Student Work

Aesthetic Exploration: Touch of Color

The aesthetic called a “touch of color” or “dash of color” has been used in still art, photography, and film for years. The aesthetic uses backdrops or settings that are substantially desaturated or even gray-scale with a single saturated element. It forces an instant response from audience to focus on the saturated element and uses the…

Aesthetic Explorations: Baroque Composers

The aesthetic I have chosen to explore is that of Baroque musical composition, a period of European musicianship lasting from 1600 to 1750.  Well known within this period are composers such as Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713), Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751), Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), and George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) among…

Aesthetic Explorations: Lava Lamps

Lava lamps have been glowing in people’s homes ever since they were invented in 1960’s in the United Kingdom. The inventor, Edward Craven Walker, took particular interest in the way two contrasting liquids behaved together inside a container and strived to learn their properties. Several years later, he released the first lava lamp known as…

Aesthetic Exploration- Art Deco Revival

Art Deco was an art movement that started in France during the 1920s. It influenced everything from jewelry to architecture. Art deco focused on repeating geometries, non-dimensional illustrations and liked incorporating things that had to do with the influx of modern era technology. Art Deco was a backlash against the WWI mindset of rationing and…

Explore an Aesthetic: Psychedelic / Technologically Advanced EDM Stages

Electronic dance music stages have significantly evolved in design over the last several years from simple lighting setups, akin to what one would see in a standard theater production, to highly technologically advanced productions involving many moving lights and other elements on the stage. The effect is that the light shows displayed from psychedelically designed stages create a deeply…

Aesthetics Explorations: Camera

While brainstorming for an interesting aesthetic exploration topic, I began to realize that the very thing we use to capture the aesthetics in our everyday lives is an aesthetic in itself. While most people will immediately picture the black, square DSLR cameras owned by almost every household, cameras have progressed greatly over the years. The earliest…

Aesthetics Explorations: The Hofmeister Kink

The Hofmeister Kink A Simple Twist https://charlesng.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/bmw-hofmeister-kink1.jpg The Hofmeister Kink is a design feature named after BMW’s chief designer Wilhelm Hofmeister during 1955 and 1970, where there is a “kink” on a car’s C-pillar or D-pillar. Wilhelm Hofmeister http://www.bmwism.com/designers/wilhelm_hofmeister.jpg The Hofmeister Kink has been on almost all BMW cars since 1960, with very few exceptions of some…

Aesthetic Exploration: Camouflage

The history of camouflage art is based in survival, but it has since evolved to mean many things. Up until around WWI many armies and navies were dressed in the bright uniforms of their profession. This included items such as red jackets and white gloves [1].  Fighting in this period of history was undergoing a…

01 First Class 2017: Fresh again

Design, art, engineering: all iterative processes. This will be the third offering of the Aesthetics of Design course. The class is full, the students are eager, and I’m stoked to do this again: learning and presenting new content, expanding and honing what I already have, greeting students from previous courses and meeting new ones. Looking…

Is the Aesthetics of Design course right for you?

This is the letter I’ve been sending to students, both enrolled and waitlisted. The idea is to clarify expectations. Thanks for signing up for the Aesthetics in Design course. I’m writing to give you a bit more information about the course, and get you thinking about your design project for the course. An updated flyer…

Spring 2017 Enrollment is Open!

So excited to offer this again! There were a lot of changes and development last spring; I think we are getting to a good place with the course. Final tweaks will involve setting it in the context of our ME design curriculum for both grad and undergraduate students. Here is the enrollment info: Aesthetics of…

Spider Toy: April 13th Update

I have made a lot of progress this week by building the wind up toy’s skeleton, but there is still a lot more to do before the ITLL Design Expo (4/23/2016)! First I began the week by going to the ITLL machine shop to start the fabrication process of my wind up spider toy and…

