Photo Shoot

After our final critique, we were taken separately into an adjoining room with our chairs, and were treated to a professional photo shoot. Here are my pictures:

Day 9: Stockholm to Copenhagen

(Finally, I've added the last day from our Scandinavia trip!)

Friday, July 18th, 2008

The last day was fairly short, and much was spent in the bus sleeping, but it was just about the most that we could do because it had been a very long week. Morning, however, started on the boat, around 3:30 in the morning:









It was just gorgeous! Not many people were outside for it, probably about 4 other people from our trip, but Flemming came out to enjoy it with us.

Then we headed for our final buffet breakfast, seated at the front of the boat.

After packing our stuff up and arriving at the dock, everyone headed off the boat and to our bus, to finally get some sleep as we drove to our first stop, IKEA!



Almhult is the home of IKEA, and I expected everything to make up some sort of IKEAland, which it actually did. Almost every street name involved IKEA in some way and the many many warehouses that make it up were dispersed throughout the town.

The first warehouse we toured was the Pattern Shop, a building where the latest textiles and furniture are born. It take about 2-4 years from concept to release to make a new piece, but if you think that doesn't involve much work, think again. They produce about 1600-1700 prototypes a year! And that is made possible because of computers and their state-of-the-art prototyping machine. And they only have 13 people in the shop during their open season (they take the whole season of summer off).

New fabrics, after being designed on the computer, are printed out on a canvas plotter so that designers can get an accurate idea of what the final product will look like. I promptly put one of those on my Christmas list.

IKEA has only 12 in house designers. Most of their products come from their 70 hired freelance designers. This information we got from one of their in-house designers, who took us through the IKEA Museum, a large permanent exhibit showcasing their most popular and innovative pieces of furniture over the years. One thing I learned is that the company actually got its start selling pencils, not furniture. And from that, it grew to be the powerhouse of design that it is today.

The designer that we talked to told us what the rough design process is at IKEA when they've decided to create a new piece.

"To get an idea of what needs to be designed, we look at the product matrix–what exists, what can be combined, and what can be gotten rid of."

"Sometimes they (the project managers) tell us exactly the criteria for a new piece, like that they want a rocking chair made of wood and wicker, that folds up. But sometimes there is very little criteria and we can experiment with something new."

It was really neat to get to talk to a designer about his own process as well as IKEA's. I definitely could have spent all day there, picking his brain about the profession.

But it was time to move on, so we got back on the bus and took a nice long sleep while driving towards lunch, a quick stop at a highway-side cafeteria. Then it was back to driving across Sweden and ending the day, driving across the bridge that connects Denmark with Sweden, finally entering Copenhagen.

Overall, it was a very exciting and educational trip, a wonderful supplement to my study abroad experience!

Final Day in Copenhagen

Today could not have been a more beautiful day. I'm happy to say that my final full day in Copenhagen was well spent.

I woke up outrageously early. Like 6AM early. And not on purpose or to an alarm clock. I think my body just new it was my last day in Copenhagen and wanted me up and out of bed for it. So I spent my first hour awake writing a bunch of post cards. Then I leisurely got ready and headed to the S-Train.



I got to Kobenhavn station about 15 minutes before the Post Office opened at 10, so I strolled around a bit. I went into one of the Kwik-E-Mart type places and saw, to my surprise, a Mountain Dew!



I snatched one up, along with a scrumptious looking Danish, and went to eat my breakfast while waiting for the P.O. to open. The Mountain Dew, oddly enough, was probably the worst part of my day. It tasted horrible! Either 4 weeks without one has built up some sort of Mountain Dew aversion (god forbid!), or it's made differently over here. I could tell it wasn't the American packaged kind like my Stockholm beverage of goodness was. It tasted like Sprite mixed with 409. Or what I imagine Sprite and 409 to taste like. Either way, gross.

Then I headed to the Town Hall, to buy my last family souvenir, a "I (bike) CPH" shirt for my dad. Apparently, they are only sold in this one location. That's it. Nowhere else, not even online, can you find this shirt. And, to make it even more peculiar, they keep them in a locked cabinet, guarded by security! I almost felt like getting myself one just because of the rarity.

