might use repeating method which I saw some designes that are related with it.

Today the exercise was about designing a new wallet for needs. First, we created a design in our minds and then we created one for our partner.

This exercise was with 2 people and each of us designed a wallet for the other.

My Ideal Wallet

In my designed, I focused my problem which is having too many credit cards and other plastic cards. I designed a foldable wallet which is size of a paper money when it is opened. And the half size of the money when it is folded.

I thought, it is useful to have an e-paper as a screen on the outside of the wallet and embedded electronic material inside so, it would be possible to load card information on it. In that way, I aimed to solve carrying too many cards issue.

Designing a Wallet for My Partner

Second part of the exercise was creating a wallet for my partner. That part had 9 stages. I took notes on the paper and put pictures of my notes and ideas below.

I think challenges and notes explain themselves therefore, I will not comment on them.

So, my idea was having a smart creadit card inside wallet and a foldable 3 pockets for cash. And it has one zipper to lock it.

I found that my partner’s problem was having cash and credit cards in a small place.

Reflection

Today, we focused on creating a new solution for another person’s needs.

In my design, I got below feedbacks from my partner:

• If there are too many coins, It might not be possible to use swape area of the card.

• I thought screen can be turn off automatically, but my partner suggested that putting a cover for screen to protect screen from scratches and to not show your details everytime. This was a simple solution for that problem. I wish I had it before.

I learned that digging deep to someone else’s problem and finding out of the box solutions today. Therefore, it was the main point of today’s exercise in my opinion.

This lecture had two parts today. First part was about creating new uses from an existing object and the second part was about using laser cutter.

Creating New Uses

This part of the course was individual work. Tasks were listed below:

• Making a list of new uses of clothes pegs.
• Then, focusing on those uses, think of a new concept of product (such that the product ceases to be a clothes peg).

Of course, we had limited time to make it. The ideas that I found were;

• Using them to close food packages.
• Using them as holder when we glue two pieces.
• Hanging photos.

I took two ideas, closer for food packages and photo hanger, then I tried to find new concepts for them.

My ideas and concept ideas are shown as below image.

Using Laser Cutter

Second part of the course was about using laser cutter. We worked as 2 people teams at that stage.

First we designed or found a design to cut. Then, we went to cutter and cut it.

Every laser cutter has different settings, for the one that we used it is needed to be 0.02 mm stroke for cutting. Every other things are engraved by the cutter.

My teammate and I decided to design one piece and cut another one that is designed before hand. We used FlatFab example files as already designed object.

Then, we created a new design in Inkscape.

After the design part, we cut both of the objects. Since, dino was needed very thin material to fit combination points. We used different woods for them.

To use laser cutter there are 3 steps:

• Set distance between cutter head and the material.
• Set starting point.
• Select the right settings for your material and send it to cutter.

Below pictures show the engraving and cutting parts for the new design.

After we cut our design, we cut the dinosaur with another material, steps were the same that is why I put only the result pictures.

Reflection

Point of the first part for me was to realize that we can create new designs based on old ideas. I learned to find and improve old designs. The most important point was the realizing that it is not needed to use objects for their purposes, they can be used out of their purpose.

In the second part, I learned how to use laser cutter. However, cutting objects was not that smooth process. We faced the following issues:

• Cutter did not cut the material deep enough so, it was not possible to take it out.
• We moved material and then cut the object again without setting machine again. This caused as wrongly cut object.

At the end, I saw some of the issues while using laser cutter and how to handle them.

Let’s Make a Tower

Today, I attended the first lecture of Creative Design and Prototyping course. In the lecture, we got the general course information and made one exercises which was creating a tower by using tape and 13 spaghettis. We worked as pairs of 2 during this exercise.

In this post, there are two main parts:

1. Progress of the exercise.
2. Result and Reflection.

Challenge

These were the elements that we had, tape and spaghetti to build a tower and pen, paper to design.

Rules:

• Use all spaghetti pieces.
• Maximum 3 of them can be used as broken, other than that they must be in one piece.
• Tower must stand until end of judgment process.
• 15 minutes to design.
• 15 minutes to build.

Grading criteria:

• Height of the tower.
• Robustness.
• Beauty.

Design

Our idea was to use tape as support material and making a tower on top of triangle base. We thought to make it more strong by putting crosses to every faces. We planned to put a pyramid shape “roof” on top of the first “floor”.

Above was our quick sketch and calculation.

Build

As I mentioned we used, tape as supporting material. So, it is possible to see tape at base and in the middle as layers, beside joint points. That approach let us to use less spaghetti with a little bit stronger design. We sacrificed one spaghetti piece for the base of the tower. We cut it in 3 pieces and used tape to create a base. Below image shows result of the exercise.

It was about 49 cm. Definitely, not the highest one

Reflection

I think our mistake was putting these crosses to sides of the tower. We could have used lots of tape instead of tower and we could have used these spaghettis to build higher tower. However, at the end I had fun and learned to look materials from a different perspective.

In my opinion to make a good spaghetti tower below points are important.

• Use triangle base, it provides robust base without wasting too much spaghetti.
• Use tape as supporting material instead of using it only for join the spaghettis.
• Select one of the goals. It might be a tall and fragile tower or it might be strong but shorter tower.

Other than the exercise, I want to add couple words about my documenting. I think I could have taken more pictures. And landscape pictures might be more useful and good looking than portrait pictures.

For the first one, I only have these portrait pictures, but next time I will make it better.

Dust to Dust, Garbage to Garbage

So, this was the end of first blog post/exercise documentation. You can see the very last result of today’s lecture.