Visited V&A museum for a primary research_

V&A museum had a big collection of vessels from ancient asian countries. I learned that ceramic was a big part of the ancient Japanese culture. Also, Korea had a very long history of vessels, which starts from B.C 4000. Ancient China adopted various designs of vessels from different asian countries. 

The most surprising thing was that there were design elements in the ceramics of over 1000 years. Before, I thought ancient vessels would only have an element of functionality. One of the most oldest and interesting designs was this slanted jar from ancient Korea, made in year 100. I couldn't believe it was made in year 100, because a design with slanted shape is still considered creative. Also, the putting a comb-pattern on the jar was apparently a trend that started from the very beginning of Korean history, from B.C 4000. I thought the slanted design would make it easy for the users to take out small material from very inside of the jar. 

 Another interesting design I have found was the vessels with legs on the bottom. They reminded me of the shape of a  human body. I thought of designing a vessel that expresses human body, expressing each body parts with different shapes.

We tried to group different designs of vessels with certain topics. First, I grouped the vessels that had a geometric shapes in their designs. I realized that the designs with geometric shapes have a modern look to them.

Next, we had to lay out the designs from low-end to high-end. As the design laid toward low-end, they were more often used in everyday life. Also, a large portion of the designs were concentrated on the low-end side, rather than the high-end side. 

 Then we grouped the low-end to high-end again into traditional to contemporary. We found that the contemporary designs were evenly distributed in between low-end to high-end. I think it's because a lot of products these days focus on 'design' aspect as well as 'function'.

Making Vessels at the Workshop_

We went to the ceramics workshop at CSM to make the vessels of our own. As I planned yesterday, I decided to make a few hemisphere shaped bowls. Slip casting was much fun that I expected, even though the procedure took some time. 

At the workshop, there were two casts I liked. They were both shape like a bowl, but not the perfect hemisphere I thought of. I reshaped one of the designs to be a perfect hemisphere, and left the other design as it is. I also made two cylinders, and cut one of them in half. When I broaden the gap between the cylinder, it made a very interesting shape, as if I could place something on it.

Among the vessels I have made, there were only eight that survived. However, I'm thinking of using just the bowl shaped vessels.

Over the weekend, I did more research and found out something very interesting. I came across Ettore Sottsass's ceramics, which gave me the image of lighting design. Ettore's ceramics were very similar to the shapes of lamps and lightings, so I did more research on interesting shapes of lamps. Most of Ettore's lamps were designed as if different shapes of vessels were combined together; a great example could be the 'Nebulosa' lamp by Ettore Sottsass. 

I also researched for different kinds of coffee brewers, which look very similar to lamps. For example, chemex and syphon are really shaped like a lamp. In keeping with the similarity between a lamp-vessels-coffee brewer's designs, I am keep on developing ideas. However, it's quite challenging to design a vessel that has more than just a function as a "container" but to satisfy user's sense of  visual and olfactory, with limited shapes.

I thought something was missing from my last design, so did more research on coffee containers. Then I found out about the coffee roaster, which I thought would be perfect to incorporate with the scent of coffee bean. I was especially inspired by the portable and small coffee roasters made to use at home. Most of the coffee roasters in the market were similar in design, which they contain coffee bean in a small container covered with perforated metal sheet. There is a handle to rotate the container, which then roasts the coffee bean evenly. Inspired by that design, I finally decided to incorporate copper as a sub material.

First I cut the mashed copper sheet into a measured size and inserted in between the two vessels. I had to make a hole in the middle of the vessels to put a handle that goes through. I carried on the supporting stick idea because I thought wood goes well with copper.  

I intended to make it small, to place them on a table at a cafe or a kitchen. Users can rotate the vessel that contains coffee bean inside, as they talk with a companion or when they are bored. As the vessel rotates, it will spread more scent around the area.

I was grouped in 'Literacy and Numeracy'.

Over the weekend, I visited the V&A Museum of Childhood and Hamleys for research. Before I did the primary research, I thought the 'literacy and numeracy' toys could be only found in the educational criteria. However, I was able to get a lot of inspiration from toys of every criteria, such as a domino and stacking blocks. 

From the museum of childhood, I was most inspired with the bead maze toy because it brought me back with most childhood memories. I used to play with the bead maze everyday when I was young, and my mom passed it on to my brother and cousin. The bead maze naturally develops children's counting and math skills. I thought of making a furniture, in which children could actively enjoy the toy. I was also inspired with an abacus, a traditional counting tool. I thought the design was interesting and pretty to incorporate in any product.

From Hamleys, I was able to find toys in trend, in which most of them required electronics. I found a stacking rings toy, which I thought of transferring it into stacking chairs.

'Literacy and numeracy' could be sub divided into imagination, movement, interaction, patterns, personification, and sensory. I'm most interested in movement, which involves physical interaction of children. I want to make some kind of a furniture that can develop children's learning, playing, and feeling skills. 

I'm thinking of developing the idea of an abacus and a bead maze toy, because those two toys were my favorite things to play with when I was young. I was naturally attracted to the playful designs of the two toys when I saw those at the museum of childhood in ages. They are formed with numbers of small cubes inserted in metal string, and kids could slide the cubes along the strings. Bead maze toys have more complex shaped strings, hence called bead "maze". I might develop it to be either a chair or a table.

As I was developing my ideas, I suddenly thought of designing a toy for visually impaired children. Children with disability can not read numbers and letters, so I thought it would be very interesting to design a product for them. I searched for different design of a braille, a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired. 

I thought of combining the alphabet and braille together, making a book for every children whether they are disabled or not. Maybe I could use texture to do that, in which the braille is more popped up than the alphabet. However, I want to make something more three dimensional.

Therefore I also designed small blocks of braille, that can be built in any form. Braille is formed in small dots, so I decided to attach small sphere models to short sticks. However, I still want to make something more three dimensional, like a furniture.

I decided to carry on the clock chair idea.

I like the chair design but think it could be quite boring for children to play with. I did more research and thought of making a normal clock chair into a seesaw. I thought the seesaw idea could instantly make the design much playful and suitable for kids. The seesaw clock doesn't really function as a clock but children could adjust the angle of each side of a seesaw to understand the concept of a clock.

As I was making a model for the seesaw clock, I found out that it could also function as a wheelbarrow if I make the clock to roll. I also thought of making the clock into a container, to function as a toy box for kids. I am thinking of making the clock part more wider and deeper with transparent acrylic plastic, so that it can contain many toys. I also thought that it could help children's sense of sound because the toy inside the clock container will make sound as kids play seesaw on it.