More Final Projects

I gave my final presentation on the IMPACT coaster last Friday. I'm sad to see the project go, especially since I know there's a lot more that can be done with it, but I'm afraid it would be too much for me to continue on with for the competition. It's more important that I focus on my concentration for next semester. But it was definitely a fun project. Here's the final rendered floor plan:

Spectroscope

So I finally started using that Bamboo Wacom thingy I bought back when I got my MacBook, and just in time, too. There's no way I could do this with a teeny tiny track pad:


This is the "spectroscope." I don't know if something of the name already exists or not, but it's pretty much just a formality, so that the critiquers don't say, "That thing you made that looks like a backwards telescope," when they're talking about my project.

Anyway, the spectroscope is one of the products that visitors see when walking through the queue of "Impact." It's a way to see the micro-organisms that are beginning to inhabit the caverns. A few people can take a look at the monitor (at the big end), and one person can move the thing up and down and swivel it left and right to view different organisms.

All of my products are heavy and industrial-looking, to fit with the heaviness of the caverns. And all products further along the storyline of the ride–that you are exploring a newly discovered series of caverns.

Shiny!

I've been dividing my time up pretty evenly between shop, studio, and programming. I turned in my Trupan pieces to be cast yesterday and decided on bronze instead of aluminum, mostly because Rick thought bronze would be better, but also because the pieces will be slightly heavier with a tad more strength. I've talked to Rick a few times about the process, asking if I could be present for the casting. Not only can I be there, but he told me that I can pour the metal!!! My shop geek status just went up about 10 points.

In studio, I've completed my floor plan and am rendering it in Photoshop. And since the odds of my turning this in for the competition are slim, I've decided to reward you with a glimpse at the unrendered plan. Since it's "underground," all walls are concrete and the rockwork walls are shotcrete. The plan's not going to be very informative at this point, without crazy explanation, but my project is based mostly on the story and the products and plan that create that story:

A meteor has entered the earth’s atmosphere and crash landed, creating an enormous crater. However, instead of resting in the center of this giant crater, the meteor has broken through the earth’s surface, revealing a previously undiscovered series of caverns. In order to study the meteor, scientists have set up a laboratory at the site.
You are invited to be a part of this new and exciting expedition.

The WOW factor / twist: The meteor has brought with it microorganisms and small creatures that have begun to call these caverns their home.

The Second WOW factor / twist: The organisms might not be as "micro" as originally thought.



What's left for me is pretty much taking my product sketches (about 8 of them or so), turning them into line drawings in Illustrator and rendering them in Photoshop.

As far as programming goes, the book is on its way. Ideally, I'll be spending all weekend on it and order it before Thanksgiving break. I've been working on my poster for the project and in the process have created a vector image of the VW Bug, which I'm showing here in a multitude of colors:



If you look closely, you can see that the headlights look sort of like eyes and that the center grill looks like a little smiley face. So I was thinking of playing that up a little bit for the poster, but I'm still not sure. It's not due until finals week, so I'm going to worry about it then.

But now it's time to take a break and go see Role Models with my homeboy, Josh.

Critique

I've got a critique for my Studio project today, and I'm all nervous. I haven't given a real honest-to-goodness presentation in just about forever.

Here's a little preview of what I'm showing:



Hopefully, they'll be so astounded by my ability to draw neat stars that they'll look over the fact that I'm still in bubble diagram phase. But really, getting to this point was the hardest part. I've got all my inspiration pictures, which takes a lot longer to compile than you'd think, and my basic floor plan is hashed out. And I have my storyline complete, as well as what happens during the ride. I don't have to worry about code or wall sections or jamb details, so it's like I get to skip the CD phase. Woo!

Anyways, they're starting so I best be going. Wish me luck!

Recent Developments

There have been a few new developments as far as some of my projects have been concerned, and I'll start with the most exciting first.

My shop professor all but guaranteed that my desk design would be one of the three pieces to "win" the competition, so I've been working on my technical drawings for that. He also let me know that I would pretty much not need to do anything for at least the next month while the metal pieces are being fabricated, so...

