Student Work
Students in Aesthetics of Design will be posting here about their work all semester. Please read and comment.
Weekly Posts 2019
Main Project Critical Design Review
Main Project Inspirations and Explorations
Skills and Aspirations
Upcycle Project Final Reports
Upcycle Project Interim Posts
Links
Here we show examples of the intersection of engineering and art that have inspired us.
Material source for upcycling
They have a warehouse in Denver. Would be a good place to browse for an upcycling project. http://www.repurposedmaterialsinc.com/
Great use of Vantablack, light absorbing paint
Asif Khan reveals super-dark Vantablack pavilion for Winter Olympics 2018
Bad Design is Inspiring Too
133 Epic Design Fails That You Will Find Hard To Believe Actually Happened
Love that whiplash curve
http://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/07/20/just-love-collection-art-nouveau-doors-around-2/
Golden ratio sculptures
Spiral sculptures by John Edmark http://www.johnedmark.com/ Trained in computer science and then product design at Stanford.
Artist and Mechanical Engineer: Arthur Ganson
Also see the article in the April 2017 edition of Mechanical Engineering Magazine (for all you ASME members).
Laser cut automaton
I wish I could give better attribution for this! Can anyone read the artist’s name?
Silver Swan Automaton 200 years old!
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/robotic-silver-swan-has-fascinated-fans-nearly-250-years-180962024/ I wish I had any confidence that any of our current technology would still be working in 200 years!
Solidsmack
There are plenty of tech and design blogs out there, but this one seems well-curated, with frequent and interesting posts: Solidsmack
Product Design: 365 Knitting Clock makes time more tactile by making a scarf
Siren Elise Wilhelmsen is a Norwegian product designer based between Bergen and Berlin. She produces objects that challenge the concept of traditional functionality and transform natural materials into intricate mechanical objects. Through her practice she seeks to find ‘a conceptual way to stimulate ideas and discussions around our everyday objects, rituals and culture.’ Source: Product…
Steampunk vision of New York
“The Old New World” (Photo-based animation project) from seccovan on Vimeo. BY Alexey Zakharov
Bathtub to couch
Диван из старой ванны. Афигительно!! Posted by Видео БУМ on Saturday, April 2, 2016
Today’s Influential Designers
Unfortunately I cannot make it to class Wednesday to hear about today’s influential designers, but I thought I might share who’s work I find inspiring. I’d be interested to see who’s currently inspiring you too. I don’t find Martha Stewart terribly inspiring, but what other female designers are influencing product design? Marcel Wanders http://www.marcelwanders.com/ known…
Chairs of China
Since we’re talking about chairs as the classic design case study, I thought you may enjoy my chair book featuring the chairs of China. Some are up-cycled, some are at end of their life, all are rad. Have a seat and enjoy: http://www.blurb.com/b/6437590-have-a-seat
A dress with parking sensors…
Anouk Wipprecht integrates parking sensors and headlights into 3D-printed fashion collection from Dezeen on Vimeo. I wonder how big the battery pack is, how long it lasts and where it is in the dress.
99% Invisible – A Podcast About Design
I’ve been listening to this podcast for a while now, and it has quickly become one of my all-time favorites. If you love podcasts, design, history, interesting stories, or just some strange amalgam of them all, then you’ll love 99% Invisible. Recommended Episodes: – Episode 110: Structural Integrity – Episode 114: Ten Thousand Years –…
Marble Music Machine
I ran across this video and thought it was worth sharing. I think it is an amazing intersection of engineering and art. Enjoy!
Military Surreal
Several students chose military hardware as upcycle source material, and made benign objects from it, like Ethan Gehring’s nutcracker from a grenade casing, Shen Shu’s toy cannon, and Chad Alvarez‘s string of shotgun shell lights. Here is a full scale example from Kris Kuksi, a “post-industrial Rococco master”artist. Many layers of meaning here.
Dynamic tables
“Top 10 Intelligent Wooden Tables”. Fun ways to make the static table into something dynamic.
Yarn from plastic bags
My sister in law crochets grocery bags out of other plastic bags; very robust creations. This woman takes it further and makes fine thread.
Beer can costume
Someone in class mentioned that they had a lot of soda cans that they were thinking of using for the Upcycle Assignment. Here is an example of upcycling that I can’t find the origin of, but it looks like a Brazilian Carnival troupe: I found it shared on Facebook.
Rolling through the bay
Source: Rolling through the bay A wonderful example of upcycled outsider art. Scott Weaver created an elaborate sculpture of San Francisco, made entirely of toothpicks, around 100,000 of them. A ping pong ball rides on tracks through the sculpture, visiting sites of importance to the sculptor. I saw this at the American Visionary Museum in…
Enter the annual DWR Champagne Chair Contest
If you want to get started with a pre-course warm-up project, check out this competition for tiny chairs made from champagne corks and wire cages. Competition closes Friday Jan 8, 2016. Happy New Year!
Course
Everything administrative. Syllabus, lecture notes, assignment requirements, schedule and more.
Schedule
Movie Night:
Movie Night Week 10
No Comments
Star Wars. This film is the reason I wanted to break into the industry. I had amassed a large collection of arthouse and independent films by the time I graduated…
Lecture Notes etc.
19 Bauhaus and Beyond, plus Critical Design Review criteria and logistics
Yesterday’s post on constraints MUST HAVE sketches showing your current plans. ESPECIALLY to illustrate your aesthetic. Critical Design Presentations starting Monday. Same pods. Prototypes please! Must show aesthetic design. Does…
18 Guest Lecture: Adam Agee
Adam Agee trained at the Rhode Island School of Design. He got us drawing freely with sketching exercises. 18 Adam Agee guest lectureDownload
17 Aesthetic Movement and Art Nouveau
Today we finished listing the elements of Arts and Crafts, and moved on through the Aesthetic Movement and Art Nouveau, ending with a whiplash curve sketching exercise. 17 Aesthetic movement…
16 Arts and Crafts Movement
Groups of students analyzed images of Arts and Crafts styled products to determine what design elements form this aesthetic. When critiquing this week’s blog post about Main Project Inspirations, look…
15: 20th Century Timeline
If you are having trouble deciding on your project, choose an aesthetic to start, then think of an artifact that defines that aesthetic. Choose a random one if you have…
14 Rhino demo and Sketching
Andres Gruber gave a demonstration of Rhino, Grasshopper and Slicer (Fusion 360). We briefly looked at cube sketching tweaks. 14 Rhino Demo and SketchingDownload
13 Supernormal Stimuli
Today we went over the schedule for the rest of the semester, then takeaways from the Upcycle project, saw a short UPD video on Supernormal Stimuli, and did a bit…
11 Contour Bias vs Cubes
Today we went over Upcycle Presentation logistics (look for a separate post on that), and then continued with sketching practice, specifically cubes, extending to a blocky chair. In contrast, we…
10 Aesthetics Game
Today the teams played the Aesthetics Game. The names of artifacts and aesthetics were drawn at random from a hat, and teams then sketch versions of the resulting mashup. For…
09 Upcycle Specs and Perspective Sketching
Today we went over the explicit expectations for final documentation of the Upcycle project: presentations and next week’s blog post. Then we went over basic use of vanishing points in…