Cocktail Maker

Sorry I haven't posted in a while but I'm back on track now so....
For my graphics project I am making an automatic Cocktail Maker. It will be made in Photoshop and presented as a poster and workbook. Below are some initial ideas for the design in ink.

 The next few designs are just in the marker pens are are supposed to be only vague ideas.

Little Book of Life

For Christmas last year, one of the things I received was a small sketching Moleskine. Now for me I consider this Moleskine something to be filled with ideas and notes that can be used and referred to long after it's pages are full. As such I have delayed using it as I have been unsure of what to fill it with. Until now. (sorry)

My plan now for this is that it shall be a little compendium or encyclopedia of all the interesting things I learn while at University (and beyond) that are not directly a part of my course. This came about while watching an episode of James May's Man Lab, when I realised that all this information I was being fed would most likely be forgotten by the next day so I resolved to document it in this which I can carry with me wherever. It will be my little book of Thoughts, Theories, Facts, Folklore and Funnies(?). Below are a few spreads from it so far.

So far I have quotes from:

• Ian Flemming
• Sir George Mallory (1st to climb Everest)
• George R.R. Martin
• Dieter Rams
• Rowan Atkinson
• Leonardo Da Vinci
• Winston Churchill
• Dr Seuss
• Stephen Fry
• David Attenborough

And I hope to gain many more and record them, not to be forgotten.

Sci-Fi Space Ship

Today I had a free day and other than meeting a friend from school whi had come up for an interview, nothing really happened, so lots of work then...well not really. Today I basically had, as far as the work had to go, a creative block. I was still able to get some maths and electronics done, so not a day wasted, but not a great day either. So in an attempt to get some creativity back into me I decided to do something I have not done in a while and embrace creativity wholely, abandoning reality. To make something completely imaginative.

So this is the resulting design (please click for a larger view it looks much better), a sci-fi sort space ship/plane. I chose to do it following the advice of the artist Doug Chiang, an exceptional concept designer whose book Mechanika I own. Doug Chiang is a multi award winning designer (2 BAFTAs and an Oscar) who has designed for movies such as Star Wars Episode I (as lead designer), Episode II, War of the Worlds, Terminator 2 and Forrest Gump. I would recommned his book Mechanika to any designer as it features excellent tips on using markers and photoshop and creating good design.

Metal Workshop- Trammel (5) Complete

My first workshop is now finished, and about time too. Above is the completed trammel which was finished on Wednesday, marked on Thursday and I picked up on Friday. Hopefully I got a good score as I finished on time and managed to get a reasonably good finish and degree of accuracy into the tool. It has been fun making it and as a first time making something of this nature, it feels good to know that I have made something that I would not be surprised to find in a shop, due to the accuracy of the machines I was using. And because you probably know all there is to (or would want to) know about this, I'll just leave you with some pictures of the final object.

The Trammel in it's various components.

The main body of the trammel

 The trammel pen and lead holder and the extension

And some close ups of the trammel

And finally, my stamp of ownership, on both of the two point holders.

So that's the end of that part of my course, hopefully passing the workshop so I can be deemed safe to use it next year, and now another break for two weeks for graphics before the wood working workshop for two weeks before Christmas. (p.s I've only just found out it's a 'Trammel')

Foam Objects Critique

Today was the deadline and critique for the foam objects I have been slowly making over the past four weeks. And it went relatively well, in my opinion at least.

 To recap, the assignment was to create two objects:

• An everyday object with a historic design style incorporated into the design
• And a mystery object from a 200 word description from a classmate.

The first object I chose was a mug in the style of the Gugenheim Museum (called deconstructivism). This was quite tricky as it involves lots of flat surfaces flowing into one another with sharp well defined edges, not too easy in foam. Also the whole model had to be cut in half and across the bottom to allow me to remove the inner part of the mug and then glued back together. However I was pleased with the final design and finish on the model, but it could be improved with more time.

 Below are also the drawings I did to come up with and help build the design in some initial ideas and two orthographic drawings.

The second object was done from a description (see it here) my classmate gave me. This is the object I made from that description, Again I am pleased with how it has come out, but it needs more time to be finished properly.

 Again here are a couple of sketches and an orthographic drawing from the description.

 And this here is a photo of the actual object itself, a handheld label maker. So as you can see, not really what I made at all, but the purpose of the exercise was to make what was described, and to that end I think I did quite well.

So to the crit(ique) itself. We each sat at the tables our group's have been allocated (I'm X13) and we got out our models and development drawings. Then as a whole class we gathered around each table in turn and each person presented their models and then Rob (the lecturer) gave his comments and possible improvements for each piece, getting individuals to comment on their own and others work as well in a sort of peer review. 

When it came to my turn Rob agreed with me that the finish could be improved on the mug, but he seemed pleased with the design as it is challenging and also was the only model that was deconstructivism (the others were all Art Deco/Nouveu, Streamlined or Post-Modernism, with a few being Memphis, Natural or Bauhaus). He then suggest it be passed round the class so other students could see it better while he examined my other object. Again he agreed that the finish could be better but other than that he seemed very happy and praised my classmate for picking an interesting and unusual object. There were also some other very good objects such as a Memphis gorilla, a Natural vase and a Streamlined Coke can.

So another pretty good crit and at last a rest from a pretty stressful week so I can now relax and enjoy the weekend!