Day 5: Designeritus

It was a good day in the shop with a quite a few people coming in who had specifically hunted down the show and a few interesting passers by.

As far the design process is going its been a day of rational triumphing over *designeritus. I’ve made some decisions the first being a obvious one, to change the 12mm ply to 18mm thus improving the stiffness of the furniture and also to increase the thickness of the leading legs of the chairs, increasing the cross sectional area resulting in further increased stiffness and strength.

Im also going to remove or reduce the radius from the outside edge of the chairs as this will reduce the danger of the chairs tilting backwards.

The main decision today is to reduce the height of the table this will solve a number of problems, improving the ergonomics, Improving the table and chairs stability and reducing the amount of material used thus reducing the cost and the weight.

This rationalisation process is all good, but I have to careful not to go too far and keep the furniture’s quirks and charm.

*Designeritus: Comes in many forms, but in this context, being totally blinkered about a decision you have emotionally invested in and being completely bloody minded about it. A remedy for such an affliction is dam good rational telling off, this normal results in a period of sulking and eventually the patent will come to their senses and will wonder what all the fuss was about.

Day 4: Overall Evaluation

So here we are, several months have passed since I made the Teanest, and the dust has well and truly settled. Life has been busy, but at least this period of time has allowed me to distance myself from the project giving me the prospective to be self critical about my baby, myself and my process.

With hindsight I can say the design process was a bit rushed and I could of made things better, in hindsight. The process was quite aesthetically and gut led, although not entirely. The process was energetic and of the school of thought of get it out there and get it done, rather the calm considered approach, not ideal but it delivered on time. The project was also more complicated than I thought with how three separate pieces all interrelated to one another. My biggest regret is that I didn’t make more models, nothing beats a physical model, but given constraints of lead time, time and cash, i just made the prototype. Do you think I’ve pulled it off?

Overall my concept has been well received, it fulfilled its brief of providing a place to sit, drink and talk, in a confined space. People also love the way it looks, so its aspirational too. The chairs are comfortable and fit neatly within the table.

There are however a number of problems

Stiffness of the sides: This for me is the biggest problem, the last minute substitution of materials is a factor, but also the small cross sectional area.

Resistance of the chairs to tipping: This due to the high centre of gravity, the chairs geometry and the radius at the bottom of the chair.

Manufacturing: A lot of material (3 Sheets of ply) and low yield form each sheet.

Weight: their dam heavy, but in kind of nice way.

Fit of the chairs: there needs to be a bigger gap between each piece

Seat height is a bit on the low side and for some a bit narrow.

Table height: The jury is out on this one, what do you think?

For

An interesting and unconventional height

Works well as a work surface and nice height to put things on, like the person who put a wine glass on it at my private view.

Provides a nice roof/cap for the chairs and brings the pieces together as a unit.

Against

An conventional height

Is there a danger of when objects are on the table they interfere with eye contact?

Too high to eat food off of or use a lap top. But shouldn’t you be just drinking and talking?

Should I really try to dictate what people should do with this furniture?

It also makes people who think the Measure of Man is a bible cry.

Problems are good, because it meens we can move forward.

Tomorrow I’m in the shop so the in depth evaluation and problem solving beings.

Day 3 : From a quick sketch to prototype

Before I get stuck into my redesign project, I need to look where I am now, but before we go there, I should tell the back story about how I got to here, still with me?

The starting point for the design was a problem followed by an idea and a quick sketch. The problem came from my friend (a monkey who dances and sings for cigarettes and coffee) who complained that there was not much room in her kitchen and she would love to have some where to sit and have a coffee and a chat with a friend. I quickly sketched an idea in my pocket sketchbook, where the idea was stored for a while until I had the time and the opportunity to develop the idea into a design. The idea for nesting chairs came instantly, I’m not sure where the idea came from, but I think growing up with my Dads G-plan nesting tables had something to do with it.

The opportunity for me to work on my design came along when I joined a group of fellow creative friends to put on the Handle With Care art and design show together. The show consisted of a broad range of creative disciplines, fine art, illustration, graphic design, photography and product design. The show was held in the basement of Shoreditch town hall in march of this year. Handle With Care was a success for me as a gained a lot of feedback and it was a way great motivate myself and to switch mine design head back on.

The aesthetic came from the idea that I want the shape to be timeless, so I went for the simplicity of simple geometric forms of straight lines and radius, this modernist aesthetic has been about since the 20s and keeps on coming around and always manages to look new and fresh. The initial CAD rendering looks a bit different to the prototype as I had to reduce the amount of wood used and take the comfort of the seat into consideration.

The manufacturing process I chose was to CNC route the plywood, which would then be doweled together. This process was used as it is a process that I am familiar with, its readily available and once the design is perfected it can be readily repeated with ease. Also as with many designers I have a bit of a plywood fetish and think the half man made/ half wood grain stripes look dead sexy. The main body of the chairs was cut from 25mm ply and was cut by CNC router project in Stratford, who provided me with a quality, prompt and professional service.

The side panels for the chairs were originally going to be made from brightly coloured 12 mm thick High Pressure Laminate , I’m avoiding using the trade name as the marketing person let me down last minute. I made the decision to use painted ply instead, I had to use the same thickness, as by this time I had already got the main parts cut. This time Metropolitan works did the CNC work while I was hiring some work space of them to glue and dowel the main components. Metworks have some great CNC toys and by having a fully functioning furniture work shop that can be hired out day by day , it’s a fantastic idea and excellent resource for any individual or small company needing a short term workshop.

I think this brings us up to date, although this post is for yesterday that I’m writing today.

Day 2

Thank you to everyone who attended the private view last night, it was great to see you all and to receive such great encouragement and feedback on my project. Today was the first day the show was open to the public, and we had a steady flow of people coming in from the sunshine to get their design fix.

For those of you have not been to the Made in Brunel show yet, the show consists of work from 2009 product and industrial design graduates who have produced a mixture of functional design, creative problem solving final year projects and brand driven conceptual product design, oh and me displaying my one year on project.

The show is situated in the centre of Sheppard’s market, a chilled out part of west London well off the beaten track. The area consist of small side streets quaint shops, pubs, cafes and about half a dozen restaurants with outdoor dining, a perfect place to rest after a day of walking around the London Design Festival.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend

Day 1

Having moved my Teanest from its metaphorical and its literal cupboard, dusted it down and cleaned it up, its time to show it to its public again. Its maiden voyage was at the Handle with Care exhibition at beautifully rundown basement of Shoreditch town hall in March. Today it shall start its residency at the made in Brunel show in the pleasant west London bookshop of Papadakis publishing.

Im very much looking forward to hearing your opinions on my design, and getting stuck into perfecting my Teanest.

Thank you very much for Alex for kindly letting use her shop and a big thank you to Sarah Silve for all the hard work organising the show.

The Private view is tonight at 7, see you all there if not during the festival.