After that, I thought I would take a stroll along Stroget, the shopping district that runs through the center of Copenhagen.





About midway through, I popped into a bookstore and found the English section, all three shelves of it, and found an interesting book:



A Short History of Everything by Bill Bryson. Here's the summary from the back of the book:

"Bill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveler, but even when he stays safely at home he can't contain his curiosity about the world around him. A Short History of Nearly Everything is his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization––how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. The ultimate eye-opening journey through time and space, revealing the world in a way most of us have never seen it before."

The voice Bryson uses is very humorous, and you sort of absorb his intense interest in not just the facts, but how scientists made their discoveries. It's going to make for a very educational flight home. I made it a good 30 pages in during lunch at "Sunset Boulevard":



Also, during lunch, I accidentally set my camera to the Movie option and took a short movie. After figuring this out and then watching my inadvertent movie, I found the quality to be actually quite amazing. That paired with a 4-gig memory card, allowed me to take the following movie, as I walked from where I had lunch to the nearby Norreport station. The movie is 4 minutes long, so it may get kind of boring, but there's a good part in there where I pass by a street musician and his music provides a nice soundtrack. And I apologize for my apparent "big foot" walking. It's hard to keep the camera steady as I'm holding it at my waist. Anyway, enjoy!



After the train ride home, I headed out again to the Rodovre shopping center, the closest thing to a mall that I've seen here, and did some shopping for myself, as I realized today that I hadn't gotten myself anything to remember Copenhagen by. Other than hundreds of pictures and a chair, of course.

The Tivoli

I definitely underestimated the awesomeness that was today. After figuring out that we didn't need to do anything in order to ship our chairs, I ran into Danielle, who told me she was going to the Tivoli today, and she asked if I wanted to come with. Of course! I was disappointed that I had missed it last Friday, but it was raining all day and most of the rides had shut down because of it. But today was a perfect day and we took full advantage. They wouldn't allow me to take my monstrous camera onto any of the rides, but I found some good footage on YouTube.

The first ride we went on was the Star Flyer:





It doesn't look like much, but it pulls you up 25 stories and then flings you around so you get a massive view of the city. It was absolutely beautiful and terrifying at the same time. About mid-way through, I mentioned to Danielle that the only thing keeping us up were a few very tiny chains, to which she replied, "Ahhhhh! Lemmedown lemmedown lemmedown!"

Next was the Golden Tower:





Short and sweet, but even more terrifying than the first ride. It takes you quickly up and then lets you dangle there a while in anticipation. You really can't help but scream. I do wish it had been a little taller though, like the ones at Cedar Point.

Then the Dragon:



This one was so intense! We didn't see it in motion before going on, so we had no idea what was coming. I had worn my glasses today and had to grab them before they flew off my face. This was easily the most damaging of all the rides. My shoulders took quite a beating when we would flip all the way over.

Next, Dæmonen (The Demon):



Can you give me a "Woohoo?" Standard roller coaster. Although, the second time we went on, we got a recommendation from the operator to sit in the last row. It did feel a bit more intense, I must say.

And finally, (apparently) the oldest roller coaster in the world, Rutschebanen (literally meaning Roller Coaster):



Reminds me a bit of the Mine Train at Six Flags, St. Louis. Except more rickety.

We braved lunch somewhere in there, a 70DKK helping of chicken nuggets and french fries. But at least I get to keep the cup!



So Tivoli Gardens actually has gardens. Go figure!



Adorable!





I couldn't resist snagging this picture:



Yep, it sure is.

One of the most enjoyable rides of the day was an 3-minute-long rendition of EVERY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN FAIRY TALE EVER. Told in broken English, I think it was the most hilarious thing I've ever seen. I managed to snag a non-blurry pic of the ice maiden:



All in all, it was a fantastic day. Lessons learned? Everyone screams in the same language.

Packman

Woke up bright and early this morning, as we're shipping out our chairs today. However, we've been waiting a while for Packman (the shipping service we're using) to get set up. I'm glad I brought my camera cord, so I can share a few more pictures with you.



