Saturday, September 27, 2008

Assignment 2 Rationale















The Flat-Me Boxes are seen as a gift set to be sent to family and friends. Used basically to store items of value or just in daily use. The boxes are able to be flattened when needed to be stored away. The use of primary colours help to keep the overall visual appeal. The mixing and matching of different coloured parts of the boxes simply support the fact that the boxes are intended to be sent in a set.

The overall sizes were made to fit the C4 envelope which the objects were to be sent in. With the length of a C4 envelope being 324mm, the boxes had side lengths of 100mm each. This would give the boxes a bit of lee-way when the studs were put in to connect the various parts of the boxes.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Task 5.5: VIdeo Reflection 5

ANNIE LEONARD

The biggest message that I got from this video was probably the unavoidable fact that consumption is now our way of life. With the amount of waste produced just to make products that we constantly buy and replace, it does not bode well for our planet. The whole material economy cycle that Annie has showed does its best in making us consumers realize the vicious cycle that we are a part of and continuing to support. Annie further explains how the media is also used to aggresively fuel this addiction of ours to constantly buy newer products. After thinkin about this point, it does become frightening how much advertising we really are exposed to everyday as well as ideals that are put into our heads in order to follow the norm set by them. To sum it all up, sustainable design to me is probably the best way to go about this growing problem. This as well as recycling should slow down the need for us to constantly replace products that we own.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Assignment 1 Rationale

BLADE BLADE




























The Blade Blade is a merging of 2 already known concepts int he world of cutting blades. For those who have experienced the need to swap and change between a regular sized cutting blade to a much larger option, The Blade Blade easily provides this option. Targetted for users between the ages of 16 all the way through to people in their late 40's, with an interest in arts or just require the use of cutting blades in their daily lives. The Blade Blade provides a much more modern alternative to the cutting blade range.

The main attraction of The Blade Blade is obviously its ability to provide the option of a large and small cutting blade width. The smaller cutting balde can be used while placed in the dock of the larger cutter, or pulled out to be used by itself. The Blade Blade also has rubbery grips positioned in areas where users place most pressure with their hands and fingers. This is to provide the user with much comfort while using the cutting blades.

The Blade Blade also aims to educate users to break off the ends of the blades in a much safer manner. This is done by the introduction of symbols painted into the end cover as well as the underside of the front edge for both the mini cutter as well as the larger one. It uses mirrorable symbols and or images such as a heart shape or a yin and yang symbol. When brought together to form the shape, the user then knows that the position in which the covers are held is correct, and they then can proceed to break the blade forwards, in the case of the heart, breakin a heart as it were.