Australian Design Awards

 Yates  8L Watering can


Description and Principal Function
This is a watering can designed to be proudly displayed in the garden, not hidden in the shed. The colour was selected in order for the watering can to stand out against a lush green background. But it’s not just for show. This is an accurate measuring device, contemporary in appearance with the durability to last and be used in the garden for many years. Its ergonomics were carefully considered so that it would be easy use even when full. It’s also easy on the environment. UV stabilisers protect it from the Australian sun and it’s shape maximises transport efficiency.


Key Features and Benefits
Designed to stand out
The product was designed to stand out on the shelf and in the back yard. With an abundance of cheap imports saturating the market, it was important that the form reflect the higher level of thought and quality that are integral to Yates products. It needed to look and feel modern and stylish. The colour was carefully chosen both for the fact that it stands out on the shelf and in the back yard.  

Ergonomics
The handle is broad and comfortable even when carrying 8L of water. Non-Slip grips are moulded into the handle. The handles are long so that it is easy to maintain the desired pouring angle without twisting your wrist or arm. The fill hole is high on the body and free from obstructions for easy filling. The filling hole is lower than the Rose so that it’s easy to see when the watering can is full.  

Accurate gardening tool
The moulding tool for the body was made without the volume levels. Samples were tested and the levels then added to the tool. Accuracy is important when measuring garden chemicals.  

Environmentally friendly
UV stabilisers have been added so the watering can will last for many years in the sun. Great care was taken to improve transport efficiency. There was a 20% improvement in the number of watering cans that can be packed on a pallet.  

Space Efficient
The Rose clips into the fill hole so that it won’t be lost when not in use. The spout can also be removed with the Rose so that the watering can can be stored in a smaller space. This also helps to prevent the spout and rose getting tangled up with everything else in the shed!  

Studio 2a - Packaging Awards

 

Studio 2a - Sheet Material

Choosing from either Aluminum, Polypropylene or Acrylic sheets we were tasked to create a product. I decided to choose the lesser; Aluminium. A hard task it was, to form something out of metal in a short amount of time.

As this project required us to design a household object out of a sheet material it was logical for me to look into origami for inspiration because to me, origami is the epitome of sheet material folding. The inspiration i found was not in the matinstream side of origami (paper cranes n such) but in the realm of the abstract, where folds are not made in straight lines but in curves to make 3d forms.

After modelling ideas out of paper card i finally came to a conclusion in the direction i would take for this assignment. A bowl made out of one sheet of aluminum using only bends to create the form.

From a single square sheet of aluminum using bends and folds, Orisa was formed. The name Orisa is derived from the Japanese words fold "ori" and plate "sara".
Like Origami the process in which Orisa is made does not involve any cuts or added material, which means there is no wastage of excess material.

Considerations about manufacturing has been factored. The size of orisa is not random. It has been designed to be made from a sheet of 300mm x 300mm aluminum. With a single 300mm square sheet, 32 Orisa templates can be made out of a standard 1200x2400mm sheet of aluminum. Which means the sheet of aluminum is being used at its maximum potential

 
                              

Usb KeyRing

In Material and Technology B during my 2nd semester of Industrial Design, we were asked to create a housing for a usb chip.
The shape i chose to house the usb chip was to be a key shaped form. The final product is made from layered mdf boards and spray painted with a metallic finish.

User Instructions

During Communications B we had to make user instructions for a product.
The Item i chose to do was a retractable cutting knife. The instructions were created by taking photos of a user handling the cutting knife and then traced through by illustrator using different line weights to obtain the final instruction set.

Blog Posts 1

1 James chen
2 Joshan Nham
3 Shenea Huang
4 Zenon
5 Santiago Luperdi

blog post2

Monica Lu
Liz Grayburn
Jonothan Harley
Stella
Huan Xie

Upcycling

Rationale

As this project was about upcycling, the material I used was very important to me as I wanted to help turn waste into a beautiful product. With this in mind I was prompted to go with using E-waste, cable wire in particular as e-waste is such a big problem as there are so many products being discarded due to the fact that replacing is much more efficient and cheaper to repair the item which is also known as design obsolete.

With these considerations I was inclined to use the insulated wires you find when you strip down telephone or network cables. The insulating wires found in the cables have very bright contrasting colours which I wanted to use in my advantage.

My product “Spirals” is a small decorative bowl used to hold small objects such as keys, lollies and etc.  Spirals incorporates the different coloured wires to make a visually attracting bowl that anybody would want to put in their home, its inviting, attractive and appealing. 