I decided to go ahead and build the lounge chair that I wrote a post about a while back. This puts a bit of a strain on me, I understand that, so I have made it clear to Steve that this project may be carried into next semester. But, I went ahead and ordered the wood: 9 board feet of 2" dark walnut. I'm so excited to start work on it and finally get back into the shop! I miss everything about shop: the smell of all the wood, being covered in wood shavings, narrowly escaping death when the jointer decides to act up. Sigh.

Anyway, the lounge, aptly named the So Lo Lounge as the seat sits 6 inches off the floor, is going to look exactly as it does in the picture. No wheels, no brass footings. The only difference is in material choice: walnut and white cotton/nylon strap (as opposed to what I show in the model as beech and dark gray strap). I'm currently finishing up technical drawings, and will print out a full-size side elevation shortly.

The good news ends there, sadly. This last weekend, Kelsey attended a landscape architecture get-together in Pennsylvania, and to her surprise, a Disney Imagineer gave a talk on the future of landscape architecture in theme parks. Long story short, our fantastically one-of-a-kind idea has already been built at Tokyo Disney Sea, so we're going to have to shift our story a bit, or possibly go back to brainstorming phase. It's quite a setback, but I've got some ideas already brewing. I'm confident that I'll have a good idea developed and drawn up for my mid-crit next Friday.

Basically, all the hard work that I'm doing and will be doing over the next few weeks is going towards the ability to take off Halloween and the weekend following it, so I can go home and visit with family. That is my current motivation, so if I'm a hermit during this time, please don't blame me. It's the system.

The Mystery Box

I forgot my Mac power cord this morning and am forced to use my PC in studio. I got on and opened Firefox to my homepage, this little blog. My good lord, it's ugly on a PC. I don't know what happens in translation, but it's one hideous looking web page. So I apologize to all you PC users. There's not much I can do, however, so you're going to have to live with it.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I've been reading up for my various classes, so I thought I would share a few of my sources with you all, you know, just in case. Most of them, I will pass on, however, because they will be sources for theming, such as my "How Does Earth Work? Physical Geology and the Process of Science" book, which is helping me get around the educational aspects of the ride.

I'm afraid I can't divulge the idea for the project because I am most likely going to enter it into the competition. I'll try and post my most vague renderings and other little tidbits along the way, though. Like this book that is an awesome source of work done by actual imagineers:



"Designing Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance"

There's an amazing photo of the model for Sleeping Beauty's castle in Paris. It must have taken ages to build. This isn't the photo but it's the closest I could find out on the world wide web:



The book also has some interesting sketches and renderings that give me a good idea of the caliber of work that is put out at Disney.

Also as part of my research, I have been listening to short talks given by some very inspiring people at TED. So far, I've been listening to talks that focus on children, learning, creativity, story-telling, and technology. In particular, I'm loving this one given by J.J. Abrams entitled "The Mystery Box." Good stuff.

Nerd Talk

The posters are up for study abroad, putting one giant check mark on my lengthy to-do list.

I've been spending this week doing tons of research for my various projects. I believe I've decided on my Capstone studio project. A pair of students in my studio are doing the DisneyNation competition put on by the Walt Disney Imagineering group. I decided to look it up and it's seems like a very interesting and open-ended competition, allowing students to design everything from attractions to resorts to products to a whole new theme park. I'm still in the "I have no idea what to do" phase, but I'm getting a lot of ideas from the books I've picked up:



(Some of them are for my programming class as well.)

Oh, and get ready for some nerdy talk: I am so psyched to be considered a graduate student! I get to keep my library books through January, so I don't have to renew them every two weeks. No hastily scanned pages or late fees. Wonderful!

As far as the project goes, I like the idea of getting away from a capstone centered solely on product design. This is an entire semester-long project, so I want to take advantage of the extra time and delve into architecture, space planning, and theming, as well as product design.

And while I would be doing something destination-related, I'm not too sure I want to actually compete. If I do, I have to make whatever I design be Disney-centric. And I'm not sure I'm ready to Disney-fy myself quite yet.

