Disruptio
The Brief:
Select a company or brand of your own choice and create a handheld appliance portraying the iconic designs of that company with a 100mm x 100mm x 100mm foam block. The end result should be a product that reflects the brand's flavours and details.
To begin the project, I started off by brainstorming different companies and brands, focusing on their iconic designs.
In the end, I selected Fila as the company/brand to focus on as I was interested in their simple, yet iconic designs, such as their Disruptor shoes. From here, the next thing that I did was to explore the different designs that they had released into the market.
Using this mood board as an inspiration, I was able to identify the iconic features and designs of the Fila 'Disruptors'. For this brief, I decided to challenge myself by creating a radio and clock with the simple, yet intricate designs that Fila incorporates in their Disruptor Shoes.
Along with this, I decided to stick to the iconic colour palette of the Fila designs, which includes the colours red, blue and white.
Before Ideating, I quickly explored different shapes and ideas, which ranged from Art Deco styles with a modern twist to a Modern style.
The key thing that I kept in mind here was to maintain a curved corner style, as the most iconic part of all Fila designs includes this feature, which is inspired by their logo.
After several more pages of ideation and refinement, I designed a final radio and clock in one, which I believed enhanced the designs of Fila. Using the iconic red, blue and white colours, and the curved corners, I then took my concept into the workshop.
Through various processes in the workshop, I finally created my radio - 'Disruptio'. This clock and radio in one product is influenced by Fila, where it utilises the iconic red, blue and white colours, curved corners and simple, yet detailed features within. Along with this, with the influence of the Fila Disruptors, the bottom of this product was influenced by them, which includes a sharp, jagged design.
This 100 x 100 x 100 mm product was created with a foam block and includes a body coloured with spray paint and details coloured by hand.
These prototypes were created on Fusion360, and they were not a part of the brief. In order to help improve my CAD skills, I took it upon myself to try and recreate Disruptio on the computer. Here I played with different colours, which still gave off the aesthetics of Fila. Because of this extra task, I was able to improve on my CAD skills, and also apply different materials to each section of the design.
Reflection:
Overall, I would say that for my first solo project, the outcome of the product was satisfactory for me. Looking back at the project now, there are definitely areas that I can improve on, however, considering the fact that I consistently tried to change the design, over-stressed myself with the brief and compared myself with my peers, I believe that at the time, this was the best that I could do. As I had no prior knowledge and design skills, I like to think that this project ended better than anticipated.
If I ever get the opportunity to work on this project again, I think that I would start by not constricting myself on how much I do. Whether the design is simple or complex, I should not compare myself with my peers, especially as their companies and brands are completely different. Because of the constant conflict that I had with myself, I believe that this impaired my work immensely and thus, I restricted myself on the final outcome.
Something that I did not do while working on this project was following a design process. Now that I am more educated on this, I know about the steps needed in order to create a successful product. By having this knowledge, confidence in myself should come more naturally. Needless to say, sticking to these processes may not actually give me a better result in terms of the final outcome. It is simply there to help guide me throughout the project.
Skills Obtained:
- Research
- Sketching
- Ideating
- Conceptualising
- Prototyping
- Workshop Skills
- Fine-Detail Skills
- Time Management
- Communication (With the Workshop Technicians and Supervisors)
