Desktop Organizer

Initial Interview
4/19/2019

For the desktop organizer project, we are tasked with interviewing someone of our choice to design a desktop organizer for them. The purpose of interviewing someone is to narrow down the problem and constraints that the desktop organizer will have. Sure, I can design a desktop organizer for someone, however that doesn’t mean that it is well designed specifically for that person. For my desktop organizer project, I have chosen to interview my roommate, Justin Zau. What makes my coming project interesting is that Justin already has desktop organizers, however they take up half the space on his desk. He constantly has little to no space to do his homework each night, which often lead to his procrastination. I want to design something that could reduce the cluster on his table, and furthermore promote his productivity when he does his homework.

Cardboard Prototype 4/29/2019

One huge part of the design process is creating a prototype. A prototype is a preliminary design of an idea. My original goal was to reduce the cluster on my roommate’s disk while increasing his productivity. I had ideas of having a desktop organizer that can hang on the side of his bed, unfortunately that wouldn’t be the best of designs because his bed is rather far from his desk. This forces him to get out of his chair to access his books and pencils each time he needs something. To increase his productivity, the desktop organizer should be easy to access, simplistic, and able to hold a lot of things. As you can see in the picture bellow, I have created my first desktop organizer. I believe that it embodies the 3 characteristics I had initially said, however there is one major problem. It is way too big. In my upcoming designs, I believe that in order to resolve this problem I would have to scale everything down while removing the left compartment. That way the organizer doesn’t occupy too much space.

Fabrication of Desktop Organizer 5/7/2019

For the past 3 class periods, I have been using the Rhino software to create the layouts for the laser cutter to cut out. As I had stated in my previous post, the prototype desktop organizer simply took up way too much space, therefore I have taken the liberty of sizing down the desktop organizer. Now the total length of my organizer is 12 inches. This new distance may be smaller, however I believe that it is just enough to store the textbooks my roommate needs. As you can see from the picture bellow, I have so far only designed a cupboard. This cupboard is the base of the organizer. Eventually, I will attach a textbook holder above the cupboard. Because the cupboard would need to sustain the weight of multiple heavy textbooks, I have made sure to add plenty of finger joints between each cut out to ensure maximum strength. The final design that I am creating on Rhino is similar to my cardboard designer, except it would be smaller and there wouldn’t be a box attached to the left of the organizer.

Final Design

After working on the Rhino software for 3 days, I have finalized my design that I am going to laser cut out next class. My desktop organizers has 2 compartments, one for text books, and one for miscellaneous items. From the picture bellow the cupboard is the miscellaneous section of the desktop organizer where you can store anything you want. I was originally going to put dividers in the cupboard, however that kind of defeats the purpose of being a miscellaneous storage area. The top section is where textbooks are stored, the right triangles positioned on both sides of the desktop organizer is designed for easy access of textbooks. Moving on the the final stages of this project, I am most concerned if the desktop organizer can withstand the weight of 3-4 textbooks. In order to remedy this problem, i have made sure that all my cutouts are connected with finger joints in order to ensure maximum durability.

Perfected Design 5/21/2019

Because I had an extra class session before I cut out my organizer, I decided to further improve on my project. I made 2 extra additions to my project: A new design for the back of the organizer, and a tiny pencil box to store pencils. The new back-plate for the organizer is reminiscent of a wooden lawn chair, and it adds an extra touch of intricacy to the organizer that was needed. Beyond just the visual aspects of this “lawn chair” design, it also makes the desktop organizer lighter without sacrificing durability. Lastly, I made a mini box to store pencils in. Despite seeming to be just a tiny box, the making of the box in the Rhino Software was extremely time consuming, because of all the commands I had to use.

Cardboard Prototype 2

With my newly perfected design for my desktop organizer, I set out to print it out in cardboard for another prototype. This stage is super important, as prototypes show you what went good and what went bad. In general, I am pleased with the design and fully prepared to move onto the final stage of the fabrication process.

Final Evaluation 6/5/2019

Today I gave my desktop organizer to my roommate, Justin, who seemed to really enjoy the organizer. As you can see from the picture bellow, he has decided to put all his textbooks above, while storing his books at the bottom. I made him some small wooden boxes that are stacked up on the side. He didn’t really like them, because he doesn’t have a lot of pencils. In general, I thought that I tackled this project successfully, because my roommate is actually using the organizer. It reduced the cluster on his desk, and boosted his productivity.

