I made a trip to Home Depot to see if they have switches similar to a car door or refrigerator door, ones that turn a light on when you release the pressure on the switch, and then turns off when you depress the button. No luck. If any of you guys know of a place that sells switches such as that, let me know. Brooke gave me the name of a company that supposedly sells specialty switches, so I'll check it out. Holler at me if you have any ideas!!!

change of plans

change of plans! After talking to Sarah, she suggested that I do the nightstand that has drawers that turn a light on when you open them and turn off when you shut them. Conceptually this piece is stronger and more interesting, and after talking to Sarah about the construction of it I'm pretty confident in it. I will probably be putting plexi glass on the sides of the drawers so that when the light turns on you can see it shining through. Thought about glass, but it's heavy, expensive, and scares me a little bit, haha. My next course of action will be to research the switches that I need to use for the drawers to turn on, and the kind of light I need in order to distribute the light evenly throughout the drawers. Stephanie showed me a nightstand extremely similar to my idea: 

 

  

 

 

So. It's been awhile. sorry. I will give you guys a general idea of the three ideas I had for midterm, and then the nightstand that I've decided I'm doing. 

Here is the original piece:

It's from the Engan series, and it's a nightsand

This first nightstand is supposed to be a sort of lightbox "lantern" type thing. The nighstand itself is pretty basic with a surface to set things on and a shelf to store things in. The pattern on the front is made from a transparent material that would be backlit so that when the nightstand is turned on it acts as a nightlight, or "lantern". 

It's pretty basic, not much to it really, but I liked the idea of having a pattern on the front and being able to light it and play with shadows and patterns and that sort of thing. 

This second piece also incorporates light. The concept is about pushing and pulling light, and the absence and presence of light. The physical act of pulling open the drawer reveals the light that is inside it, and the act of pushing the drawer shut hides the light. During midterm reviews I got a lot of good feedback on this piece, with wonhee saying that it would be interesting if the light also served as a functional reading lamp. So if the sides of the drawers were made of something that was transparent, then when the user opens the drawer the light shines through and can be used as a reading lamp, and then when the user wants to turn the light off the shut the drawer. The  light inside the drawer would also serve in a functional manner because it would make searching for things in the dark easier. The top is half a surface and half a storage bin so that the user can set things on top as well as store books and such on the side. 

This third piece is more of a statement as to how technology is becoming integrated more into everyday life. It's a statement on how a computer and cellphone are starting to become the "modern diary", and how people need some sort of nightstand that adjusts for their technology. This nightstand serves as a surface for the user to work on their laptop in bed, has a "charging dock" where one can plug in their computer and cell phone, and has surfaces to store their various bedtime items. This is the piece that I think I will be building because it got a lot of good feedback and seems the most functional to me. 

This is the top, and the way that I designed it in the prototype, it just slides out and the user can completely remove the top surface and use it as a laptop surface in bed, or they can pull it out halfway and use it as a mini table, or they can place their laptop and cell phone in the drawer below and charge their items and then slide the top piece back on so they don't have to bother with their technology once it's charged. Givens suggested that instead of making the surface slide I make it pivot so that you can rotate the surface around and use it in bed. He also made a good point that if people see a horizontal surface they have a tendency to put things on top of it, and that the sliding surface could potentially become unusable because people would just set things on top of it. He suggested that I give the user the ability to use the top surface as a laptop holder OR have an extra slot where the drawers are so that the user can take out the top and use this surface essentially as another drawer on the inside of the nightstand. 

The last nightstand is my favorite one because of it's functionality and ability to adjust to the user, so I think I'm gonna go with this one. 

studio project

yes. i have a fascination with light. i don't know why. so my proposal for this furniture studio is to design a night stand that doubles as a night light. i would also like to create a night stand that allows the user to personalize their  bedtime ritual. what do i mean by that? 

in order to think about the design of my night stand, i thought about the basic things that people do before bed. 

-read

-write

-work on the computer

-listen to music

then i thought about the way that technology has influenced our bedtime rituals: 

-phone

-computer

-ihome or ipod alarm clocks

i want my night stand to be a surface that allows all of these activities to take place, as well as accommodate all the technological aspects of today's bedtime rituals. 

conclusion: a night stand that maybe has a surface that slides out so that you can use it as a surface for working on the computer or writing. 

compartments to keep books. 

compartments to charge phones and computers

spaces to hide wires 

also, a night light. 

yay. 

here are some of the sketches i've come up with. the are hard to read, sorry about that: 

Desginer Research: Stephen Burks, Readymade inc.

Here is Stephen Burks, founder of Readymade inc. in New York:

He is an industrial designer whose  work includes installations, furniture pieces, and interiors, as well as art pieces. He likes to work with artisans in third world countries by helping them produce their work and distribute it to the international market. Pretty cool. 
















Check out some of his work!

Taburets Table

Hybrid

Totem