Sketchin'

In the beginning of the year, I found myself using a lot of pens for sketching because I like the way pens write. After the first few weeks I found that the quality of the sketches I make should be better than the ones I've already made.

This is the point where I decided to crack open my new box of drafting pencils and give them a shot because I had never used them before. Pencils are definitely a way better sketching tool. I find it WAY easier to get a better line, better detail, and you can do some heavy shading sequences and make it look like a complete rendering.

From now on (as often as I can), I would like to continue using pencils because I can show what I can do on paper.

Choosing Industrial Design.

Industrial design was not my first choice as a major. Originally, I had thought that I wanted to be a business man because of my Dad. Senior year, I had a slight epiphany in my Humanities course when I was told to draw my dream house. Having taken CAD all four years of high school, my knowledge of how to properly draw buildings gave me a razor-sharp edge for this assignment. When I completed my drawing, I looked at it for a long time. It was then that I thought I would change my future major to be an architect.

But that was not the last decision I would make. Since I decided to change my major, I also had to change schools. Originally I was planning on Colorado State University, but CSU didnt even have an architecture program. Luckily I applied here at Kansas just for fun, or else I would be studying something I would eventually wind up not liking.

In order for me to get into the architecture program at KU, my Dad and I had the idea to bring my complete CAD portfolio and show it to the Dean of Architecture, which we would then hope that he would let me apply a few months late, THEN hopefully I would be able to get into the architecture program. When we spoke to the Dean of Architecture, who after all the effort we made to get all the way to KU, told me that I shouldn't be an architect. But wait! He then picked up the phone, called Brian Hanabury our dean, told him that I had quality work that "looked like it was stolen out of the showcase", said that he needed to see me, and immediately sent me to talk to him. My dad and I were absolutely shocked.

When we got the Hanabury's office, he looked at my work and I guess he must have thought it was really good because after 10 or 15 minutes with him, he told me to apply late as an Industrial Designer with a portfolio presentation, and he would get back to me as soon as they reviewed my submission. Two hours later, I arrived back in Chicago, cranked out an entire presentation for the review committee, mailed it and prayed.

A few weeks later, a letter from KU came addressed to me, and my heart stopped. I got in. My Dad and I went nuts because all of the hard work we put into it. So with that, KU became my new home.

Looking at the future as a professional career, I am not yet completely certain about what I want to do. I do know that I aspire to own a studio and sell ideas and designs for companies, but the specific medium of work (objects to be designed), I am not completely certain about. What I enjoy about the morning lab is that we will be working on many different types of mediums, so by the end of freshman year I think I will have a better understanding of what my specific medium will be.

Presentation Day

Today the design teams presented their finals prototypes to the class. I was blown away by all the work every team did.

When our group was presenting to the class, I felt that we presented our prototype well, and that our poster provided good information to back up our product. I think that everyone in our group presented their share of the presentation very well, and that we were able to correctly answer the other groups' questions about our product.

After the whole Flameless Lighter design project was finished, I felt a good connection with the team because I felt that we worked very well. I would definitely love to work with all of them again.

IDEO Deep Dive and More

The IDEO Deep Dive video was a great video to watch for this project. In high school we watched this exact video, but at the time it wasn't as relevant to the subject like we are learning now. Watching the IDEO video was a great addition to our classwork because we were able to recreate some of the methods that the designers at IDEO use to get a concept of new products. This way of of brainstorming, or as IDEO calls it, "The deep dive", helped my group a significant amount because we were able to work out many of the problems or setbacks with our product.

After only about 20 minutes of brainstorming ideas for our product we came up with a fabulous product map which was split into sections to get down to the very specifics of our new product.

Prior to Tuesday morning, I interviewed 11 people on what the they thought were the pro's, con's and things we should try to accommodate into our new and improved cigarette lighter.  Below are five participants' responses from their interviews. 

QUESTIONS: 

1) How do you use a traditional cigarette lighter or what do you use it for?

2) What do you think is good about the traditional cigarette lighter?

3) What could be improved, or what would you change?

Drew

1) Cigarettes

2) Good accessory 

     Fire at the snap** of your fingers

3) Get rid of the child safety feature

**Drew demonstrating the simplicity of a lighter

Jon

1) Cigarettes

2) Simple

    Efficient

3) Get rid of child safety

    Wind resistant

Pat

1) Cigarettes

2) Simple

    Functional

3) Wind resistant

Alec

1) Cigarettes

2) Continual use

    Ease of access and usability

3) Oxygen efficient

    Windproof

Max

1) Cigarettes

2) Small lighters

    Convenient 

3) Wind resistant

    Small

    Rechargable

We received the visual writing handout called The Writer's Toolbox last week.  This handout is almost like a book of tips for writers which explains interesting methods to brainstorm ideas.  Such methods include: brainstorming, concept maps, free-writing, brain-writing, and wordlists.  We have used such methods included in this handout like concept maps and wordlists.  These methods are very helpful, but at times may seem a little abstract.  By applying these methods, our group has come up with many useful ideas that we may have never thought of if we haven't read this handout.