Douglas & Bec Project – IT’s ALREADY WEEK 2!

Another semester had started, bringing us yet again another challenge in our paths to become an Industrial Designer. This is now our second week and we are well and truly in to the project. For this project, the whole class is working and collaborating with a New Zealand company Douglas and Bec in creating a beautiful object that would showcase the best of artisan design. With this, I am feeling very excited about the final outcome as among all the projects that we have done so far, this is the one that would enable me to focus on the emotional side of design and focus on the beauty and aesthetic of my product more than any other project that we have done so far.
As I have mentioned, this is already the second week in for the project. The first week had just been all about collecting some materials that would allow me to experiment on them, gathering as much as I can to work around them, experimenting and trying to make the most out of them. Trying to showcase the most functional and best aesthetic that I can extract from the various materials that I have got that would give emphasis to the whole craft of artisan design. I found it to be a very fun and knowledgeable experience going around various timber places, saw mills and companies gaining knowledge about different kinds of timbers. I felt that this was very important as I am learning valuable data that I can apply further for future projects. It was very interesting to find out more about the different timbers that we have here in NZ and appreciate the beauty of different materials that I have not really explored before.
This week, I have mainly focused on experimenting with the materials that I have researched and got last week, I have experimented with various metals such as brass, copper and aluminium and the different wood samples that I have got from going around various wood places. I have done some lathing, lamination, steam bending, layering different kinds of woods, polishing and other good stuff that could be done with the materials that I have got. The main goal so far is to try experiment, combine and extract the best aesthetic and functional value that I can get from combining and using the materials that I have got.
With this, I have found one very particular shape and experiment that I have done that appealed to me very much so far. It is the layering of the different kinds of timber that I have got and laminating it in to this beautiful shape. This shape had sort of pushed me in to an idea of making a coat hanger for the project. Which I believe would be a good opportunity as a project to create for Douglas and Bec as it has not really been explored before. The company sells some really beautiful design pieces which accommodate clothes but they do not have any hangers to go with it. Although this is just a design thought for now, I believe it can be developed further and is a start of an idea to work with.
Here are some photos of what I have done and some processes from the past few weeks: