3D

My 3D class is taking a break from the bristol board animal studies and are now focusing on wood construction. I began the project with three abstract models constructed with scavenged wood. The original forms, joints and materials I used for these sculptures were then applied back to more animal abstraction. Here are the first three sculptures (I clearly need to get in the habit of using a nice camera for these photos):

Halloween

Halloween couldn't have come quicker, this year seems to be flying by at an almost alarming rate, as I was finishing a number of midterms and deadlines these past couple of weeks. I hope to upload some of my more recent work this weekend as well as some photos of the costume I put together for this year's festivities.

Seeing as October is the month of honoring the dead, I'd like to honor the lives of two amazing musicians who died this past October:

The reggae legend Gregory Isaacs died on October 25, 2010 at age 59, after battling lung cancer for a number of years. Although his discography contains a number of classic reggae hits, my all time favorite song is Night Nurse (click for the YouTube link).

The much younger and lesser known Micheal Larson, known as Eyedea of the underground Hip Hop duo Eyedea and Abilities died on October 16, 2010 at age 28. The cause of his death is still unknown, but comes as a great loss in a time when creative and original Hip Hop is getting harder and harder to find. Here is a link to the groups song Act Right.

Product Design Update

Here are some of my most recent sketches for the Hot/Cold design problem. As you can see these drawings were highly influenced by some of the concepts I sketched earlier when I was more focused on winter shelters.  I call it the Pure Melt water purification system!

SolidWorks Practice

One of my classes this year is all about learning how to use the 3D CAD program SolidWorks, one of the essential tools of the modern-day designer. Here are a couple screenshots from a recent homework assignment that had me building tables and using of of SolidWorks more unique features that allows for multiple "configurations" of one model. The two tables are actually the same file, simply configured so one is a dinner table and one a bed-side.

Product Design

My four-credit class for the fall semester is Product Design and I chose to enroll in a Biomimicry specific course. Our first project has been very research intensive so far, but I've done a little sketching that I can share. The project we were assigned is about either heat or cold conservation and I was originally planning to apply it to winter survival shelters. In an effort to scale down my project I'm beginning to design some sort of fresh water storage system that melts and filters snow.

"Biomimicry is an emerging discipline that studies nature's best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems" - Biomimicry Guild. I've already done quite a bit of research on some of Earth's best cold weather species and am currently in the process of studying Caribou fur as well as the petal patterns of certain tundra flowers. Here are some of the early sketches I did when I was still focused on the shelter problem:

Animal Update

I've continued work on the bristol board animal studies and have centered my attention on the swordfish for further adaptation. The next step of the project will be focused on finding a new material that allows for mass production to build the final model out of. Sorry for the low quality phone photos:

Back to School

I thought it might be about time for a blog update... I'm just getting back into the Pratt routine after a long summer and already enjoying Junior year. I've had trouble in the past keeping the blog up to date, but I hope to upload my school and personal work more frequently this year.

My 3D class this semester focuses on abstracting the form and persona of animals, so the first few weeks have been fun while we familiarize ourselves with different animals in a number of planar construction studies. Here's a selection of the least abstracted models made of Bristol board

Sketching...

Here are some quick sketches from today, I'm working on developing form through contour in order to give my sketches more depth. Used Prismacolor 30%, Fineliner, and Sharpie.

Wacom Practice

I've spent the last week in Portland, Oregon visiting Ziba, a design consultancy that invited me to come down for two weeks at the end of my summer to shadow some of it's designers and gain some field experience.

The visit has renewed my interest in refining my sketching skills as well as my digital drawing techniques, so I spent some time today on one of Ziba's wacom tablets. Heres the sketch of one of my recycled mp3 player designs: