Processes

After being informed on other types of manufacturing processes and their constraints we then were told about our next brief.  We had to design a new storage device each week using a material specific process, such as die casting or injection moulding.

Week 1 – Metal Casting – Storage device

The first week we were given metal casting, i.e. sand, die, ect.  I started by thinking of household items which could be cast, such as desk tidy’s, plant pots, paper trays and waste paper bins.  After playing around with differnt forms, I decided on some sort of pot, which lter became a plant pot.  The process which would be best suited for this would either be investment casting or sand casting, I decided to choose sand casting as the sand would give the design a little bit of surface texture, making the plant pot more aestheically intersting, and not look too perfect.

Week 2 – Metal Forming – Storage Device

This week we were able to choose bewteen serveral metal forming processes, such as extrusion and piercing.  Again my inital thought was to create some sort of office tidy or waste paper bin, as I could cut metal sheets to make geometric shapes.  I ended up going for a square based desk tidy which had a curved cut on each side.  I also included a divider, which could be extruded, which would help to seperate things in the desk tidy, such as pens and pencils.  This would then be secured in place by a set of rivets, which could either stick out the sides or be flush.

Week 3 – Plastic Forming – Storage Device

Here I deced to look into PET water and drinks bottles, as this was something wich I have wanted to design, so see how the form could be altered that the typical cylinder with lid.  I opted for a mixture of a cylinder with a top and bottom of a square with rounded edges.  This differnt bottle shape, would allow for a distinct brand identity as it is different from the norm in terms of water botle design.

Week 4 – Choose your Own Processes – Injection Moulding

I chose enjection moulding and made a cultelry storge box for oudoor recreation use as there are a lack of products like this on the market a the moment, people often resort to using old ice cream tubs.

I put together a portfolio, made up of a collection of my best work this year and had it professionally bound.

Editing Herodboards

After gaining feedback on my boards I then edited them and had them printed onto two A2 sheets of foamboard.

Finalising my Design

I decided to make two sizes of my speaker one small with the speaker on the slanted top, directing the sound towards the user and one larger with the speaker in the main body, both could be paired.

Keyshot Render

After making these changes I edited my Solidworks model  and rendered it in Keyshot.Heroboard and Features and Benefits Board

Here I used Adobe illustrator to make two boards

Easter Holidays – w/c 22/4/19

Choosing a Design to Develop further

After looking into the possibilities and areas for development within each design, in regard to speaker placement, size, transportation and safety, I chose to take forwards the cylindrical/spherical speaker.  As it is so compact, has minimal sharp edges, and is a slight unquiet variation of a cylinder, which is an already common shape within the portable speaker market.

Development

Speaker Placement

I first started off by experimenting with the placement of the speaker within the cylindrical form, looking at placing it on the top and then the sides, however I decided to stick with it being placed on the top as the top is slanted this would then direct the sound towards the user.

Buttons and Charging Port Placement

I then went on to look at button placement, I started by thinking about positioning the buttons on the side and the back.

Top Speaker Fillets

I then experimented with fillets and chamfers around the top of the speaker and look at which combinations I could potentially use as some of Philips’ speakers have small details, such as edges.

Week 6 – w/c 1/4/19

Keyshot Seminar

This week I had a seminar on how to render Solidworks models in Keyshot, adding materials, surface textures, labels and backgrounds.  Being introduced to this software enabled me to demonstrate what my speaker concepts would actually look like if they were made from real materials, as well as allowing me to experiment with different colour variations.

Rendering my Three Chosen Designs

For each of the three speaker models I made 20 colour/texture variations to see which combinations best suited Philips’ aesthetic.

 

Week 5 – w/c 25/3/19

Model Making

After deciding the top three designs which were best suited to my target market I made a foam model of each design, this allowed me to look at the form and see if the design was suitable, in terms of if it was able to be held/picked up easily and stored easily.

Model making is something I wish to improve on as it is a useful skill to demonstrate the form of a design.

CAD Modeling

As well as making physical models of the three designs which I had chosen out of all of my concepts, I also made models of them on Solidworks.

Week 4 – w/c 18/3/19

Further Ideation

Again, this week I continued with ideation, experimenting with different forms and shapes, however this time I stuck to a fairly neutral colour scheme that Philip’s range of home multiroom speakers have.  That colour scheme being: black, grey, sliver and white.

Evaluating Concepts

In order to asses and see if my designs really captured Philips aesthetic I stuck them on one of the walls in the studio and placed my laptop next to them with my Pinterest board open, so people could compare my drawings to some of Philips existing products.  Other students in the studio went around putting post it notes on the designs which they thought best suited and matched Philips’ style.  Doing this helped to narrow down my designs to the ones which best captured Philip’s DNA and point out which distinguishable features made a product a Philips one.

Peer Feedback

To get advice on what direction to go in next in terms of developing my designs I then asked a group of students in the studio to review my designs and comment on them in four categories: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.  Afterwards I then did the same for their designs.

After gaining a range of feedback and advice on how I could further experiment with speaker designs I focused on designing speakers with three main sections, a top, middle and base, as these divisions were a common set of features within Philip’s designs.

Matrix Evaluation

After generating multiple concepts, I then did a matrix evaluation on all my designs with my peers, where I found the top three highest scoring designs against a criteria of appropriate aesthetics, portability, ergonomics, discoverability and the five adjectives which best described Philip’s aesthetic style.  These designs were the semicircle design, the case design and the compact cylindrical design.

Week 3 w/c – 11/3/19

Continuing with Ideation

This week I continued to ideate various speaker designs in Philip’s style, closely looking at reference images of their existing products to ensure my designs match their house style.  I also designed with the adjectives that best described their products in mind, which were: Geometric, Minimalistic, Symmetrical, Clean and Simplistic.

Cad Model Ideation

This week I also made multiple Solidworks models of potential speakers, by experimenting with different forms.