June 2010

Specs: Acrylic, Steel, Canvas
16”(H) x 13”(W) x 13”(D)

Process: This piece is the result of a two-stage class assignment. In the first stage, we were tasked with creating a 12”x12” cushion, with no further instruction. The second stage required us to design something around the cushion. My goal was to create something that looked as though it was designed in one stage rather than two.
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Being that I am a somewhat obsessive fan of the work of Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, it is only fitting I subscribe to their product/project announcements through their website. In my inbox this morning was a link to a PDF as well as a movie (directed by the Bouroullecs) showcasing 85 different items for the bathroom developed for Axor, that can all work together aesthetically and functionally in myriad ways. Here is the video that, in their typical poetic style, demonstrates how these items might be configured.

AXOR BOUROULLEC from Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec on Vimeo.

Both the Dome and Cylinder lights that I am designing will benefit from the use of gear trains in order to rotate the dimmer switch 360 degrees to achieve full brightness. I’ve been looking into how best to design gears in SolidWorks and, in the process, came across some cool videos on YouTube showing all sorts of different gear assemblies, Gevena mechanisms, etc.

Here is an example:

With the pervasive talk of sustainability and green living, coupled with oil filling up the Gulf of Mexico, it may seem an odd time to release a book that celebrates the use of plastics in design. I would have to say however, judging by the pieces that make up this survey in Plastic Dreams- Synthetic Visions in Design, it may not be a bad thing if some of these objects last 10,000 years. Plus it is good to know thine enemy. Covering all forms of the stuff from bakelite to the cool Ultradur High Speed polymer that Konstantin Grcic used in his Myto Chair, there is much to know and admire about plastic. The book comes with a neat (but very smelly) plastic sheath.

Link

Continuing with the design ideas from the Dome Light, as well as inspiration from Barber Osgerby’s amazingly beautiful Lanterne Marine vases, I am working on a table lamp that is essentially a cylinder with an aluminum armature and glass shade. The light switch will use the same dimmer dial idea as the Dome light but will be flush with the base except for two raised buttons on opposite sides from one another, that one pinches with thumb and middle finger to rotate. This idea was the result of fumbling for the a traditional light switch on my bedside lamp in the middle of the night. Feeling the surface of the Cylinder light for the dial should be much easier.

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Getting an Etsy store set up is fairly easy. I looked at how others had set theirs up, paying attention to graphics and descriptions. I created a mock-up in Photoshop to see what a store with a few of my offerings might look like. Here is a screen shot of the actual store:

Naming your store can be tricky because it needs to be memorable enough so that people can get back to it. Instead of going with MatthewPlumsteadDesign to be consistent with my website, I went with MacPDesign because it is easy to remember. I thought it might be good to keep these entities separate anyway, because I would be offering a small sub-set of what I actually make and I wouldn’t want to become the ‘modern birdfeeder guy’. Of course, I should have made a small website just for these types of items if I really wanted to keep them separate.

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I am working on a design for a tall, adjustable lamp. The design inspiration is an image of a snake rising from a basket in response to a snake charmer. I love how this translates into an open round base with the main tubing appearing to defy gravity a bit as it emerges from the base. A possible design evolution would be to have an actual basket as the base with the lamp emerging from that. I would need to investigate the possibility of having baskets woven to spec, possibly from India. I have done a little research into this and have found a company that works with the disabled to produce baskets. If I get closer to a prototyping this lamp, I may contact them.

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Specs: Acrylic
8”(H) x 12”(W) x 6”(D)

Process: From early renderings, I became interested in translucent nested forms and began to play around with the idea of changing the focus from the outer structure to the inner, depending on time of day and whether the light was on or off.
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Ever since a friend introduced me to Ponoko a while ago, I have wanted to work on a project that would make use of their laser cutting service. They offer an array of materials to cut as well. I wanted to make something that didn’t consist of many parts (kind of a thing with me). I had been looking out a window in the house where we are living and visualizing a bird house or feeder out there. I looked around on the web for modern looking birdhouses without finding too many. Most were pricey to boot. That encouraged me to pursue designing one with the vague notion of possibly selling it through Etsy eventually. Using packaging as  inspiration, I began to draw some forms that could be made by heat-bending acrylic (which Ponoko offers in various thicknesses and colors).

Initially I came up with something that looked like this:

I decided to change the design to add a bit more protection from the elements. The great thing about creating this in Solidworks is that I can treat the part like sheet metal with bent flanges. Then I can flatten it and export a perfect pattern to be used for laser cutting.

Once I converted the pattern to an Illustrator EPS (the preferred format for Ponoko), I sent the file off to be cut. The turn-around for this job was over 3 weeks. I know that is fast for this sort of service, but of course I wish it were faster (even when I upgraded my account at one point, it was still 2 weeks or so). What I got back was this:

To make it more economical, I put 2 parts on a single sheet. Not entirely sure just how well the acrylic would bend, I made one part with long perforations and the other with scoring marks to guide a straight edge when bending. I made a mold out of pieces of MDF using a CNC router to bend the plastic around. Even with this planning, both parts failed. The part with the scoring was too hard to accurately bend along each edge. The shorter flanges looked horrible. The other part was much easier to bend. Unfortunately the perforations were too long causing the flanges to warp slightly. The next version would have perforations but they would need to be smaller and cover the entire edge evenly. Bending then should be a cinch.

This proved to be the case as the next images will show.

Feeling confident about the process, I began to make adjustments to the original design and create a few more variations. This would also mean needing to make additional molds. For accuracy’s sake, the pieces for the molds needed to be cut using a CNC router using digital files that were derived from the main files. The pieces that I would make look like this:

With an order in at Ponoko, I decide to investigate setting up shop at Etsy. More in part 2.

Specs: Steel, Birch Plywood, Laminate
8”(H) x 40”(W) x 8”(D)

Process: Catchall resulted from an interest in designing something both attractive and utilitarian that could be mounted to a wall.
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