Assignment 4 part 2, sketches.

Alrighty, world, here are some of the sketches of concepts I came up with for design solutions for a problem that faces Seoul: unpredictable weather, especially in Monsoon Season. In Oregon, we prepare for biking in the rain by gearing up in rain pants and a good jacket, or perhaps we just have some fenders and carry around a plastic grocery bag to put over our seat while our bike is parked out in the open air (which it inevitably will be, as the undercover spots go quick!)

First up is my first little drawings, while I was trying to define a problem to base my concepts around.
This one is a little out there. And I lost my better sketch of it. But this early one got the idea across... which is simply that this seat utilizes exposure to air and water to grow the "living padding," probably some sort of resilient moss, so that the more you ride and have the bike out in the open, the more padded and comfy the seat gets. But I'd probably have to design some top cover to put over the wet moss as you are sitting on it, but could be easily retracted when not in use.
This one diverges from the concept of re-designing the seat, and looks at perhaps making the fender have more than one function. By having two layers that fan out with some sort of impermeable fabric attached between them, you could bend the stretched-out fender fan to go up and over your seat, protecting it from rain.
There are a lot of concepts in this final sketch, but it's rather chaotic. I swear I understood what was going on here, though!

Moody Blues...

For Assignment 4, part 1, we were tasked to create mood boards based on research we did in preparation for the Designboom sponsored Seoul Cycle Design competition. I did two mood boards, one on what is currently happening in Seoul right now, and one for the ways in which I see trends in bicycle accessories moving.

Assignment 1

For Assignment 1, we were asked to take a walk around Eugene and photograph certain interesting visual elements. My friend and fellow PD'er David Cho and I started at the Duck Store on 13th and made a round-about loop to the Lorax House, going as far west as High Street, and taking photographs along the way. We documented patterns that we noticed, relationships between objects or spaces, interesting details of larger things, and adaptations of objects, straying from their original intended use. With each photo we superimposed a single word that we felt best described what was going on. Oh, and we also took a photo of something that really made the two of us smile and laugh heartily...

And finally, an object interaction that stopped us both in our tracks...

One of my favorite designs

Hello there world! Welcome to my blog. I'm a little late on joining the bandwagon, but oh well!

This is my first post, and I have a task, so I can't ramble too much. This blog is being kept for PD 370, and I've been asked to select my favorite object and give ten reasons why it is so awesome and why I am so fond of it.

After going back and forth between a handful of things, I decided to just pick one at random. It's too hard to pick just one! But this one I landed on has long been a favorite.

I chose the Raymond Loewy designed automobile, the Avanti.
1) As the child of a automotive-obsessed bodyman, I grew up loving cars. As soon as I learned to use a pencil or marker, I was off drawing cars of my own design. When I came upon this design in a book of Loewy's work, I was struck by how similar some of my childhood concepts were to his design!
2) Reading into the design process, I was astounded that Loewy gave himself and his team only 10 days to complete the design.
3) I love the asymetry of the hood. The bump in the hood, emanating from the driver and steering wheel seems to add to the sense of motion that this car conveys.
4) This car design really departs from designs of the era. It is an early 60's American automobile that abandoned the stereotypes of garishly chromed American "boats" that permiated the market at the time.
5) I like the front end of the car, with the slanted nose and the protruding front ends of the fenders. It hints at Loewy's past locomotive designs, and also hints at a future of aerodynamic design that would come after the Avanti.
6) Last summer I had the opportunity to actually see an Avanti in person. I hadn't seen any photos of the interior, but had heard the dash described as aircraft influenced, described as a cockpit. And it really is! In a very unique and stylistic way.
7) I am a fan of the fiberglass body, one of the first production models to employ that material.
8) Loewy was a fan of mimicking or harkening back to the female form in many design. In the design of the Avanti, he chose to "pinch the waistline," which I feel was a very good choice. Though a feminine design queue, I feel it doesn't make this sports car any less appealing to male drivers. The little touch of femininity was a nice departure from the ultra-macho Detoit designs of the time.
9) I'm a fan of the Avanti's fast-back rear end, with curving rear window. It was really about 10 years ahead of its time, automotive design trend wise.
10) Finally, I am a big fan of Loewy's decision to angle the side door and quarter panals to a slight point at the expected "style line" instead of using an added embellished chrome line at the style line. This gives to car a more graceful dimension, while also avoiding the pointless Detroit chrome Lowey loathed!

(Photo of the Avanti sketch scanned from a book that I own, an anthology of Loewy's works/biography entitiled "Industrial Design")