While at PGAV, I worked mostly on theme parks, roller coasters specifically, and they take a very different stance on destination design, one that strays away from kitsch-y, over-the-top design, and I like that approach. Although, with such an open-ended competition, it may prove well to push Disney in a new direction. Who knows.

Bertha and Beatrix

I apologize for the lack of posting this week. A mixture of not having internet in the apartment (which is a whole story in and of itself) and pouring EVERY EXTRA MINUTE into my internship journal has left me absolutely no time for myself. My closet is also suffering a bit, with the monstrous pile of clothes inhabiting one of its corners. Buuut, I'm making up for it with pretty pretty pictures of what I've been doing this week.

Firstly, I moved into Studio! I'm loving the digs. And so is Bertha (my monitor) and Beatrix A. Macbook.



Secondly, the internship journal is well under way. In a previous post I mentioned my idea of writing a book entitled "Things They'll Never Teach You in Design School." Well, I'm going through with it. I spoke to my "professor" (I put quotes because Vicky's just grading our journals and posters), and she seemed very enthused about the idea. Here are a couple sample pages and the cover of the book:

[Note: The text is just filler text, taken from the journal's criteria sheet and is the same on each page.]



The book is 7"x7". The cover is a wrap-around image and will be changing before print. I will add redlines onto it, handwritten in red ink of course. The title will also be handwritten, but will be in the same font and size. I haven't decided if I want to scan the final cover into my computer or take a picture of it, with the red pen resting on the sheet. It would be neat to have the pen on it, so that it looks like you're looking down at a desk when you view the cover. I may test both options, post both the pictures and get a vote.







And now, furniture design studio. I'm SO FREAKING EXCITED for this year's furniture studios. I've been sketching like crazy, and yesterday I finally bought some model-making materials and went to town.

This semester, I want to work mainly with wood and upholstery/fabrics. I also want a simple, classic look. I've taken a lot of my inspiration from Hans Wegner and Danish mid-century modern design. This fact alone has gained special interest from Rod, who I will ask to be my major mentor for next semester's furniture capstone. He not only specializes in chair design, but he is the resident genius on upholstery and is a HUGE fan of Wegner.

For this studio, we are allowed to design either a casegood (TV stand, coffee table, night stand, etc.) or a chair. I'm keen on the chair idea. And we only need to create one piece. Of course, I'm wanting to make about three or four. I may have to settle with making two or three of the same piece with minor differences, such as materials, finish, or high/low/no back.

Here are two initial studies. The first is a stool. the main idea is the separating of the base legs from the seat, creating a simple, flush look, but with about an inch-long gap. You'd have to look under the seat to figure out the structure. Right now, I know it wouldn't be structurally sound, and there are ideas in the works on how to fix that, possibly with steel.

The fabric is woven straps, stretched and mounted.







Next is simply a study on proportion. The actual look of the chair is a bit "hospital waiting room" for me, and with one bad choice in upholstery, could look hideous. This model is more of a statement on how I want my final piece to be detailed. I like the flush-ness in the transition from upholstery to wood. The angles are simple and attention to human proportion is important. It doesn't really deal with joinery at all (because the pieces are too small to detail that well), so it's not a "true" miniature, but it's definitely got the aesthetic down.







So that's what I've been wasting my time on this week. I would love to build other pieces this semester, and I've got some ideas I've been kicking around, including a modern head board that integrates hinged lighting. Sketches posted when I make them.

Now, it's time to ask my peoples for a favor. I'm taking a product design studio, and we've been given free reign to design ANY KIND OF PRODUCT WE CAN IMAGINE. Everything from egg beaters to jet plane interiors. I've been doing some research in the library, trying to brainstorm a bit, but I need some input. If any of you have any ideas whatsoever, vague or specific, I want to hear them. I'd like to get as many ideas as possible down on paper and then start narrowing my scope.

These next few weeks pretty much determine how my last year at KSU will go, so it's been a bit stressful the past couple of days. As soon as I have current/future projects worked out, I'll be able to settle into the groove a bit and start using those wonderful time management skills that I've spent the last 8 months honing. I'm still feeling a little out of place back at school, like I'm a "continuing education" folk, but I'm sure I'll feel right at home in no time.