I began by developing a Pinterest board of my inspirations. De Stijl’s features harsh, perpendicular black lines in uneven patterns, with large blocks of primary colors and white. I thought this style would make for visually intriguing (while impractical) sunglasses, utilizing the asymmetry and rigidity of the aesthetic.
From there, I developed an initial design. I quickly settled on the idea of a strong horizontal black bar, perhaps broken up a few times, and asymmetric frames, with the right side featuring an extruding upwards bar. I measured many parts of my face with calipers as I learned the basic constraints that I’d be working with throughout the design process. For one, I needed ample room for the middle of the sunglasses to cross my nose bridge. Most sunglasses curve alongside your nose for a comfortable, flush fit, but I wouldn’t be able to maintain the De Stijl aesthetic in doing so. Secondly, I knew I wanted the main black bar wrapping all the way around to my ears, but that would mean it would either cover my vision completely, or, if I positioned it higher up, would not rest properly on my nose bridge. I needed more than just that bar in the center of my glasses, causing me to initially add that extra red block.
After laser-cutting my first prototype, I realized… I didn’t like it. It was way smaller than I envisioned, and I didn’t think it properly embodied the De Stijl aesthetic. I realized two things. One: these needed to be much bigger. To do so, the frames had to extend significantly beyond my ears. Two: My acrylic blocks of color couldn’t all be fully enclosed. The black lines of De Stijl are usually seen longer and more continuous than this, and don’t always fully enclose color blocks. I hit the drawing board once more.
I restarted with very rudimentary sketching and prototyping. I needed the basic idea of my new design, and the footprint dimensions I wanted.
After some prototyping, I finalized my new design. I realized I wanted the horizontal black bar thicker and completely uncut as it wraps around the wearer’s face. I also wanted the vertical bar much thicker as well. Together, the two make for an asymmetric cross shape which serves as the piece’s focal point. Also, remember how I said sunglasses usually wrap around your nose bridge? I realized I could recreate the same effect by having the innermost color block “shorter” than the outer ones. And, while I quickly realized it looked much cleaner for all the color blocks to sit at the same vertical level, it looked perfectly natural to have a thick black horizontal line rest below them without reaching all the way to the nose. Thus, I was able to create a stair-stepping curve around the nose bridge, while keeping true to the De Stijl aesthetic.
As for the mechanics of the ear pieces, I laser cut them in two distinct sections. The first (left) is pin-connected to the frame and only extends half an inch. The second rests upon it and reaches back to your ears. I bought some glasses hinges off Amazon which are JB Welded to each piece, allowing for a classic hinge.
Finally, I needed to test some tolerances. I dropped way too much money on this fancy colorful acrylic so I could NOT afford to mess this up (literally). The laser cutter has a small amount of kerf to it – a bit of material lost by the thickness of the “blade” (here it’s a laser I guess). Thus, if I dimensioned the color blocks to be exactly the same size as the rectangular holes between the black lines, as shown in the CAD, the fit would be loose. I found that by making each color block 0.0075″ thicker than its respective hole in all directions (lots of trial and error there), the press-fit was perfect. See my example above for the connection between the frame and ear pieces.
Lots of cutting, lots of JB Weld….
Et voilà! Sunglasses. I made my friends wear them too. I’m incredibly pleased with how they turned out, particularly in how well they fit my chosen aesthetic. I’m very pleased with my decision to redesign them.