The “Electric” Hourglass: Final Report pt.2

Why and What’s Next? Much of my intention for this class was to construct pieces which were art in themselves. While, the electric hourglass does not function to serve any purpose other than visual art, I believe it conjures an interesting aesthetic space. The design is far-fetched in nature but provides depth for further contemplation.…

The “Electric” Hourglass: Final Report pt.1

Introduction The intent of the “electric hourglass” is to create a new perspective on the age-old timepiece. Its initial concept was to construct a wood stand and hourglass section in which a lighting display would imitate the movement of sand. However, this scope was narrowed by the capability of available lighting options.  More idea were developed while thinking upon…

Fabrication Timeline

For my design, I will need to fabricate both a wood structure for my hourglass and a light installation to go inside. As of now, I am not settled on the details of my light installation so I will focus on fabricating the wood base. Taking inspiration from traditional hourglass forms, I want the wood…

Nixie Clock | Case Update

  Boom! A block of the finest Silver Maple- so fresh, it’s still kind of damp, and has wax sealed sides! This was an unexpected extra step; I definitely wasn’t planning on having to spend time drying out (“seasoning”) my wood. This block was purchased from an exotic woods dealer online. I picked this silver…

Nixie Clock | Electronics Update

Progress! After receiving all the parts, I spent 6 hours straight soldering. The board arrived blank, with a bag of components- all it took was some caffeine, and one late night! https://www.aesdes.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/IMG_2523.mp4 I’m really excited with how these turned out! While I was debating on a case at first, I’m really glad I decided to…

Nixie Clock | April 6th Budget Update

The Nixie clock is humming along!   I received my block of wood, but wasn’t able to make a lot of progress this week on the physical case- I hit an unexpected road block. It turns out, when you order exotic wood, it comes “partly seasoned”- aka, still wet!   This block has wax sealed…

20th Century Design Influences

My project is heavily inspired by 20th Century Design Influences. I really wanted to mimic this modern look:   Straight sides, sharp corners, constant finish- this is the goal of my nixie clock.   I was very inspired by a lot of furniture from this era. This is another piece I really like:   Simple…

Pre-Spring Break Aesthetics Game

Dang! Didn’t see this up, so I wanted to add it to the Aesthetics Game section. Ashley Zimmer, Dennis Can, Yusen Ji, and I had “Post Modern” and “Office trash receptacle. These are the two designs we came up with!   The right-side-up one is a curvey, three-piece set that nests together, and is made…

iPhone and Apple Watch charging dock: Part II

My project probably has the biggest difference from the beginning to the end. At the beginning I was planning on making a mirrorless rear view mirror for cars. However due to the natural difficulty of the concept and my tight schedule, I switched to a simpler and more practical project—the iPhone and Apple Watch charging…

Aesthetics of Design Timeline

Here listed is a rough timeline for the completion of my project and other posts: Week 1 (Jan 18) Research into different aesthetics. I found a particular interest in androgynous fashion Androgynous Week 2 (Jan 25) Experimenting with creating products with a given aesthetic with upcycled materials. Here I took function and applied an aesthetic…

Surreal Stirling Engine: Timeline

March 3 – Ordered parts (Glass syringes, alcohol lamp) March 11 – Parts arrived March 23 – First parts printed March 28 – Begin assembly April 4 – Initial testing April 8 – Whale sculpted April 15 – Helicopter rotor printed April 18 – Final tweaks and details added to the whale April 23 – Expo Here…

Final Report I: Concrete Details

I have completed my first custom bicycle frame. It’s a task I’ve been itching to do for year and this class and project was the perfect opportunity to pursue the experience with the support I needed. There were successes and lots of failures, but I have an end product, one that I intend to use.…

Ferrofluid Sculpture: Final Report part 2

Background and What’s To Come I chose to pursue this project because of my overwhelming fascination with ferrofluid. It is such a unique liquid that typically is used in automotive applications where normal oil will not hold. The magnetic attribute gives it an advantage in industrial applications, and a pleasing look. I wanted to take…