My B Train, so happy to see me.



Rare footage from inside the train! I had to pretend like I was going through old pictures in order to snap this puppy.



And finally, everyone waiting around, truly testing their chairs out. Mine is good as a task chair, but it is definitely not a lounger.

Today is going to be chock full of awesome! Yesterday, we had the day completely off, but I was suffering from a type of head wound--not serious, but painful. I somehow, in my infinite luck, got bitten by a bug on Wednesday night, right on my forehead. Right away, it swelled up like a balloon. It felt somewhat like the business-end of a pitchfork going through my head, with a little burning to go along with.

So I headed for an Apotek, got some "pain creme" as the woman behind the counter called it, and went home to lay down. I slept much of yesterday, as any sort of movement threw my head into an electric shock. By the end of the last night, it was starting to feel much better, and this morning it's more akin to the feeling of a bruise.

I'm still not sure what bit me, but it sure got the job done. Anyway, today is going to be my "Getting the Small Things Done" day. I've got some last minute shopping I need to get done, as well as sending out postcards. I also want to hit a bookstore, to pick up something to read on the plane ride back to the States. Then I want to pack up tonight, so that tomorrow can be completely stress free and fun. More pictures to come!

Final Critique

I had my final critique today, with two of our lecturers from last week, Tina Christensen and Troels Svendsen. Both of them are professional furniture designers and we got to see some of their amazing designs over the course of their careers. This was the first official critique from a design professional (besides Flemming, Bjorli, and Nils-Ole, but they haven't really critiqued the chair at all). And I was definitely interested in getting an opinion from people who do this for a living.

Here are the main points I made when presenting my chair:

• I wanted no exposed edges, so every end (either rod or tube) dies into a larger tube. 20mm tube dies into 25mm. 6mm rod dies into 25mm. And 25mm makes a complete loop. This creates a simplistic aesthetic.
  
• I started designing in profile, but moved to 3d view, which allowed for a better aesthetic from all angles.
  
• The 20mm "spines" are placed in a way to be both visually appealing and structurally supportive.

Here are the notes (from the critique) that I wrote down right afterwards and some borrowed from others who wrote for me:

• Troels started by saying that he really liked and appreciated the "hierarchy" within my chair, how the 25, 20, and 6mm look together, and how the ratio works.
  
• Tina started by saying that the chair looks very comfortable despite being completely steel, and that she liked the proportions a lot.
  
• Both of them really liked the spines, how they started inward on the top and flared down and outward towards the legs. And they also liked how they interacted with the 25mm tube.
  
• Troels suggested it was a "great way to update the traditional cantilever chair," which has become almost a standard in steel chair design.
  
• Tina said that although the chair uses three different types of steel, it is very "understated."
  
• They both liked how the rods bent on a separate line from the spines, following their own path and creating their own space in which to sit.
  
• They ended by giving me my only piece of criticism, that the seat is a little bit short (as in depth-wise), due to the rods being the only seating element. You can see it if you look closely. The only way for me to have fixed this would be to have added a rolled tube going from leg to leg, which would have detracted from the aesthetic of the chair. I mentioned that and they agreed that I made the better decision. The solution in the future would be to create a slightly deeper chair to account for the seat's shortness.

So, all in all, the critique went better than I could have ever expected! It is definitely validating getting such high marks from professionals on my first steel chair. Tina asked me if I had wanted to work with steel to which I said yes. And she replied that it showed in my chair. After the crit, a bunch of fellow students came up, wanting to sit in it and test it out for themselves. Bjorli even came over and commented on how he liked how it turned out.

Overall, this was the easiest design I've ever done. The finished product looks almost exactly like my first sketch. Design dilemmas were kept to a minimum, and the only real tinkering was with the human proportions. And, while I didn't go crazy experimental with my chair, I do think it has some commercial appeal. I'm hoping that my fall furniture studio goes as smoothly. If so, I may have found my niche.