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Wood Luminary Project

Today we were introduced to our first challenge of the class, which would be to design and fabricate a wood luminary. Before brainstorming ideas, I did some research on an architect called Frank Lloyd Wright. Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect that designed many houses that seamlessly integrate with nature. Instead of the house being next to nature, the house is actually part of nature which is very interesting. In addition to his amazing houses, Wright also made glass murals that were just beautiful! I was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s glass murals, due to the varied shapes, lines and colors portrayed on many of his murals

Defining the Problem

Defining the problem for a design project is essentially discovering constraints that would affect the final product. Because we are cutting out a wooden luminary from a laser cutter, one huge constraint is the dimension of the wooden luminary. As a class, we have decided to make the wooden luminary’s dimensions 5 x 11.5 inches. Another potential constraint is the thickness of the wood that we are cutting our luminaries from. Depending on its thickness, the material could catch fire faster depending on the thickness. When I embark on this design challenge, I am sure that I would encounter many constraints as I edge closer to my final product.

Brainstorming Design

3/31/2019

Today I created 4 different wooden luminary designs that I would like to further dive into for my 1st project. Of the 4 unique designs that I have created, I am most intrigued by my first and last design. The first one on the very left was inspired by Beijing’s national stadium, which is also known as the bird’s nest. Creating this design was relatively easy, however, the challenging part was to balance out the white spaces in an even yet asymmetrical way. My last design was in some aspects similar to my first design, which incorporated the use of straight lines. What distinguished the first design to my fourth was the direction of the lines. In the 1st design, there is a random direction towards the lines, while the fourth design has a certain direction that the lines are going to.

Learning to use Rhino Software

4/1/2019

Today my partner and I were presented with the challenge of replicating a cardboard box that was presented to us by the teacher. We downloaded an app called Rhino that would allow us to create our virtual box. In order to replicate the box that was given to us, we first measured the dimensions of the box, such as it’s width, height, thickness before we proceed. In Rhino we used tools such as cut, trim, offset, and many more in order to successfully create our box.

Fabricating Final Design

4/8/2019

For the past week, I have been fabricating a design for my wood luminary with the Rhino program. The design that I have chosen is the very first design that I created during my brainstorming. I was really drawn to the mesmerizing pattern of the unstructured lines because normally lines are things that are ordered and organized. However, for my design, I have managed to link lines together in a fashion that creates unique shapes that have a sense of randomness to them. One of the most challenging parts of creating the design for my luminary was the “randomness” of the lines. I had to angle, change, resize, join, and cut multiple lines to create the effect of randomness.

Prototype

4/16/2019

Yesterday was the first time I laser cut my design. To see the design I have been fabricating for days come into shape is a special feeling. Because this is a prototype, I cut my luminary out of cardboard instead of wood. Upon assembling my prototype everything seemed to fit perfectly well, the design looked amazing. Everything seems satisfactory so far.

Creating Light Holder
4/6/2019

For the final part of the wooden luminary challenge, we have to create a design to hold them within the wooden luminary. The light/candle’s dimensions are around 1.48 inches and it needs some type of contraption that allows it to fit inside the luminary and still be accessible. I have decided to create a design that allows the candle to be suspended inside the luminary through a friction fit. A friction fit is essentially when 2 shapes are fitted together through friction. This means that the 2 shape’s dimensions need to be relatively similar. One of the challenges is the issue of the 3D printer that I am using to print my contraption. The designs from the 3D printer shrink after being printed, due to the rapid change of temperature. Therefore before 3D printing, I must make my dimensions slightly larger, so that the printed object will shrink into the desirable dimensions.

Final Project
4/29/2019

After cutting out the design from cardboard, I used glue to finally connect all 4 sides of the luminary together. Something unique that I did with my luminary is that I burnt in lines with the laser cutter. Basically, I turned down the power of the laser cutter so that the laser would only burn the wood rather than cut right through it. If you look closely at the picture to the bottom right, you can see lines cut into the wood, which show the flow

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