Ferrofluid Sculpture 4/13

I have spent the past week attempting to make the ferrofluid glass encasing completely sealed so the ferrofluid has no chance to leak (that would be bad). It has turned out to be a significantly more difficult process then i originally thought. The silicone sealant I am using requires at least 12 hours to cure,…

Ferrofluid Sculpture: Fabrication Timeline

Fortunately, my project does not involve too much machining. I will be able to get away with a few laser cuts and 3D printed parts. The only complicated fabrication piece will be cutting the glass encasing. Below is a layout of my current schedule for fabrication and assembly. 14 February – Acquire and test ferrofluid…

Bladeless Fan Timeline

Description This project is part of an aesthetics of design course which required the final product to be dynamic in some sort of way. My inspirations for this design is from the Dyson bladeless fans. I was fascinated by the technology and wanted to implement it in my own project. The product was to be…

Design Fabrication Timeline

The following is a layout of the schedule for my final project (Wind Chimes).   Week of: March 28: Order supplies from McMaster Carr and pick up supplies form McGuckins.  Also model the pieces in Solidworks.   April 4: Begin work in the machine shop, starting with the aluminum pipes.   April 11: Finish work…

Final Page

This project is a coffee brewer. It consists of a stand made from wood which holds a large jar that cold brews coffee. There is a valve to drain the coffee when it’s done brewing and there is a collection jar at the bottom. Below are links regarding the timeline of this project Inspiration Ideas…

Alcohol Stove Final Report Part 2

Why and What’s Next? I began this project with the intent to build a minimalist styled alcohol stove and for the most part I would say I achieved my goals. I started with the idea of making a stove that had a built in pot stand, variable temperature control and some sort of external fuel…

Alcohol Stove Final Report Part 1

Introduction I created an alcohol backpacking stove following a minimalist aesthetic. The stove uses denatured alcohol for fuel, features legs which function as a built in pot holder, and has a “simmer ring” to control temperature. Concept   The general concept of how this style of stove works is illustrated well by these two images.…

Update 4/13 – Thundercloud

This week I started building the cloud. Here is an image of some of the progress made. I am using a poster board as the main internal support for the cloud and the hardware needed to run it. I attached a layer of pillow stuffing to the poster board using spray adhesive and some embroidery…

Design Fabrication Timeline – Liz

Below is a simple timeline of the design fabrication for my cloud. The main milestones are purchasing all the materials, completing a functional prototype, and completing the final build. Week March 20 – 26 Purchase all materials Week March 27 – April 2 Prototyping Purchase new materials as needed Finalize design Week April 3 –…

20th Century Design Movement: Mysticism

While thinking of a design movement to report on, I wanted to choose one that reflected the aesthetic intent of my project. I had difficulty narrowing down the aesthetic of my project since it is meant to create a more personal experience than convey a certain aesthetic. However, if I had to decide upon a…

Final Report 2 Longboard

  The final product, as you can see, is a custom made longboard, optimized for cruising. Aesthetically, the board maintains a classic beach wood look with curvyness. This is both designed as a functional athletic piece of technology and as an art piece. Moving forward, this board will make its way to New York City/…

Macro Music Box – Project Update 4/13

The music box is coming along, in fact it’s fairly close except for final assembly. I realized I’ll need to mount each key to the octagon and then mount that entire structure to the base board. I could have chosen some alternate mounting method, though I wanted to keep the mounting hardware hidden, so that’s…

Coffee Brewer: The why

Overall this project is for a friend. This is my last year in college and he has been there for all 4 years of it, going through each up and down right alongside me. He’s the one who got me drinking 6 cups of coffee everyday, and someone who has left his mark in my…

Thundercloud Final Report Part 2

  Inspired by nature I tried to create a piece that accurately mimicked a thundercloud. Much like the organic design movement took inspiration from different aspects of nature. I think the results were successful. At expo, the light fixture was received well by the public! Many comments were made about how realistic the lightning flashes…