Also, I finished this project DAYS IN ADVANCE. I have NEVER EVER done that. I always dawdle and tinker and draw out my projects, and this was like, "Oh, I'm done? Really? Nothing left to do? Well, alright. I guess I'll go home and sleep now. Boy, that just sounds weird coming out of my mouth."

Personally, though, I think I need to not look at my chair for a couple of weeks so that I can look at it with fresh eyes later. I've got every square centimeter memorized right now so I can't really tell if I would change anything on it or not.

Wednesday is our big exhibit, so I'll be taking pictures of everyone else's chairs and posting them up for you all to see. Meanwhile, take a look at some pictures I took of other students' steel tube and/or rod chairs from my studio.

The Chair is Complete!

Check out a small sample of the bajillion pictures I took of the thing!











I decided to put some feet on it, to keep the bottom from scratching up.



Here it is, feet and all!

Ta-Da!

I'm finished with my chair! Take a look!





And here is Joelle test driving it for me. Don't worry, I was the first to christen it a chair by sitting in it.



After sanding it down, I drilled two tiny holes in the bottom so that the people painting it could hang it and cover the whole thing. And then I put it in the trailer and waved good-bye.

I might be going in tomorrow, so if I do, I'll get a picture of it all finished.

It's actually quite comfortable for a completely steel chair and the proportions worked out well, so I'm very happy with it.

Now it's time for a nap! Wee!

Dern Close

I would love to say that I'm completely done with my chair, but I'm not. The good news is it's all welded! Here are some pictures I took throughout the day:

This is the first set of rods I did. This is how it looked at the end of last night.



Here it is, mid-weld with all the pieces on and ready.



And here it is, waiting for its final weld.



Now all that is left to do is manually sand down some weld points, clean it off with a Scotch-Brite pad, and I am set. And none to soon. At ten in the morning tomorrow, our chairs go out to the place that powder coats it. I'm going to head in at 7 so that I can spend a few hours making sure everything is ready.

It has been a very long day. I got into shop around 7 and left about 10:30. I did have lunch, but I skipped dinner so that I could get my rods completed. Tomorrow should be a bit more relaxing, other than the three hour sand-a-thon. And I have a test at 1:30. But it should be no biggie. After the last two weeks I had, a test is going to be relaxing.

I'm starting to plan out the rest of my stay here in Copenhagen. Even after the test and finishing the chair, we still have other DIS-related things to do: Watching everybody's critiques on their chairs as well and have my own. Redraw my drawings, which got utterly mauled in the shop. Go to the exhibit of our chairs, which also includes projects from the other disciplines here (architecture and glass blowing). Clean the shop.

But other than that, I'm going to be doing as much touristy stuff as I can fit in. A group of us are going to the Tivoli on Friday, not only to ride some awesome roller coasters, but to see The Flaming Lips concert! Then next week, from Thursday to Saturday, I have no DIS-related obligations, so I'm going to live it up in the city. I pass by the Carlsberg Brewery every morning on my way into class, so I was thinking of taking a tour while I'm here. I don't know. Maybe I'll head by the Tourist Info shop and get some other ideas.

More pictures of the chair when it's nice and pretty. We get it back Friday, all powder-coated up, so I may have some pictures then if I go to the campus. And I'll be sure to take photos of other peoples' chairs. There are definitely some really interesting ones.

The Nature of the Prototype

Here's the crazy keyboard I was talking about:



Lack of posting recently is due to working extra hours in shop the last couple of days. I got the spines welded on yesterday. Here's the chair, just after welding.



Then I began to work on the hard part of the chair: the rods. I cut and measured all 15 of my 5mm rods, only to have Flemming come over and tell me that I should use 6mm. Good thing it only set me back about 60-90 minutes. I had already started to roll a few of the 5mm, and here's the picture with them.



You wouldn't think 1mm would make a difference, but it really does, both structurally and aesthetically. The 6mm definitely do look better with the bigger tubes. Today, I rolled all the rods. I am now in the middle of bending, trimming, and fitting them onto the structure. I managed to get 8 of the 15 done and ready for welding. It takes about 45 minutes to do a single rod, so I've got about 6 hours tomorrow solely dedicated to finishing the remainder.

