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!