As the semester draws to an end, we found ourselves putting into practice some of the earliest things we learned - remix culture and the mashup. Friends, I have made SO MANY vases.
Initially, Kyle and I were assigned to work together - we selected our favourite three vases to share with each other - this allowed us to get a sense of repeated or favoured elements. We talked about form, function, printability and the need for self-support. Using a max of 2 perimeters ruled out some of the concepts that spun out of our conversation. It became clear that we had very different approaches - but that we were committed to being adaptable and considerate. Kyle had created some interesting, more complex and somewhat abstract shapes, where I had come from a place of function first, but we were willing to meet in the middle and agreed to incorporate functionality and the silhouette I had designed into a product constructed from Kyle's forms. We both liked twist and taper, and agreed to include as a common starting point.
This flexibility was fortunate - as Phoebe joined our group unexpectedly after our first brainstorming session. We pivoted to accommodate our great new member. Phoebe brought more unusual shapes and neat organic forms with her. Luckily, she also had been using, and was willing to continue using, twist and taper - so we still had a foundational element from which to work.
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| vase concepts I created before the initial consult with Kyle |
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three I chose to move forward with - represented what I thought would compliment Kyle's work
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Phoebe's opening 3 offerings
Kyle's opening 3 offerings
We planned a second meeting that would allow Phoebe to see what we had produced thus far and all agreed to bring some hybrid sketches with us. We worked around everyone's schedule as well as the Easter holiday to allow everyone to have time to work whilst still being mindful of delivery deadlines.
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| my mashup sketches |
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| Kyle's sketches |
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| Phoebe's sketches |
During our meeting, we reiterated what we wanted at the core of our work to reflect us individually and as a group. We still all liked twist and taper. We identified shapes and techniques in each other's vases and worked to create concepts that reflected a whole design that was inclusive of everyone from the ground up rather than affixing sections of our work to eachother. It may have been possible to find a satisfactory tension through that method, but some in the group preferred the cohesive approach, so we chose to pursue that.
We used teams call to stay in contact throughout the whole evening - musing, keeping a flow of ideas moving through, sharing ideas as we completed things, evaluating our own and each other's work.This allowed us to pivot as new avenues were identified as productive, diverting away as non-preferred options were brought to light.
I made so many fronking vases, yall.
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Vases I brought, vases I made during the meeting
Some of what Kyle made during the meeting
Some of Phoebe's creations
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But we beat our concept into a diamond hard core of musts. It must have the twist and taper. It must have aspects of all three of us. It must have some level of functionality (or non-functionality has to be explicitly intentional and group approved). It would have Kyle's three point star, Phoebe's organic shapes (we did consider using Phoebe's dodecagon for a while), and my vase silhouette.
As we moved from vertical building into polar arrays we began to draw closer. Everything was assessed against our criteria and run through Prusa by one or more of us. If something was close to approval, it was fiercely scrutinized conceptually and technically.
And then we finally hit the mark.
As we ran it through Prusaslicer, a small amount of bridging occurred at some join points, and after Kyle confirmed that was a non-issue with our professor, we could at last breathe a sigh of relief and bask in a job well-done.
We don't have any reason to forsee a problem with the printer - although of course accidents happen. But we are confident that we, as a group, have done the best, most rigorous, thorough design process we could. In our case, remix culture didn't clash- it collaborated. How great is that?
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