Then it's on to welding. I'm going to bypass the jig and just hold each piece while Hee tacks them into place. I don't have a picture of it as it stands now because I didn't take my camera in, but I'll post a picture of it (hopefully) welded all together tomorrow. I'm happy with how it's turning out, although if I could go back and change some things, of course I would. But that's the nature of the prototype, I guess.

Better get to bed. I'm going in very early tomorrow. It's going to be a 7am-til-I-get-done day.

Space Keyboard

I'm currently at KASB, which stands for Kunstakademiets Arkitekskoles Bibliotek, on the Royal Danish Academy campus. I finished my paper last night/early this morning and am now printing it out to turn in today. I'm having a hard time typing with this keyboard, as it has about 10 extra keys and my muscle memory is failing me. I've resorted to my grade school, pre "MavisBeacon Teaches Typing 10" practice of pounding each key individually with my fore fingers. I'm sure I look absolutely ridiculous.

Yesterday's shop day I actually cut short on account of the paper. I waited about an hour in line for the TIG welder, and snagged Hee to do the welds for me as I would need about 6 months of in-depth training on the TIG to even be able to join two pieces of steel. It would take another 18 months to learn how to not make it look like complete and utter poop.

After the welding, which took about 15-20 minutes, I took a Scotch-Brite pad to it and cleaned it up a little bit. Hee told me not to sand, as that would cause the chair to immediately start rusting. I actually had no idea that that was true. I knew all the grimy oil on it was to prevent it from rusting, but I guess I never really put two and two together.

So now today will consist of tons of measuring, marking, and making templates for each and every 6mm rod (all 15 of them). With them, I'll easily be able to cut each rod to it's necessary length and bend it quickly. Or at least quicker than by slightly bending, then comparing, the bending, and so on. I just want all (or most) of the templates cut first so I can get an idea of what the final chair will look like before making the leap of cutting and bending actual rod.

Pictures of the process to come. As well as one of this space keyboard with 3 extra vowels.

Kobenhavn Station

I just missed my train, so I had 20 minutes to kill while waiting for the next one.

Metal Shop: Day 5

I got to campus around 10 this morning, the time when Flemming and Hee said they would be getting there. I didn't need help all day, which I consider a sign that I'm learning a lot and starting to become confident in my skills in the shop. I started off by building another complicated jig to help me attach my two 20mm "spines" to the main 25mm structure. I spent about 4 hours total on the jig, cutting the pieces up in wood shop, measuring, drilling, more measuring, and a whole lot of tinkering.

When it was all complete, it was then time to start working on fitting the "spines" into the jig. When I designed the chair, I didn't think too terribly much about the angles that I was putting on the different elements, or about "true views," meaning that a particular element of the drawing is parallel to the viewer. This is important so that you can hold a physical piece up to the drawing and it will match exactly. And the angles, oh my god, the angles! The two spines not only dip down 5 degrees, at a seat angle of 102 degrees (the average lounge seat angle), but it angles inward 16 degrees and dies into angled and curved 25mm tubes! I pretty much spent the rest of the night grinding a millimeter, then assessing. Grinding another millimeter. Assessing. Then rasping and filing like a madwoman. I ran back-and-forth a lot, and finally got done with one of the spines by 5:15. The second spine took a fraction of the time, and I was done by 6pm, just in time for Hee to shoo us out of shop.

This is the final product of all that grinding and filing:



Here it is, all ready for welding tomorrow:



I worked hard today on keeping hydrated. The past few days in shop, I've just been trying to squeeze work into every possible minute, so lunch and breaks have been skipped, and I think that's why I've been seizing up. Hopefully, that will keep the cramping down.

So, I passed the halfway mark today. And when I look at what I've learned and accomplished in the past 5 days, I'm sort of amazed. I keep thinking about all the stuff I want to build when I get back to Manhattan and about how much quicker I'll be able to complete my designs.

So now there are four days left. I should be able to get the welding done fairly quickly tomorrow as long as there's not a long line for the TIG welder. Then it's onto the INSANE steel rod seating element. Woo.