Design for Life

Watching the series design for life has inspired me to become a better designer. It was quite shocking to see that a lot of the people that were accepted into the show were very young like Lachlan who has just finished his 1st yr of uni which ranged up to rob who was 32. I was also suprised that Nebil had started his own freelance design company whilst in his 2nd year, It makes me feel i should do better as i'm already a 2nd year student.
But after watching more into the videos i realized that it doesn't matter what age you are as age does not matter when design is about dreams, aspirations, and good ideas, and that isn't constricted to how old you are.

After watching their first task of finding 2 objects which represents either ecology, function or gender made me reminisce back to our studio task where we had to mold a sculpture out of clay from smelling a scent. As we needed to find the designers intent behind the product which was represented in smell (shape, line, color, texture). It helped me a little to understand why we needed to study all those tedious tasks during first year.
Phillipe Stark described how he liked design which was rooted in everyday life and was connected to all and how art was for elitists. With this in mind Stark has designed many products which were sculptural like his lemon squeezer which cannot be used as the lemon juice corrodes the gold plating and is mere sculptural, or his kettle which is useless, so i was quite puzzled as to how Phillipe Starks design philosophy tied into his work.

Experience Enrichment - The Lamina

Lamina which is the Latin translation for blade aims to provide both an ergonomic and organic form to the humble scalpel. The target market for Lamina are designers both male and female aged 20+, who are interested in interesting forms and have their own workspace set up at their home or at their work where they are able to craft and model make.

Many scalpels in the market for crafting are either cylindrical like the famous Xacto knife or flat handled which are derived from their medical counterpart. Both these forms are very plain and basic. With this in mind the form of the Lamina blade has been designed to follow the function of the product. The curved handle and grooves give the user a more sense of control over the knife as it is well rested within the palm of the hand, the radius of the handle is big enough to compensate for small to large hands.

As scalpels are used a lot for precision cutting whether it is for stenciling or model making, a lot of pressure is put onto the fingers when cutting for a gradual period of time.

From personal experience a lot of pressure is put onto the fingers when cutting for a gradual period of time and due to the amount of precision needed when doing tasks such as model making or stenciling, finger pains and cramps become common. To fight this problem the Lamina’s handle is triangular to replicate the tripod grip to give a more relaxed grasp on the handle when doing precise work. Also a added santoprene grip is added to give extra support when gripping the scalpel.

The Lamina blade is organic in its shape with its long curves yet it has strong bold lines and edges. When placed into the stand it becomes a decoration piece and can be positioned in the workshop with pride. The handle is made from stainless steel which is contrasted by the black santroprene grip to give it a sleek sharp look.

Objectified

Good Design   -is innovative
                         -makes a product useful
                         -is aesthetic design
                         -will maek a product understandable
                         -is honest
                         -in unobstructable
                         -is long lived
                         -is consistant in every detail
                         -is environmentally friendly
                         -IS AS LITTLE DESIGN AS POSSIBLE

Watching Objectified has opened my eyes to the world of design. I have learnt a lot about what goes into making a product. I never realized how much design goes into making products from iPhones to toothpicks. Who would have thought that the little head of the japenese toothpick was used as a toothpick stand or as an indicator for it being used when snapped off, I always just though it was there to look pretty. It just goes to show you how much thought that has been put into making products of any magnitude.

I learnt that designing for the extremes are important i.e. children, athletes, the old n etc because when you design for the extremes the middle will just follow. Example, if you design a peeler for people with arthritis, this peeler will also be useful for everybody else as it will give them extra hand support when using the tool.
The video talks about how when things are clear and and understandable people react positively and this is true, from our design confusion project last week it’s clear that when something isn’t straight forward people get frustrated and annoyed. We are constantly designing in our minds when we look at objects and judge how flawed it is and how we could make it better.
I found out about analog designs, which means objects without mechanical or electrical parts like spoons and chairs, and with analog design form follows function but with the revolution of the microchip form started to stray away from function and it became more harder for designers to develop semantics into the product for users to know how to use it. Letting go of arbitrary shapes in a design and letting the form develop without getting design in the way makes the product feel inevitable and undersigned much like the iPhone. At first I thought how simple is the shape, is just a rectangle with a big screen, but much thought has been gone into it, where the buttons go, fillet edges, part lines etc.
This video has inspired me to become a good designer as I know now what it takes to be one.