My object for this project explores the idea of "protection". I wanted a form that strikes a balance between hard and soft, smooth and rough because that is what protection should feel like to me: being strong but soft at the same time.
For inspiration, I looked mainly at how people hold cups and bowls. These objects do not have very obvious grooves or pressure points that screams at how it should be held or forces you to only hold it a certain way, but uses subtly in its curves to prompt the appropriate interactions, giving the user space to find his/ her most comfortable points of contact. This idea of subtly drove my iterative process.
While the object is designed predominantly with the intention of allowing interactions with a person's hand, I nevertheless paid attention and designed it such that it will stand nicely on a surface.
The final form expresses this through its external and internal surfaces. Externally, the form is faceted, with a slightly bumpy texture from the foam showing through, giving it a shell-like appearance. Internally, the surface is organic and curvilinear, as it should, to fit snugly to a hand, almost hugging it. When held, it should be soft and smooth only to the person holding it, but hard and rough to others, thus conveying the idea of protection: to shield and cover.
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The surface for the four fingers to rest on when held, allows the model to sit quite nicely on a surface. Also covered the foam model with a couple of coats of modeling paste, less coats on the shell than the interior portion. Less coats means that the slightly bumpy texture from the foam actually shows through, thus giving the more angular surface a rougher texture than the portion that will be in contact with the hand. When polishing it, I used up to 1200 grit to keep that part as smooth to the touch as possibly but left the outer shell at 600 grit, again to give it a relatively rougher feel. This contrast reflects of idea of "protection" because it allows the object to be soft and strong at the same time, soft to the person interacting with it, but rougher on the exposed surfaces.
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While in the hand, I feel that the object looks strangely bare, like it is missing something. Since the object wraps around the hand slightly, forming a shield like structure around the palm, I am exploring the idea of "protection". Hence while the surface that is in contact with the hand is smooth, I want to create a faceted surface on the exposed part of the model, to give a sense of strength while feeling soft to the person holding it.
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Made it such that the model curves slightly to hug the hand, almost creating a shell around it.
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I am definitely not the greatest with Solidworks. Luckily I still managed to create the basic form of my final model on it. I intend for it to look as organic and abstract as possible while still fitting into a hand, with the exception of the exterior surface where I am thinking of integrating a texture/ pattern as mentioned before.
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// 1.
// 2.
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Inpirations:
1. Also keep in mind not only how the objects fits to a hand but also how it sits on a surface.
2. subtlety: not so much obvious grooves for individual fingers, more organic curves that still fits to hand.
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Description
For this project, I wanted to build upon the intention that guided me in project one: finding ways to work with the shape of a cube and making the static shape interesting and dynamic. This time around, I chose acrylic because it allowed me to explore and make use of the space within the cube. The transparency of the material also meant that I had greater room to maneuver in terms of crafting an object that plays around with light and shadow.
In developing the space within, I explored ways to create another object within but keeping in mind that the cube should not resemble a container. Hence, circles were cut out in the middle of the six faces of the cube that hold only the corners of the interior piece. This solved the “container” problem because allowed the object inside to be fixed in position and give the sense of it being suspended in space. The cube is held together by box joints and one of its corners is taken away, so that it sits unbalanced. Nylon thread was used to hold the pieces of the interior solid together. I chose nylon because of its transparency that matches the acrylic used of the rest of the model, so the final product looks cohesive and integrated.
The pattern/ etching is my interpretation of how Singapore (my home country) looks like from the top, with high-rise buildings packed closed together and roads connecting them to each other. For me, the main function of the pattern was to create shadows by blocking light in certain areas, hence etching was kept relatively, and the web of lines etched produced intricate shadows as light passes through.
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Finger/ box joint
Transparent nylon thread
Circular cut-outs
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