What Emotions Do Lines Communicate?

In order to explore lines, I drew my bracelet that I found lines in.  Lines can represent different emotions.  For example, curved lines often represent nature and calmness while straight lines often represent structure and rigidness.

We investigated lines and experimented with them again October 2.  

We drew four types of drawings, outlines (top left), contour (top right), structural (bottom left), and gestural.  Outlines have no depth and are simply what you might see if it were a shadow.  Contour drawings have a few more lines and a little more information.  Structural drawings have much more detail and more lines.  We practiced a new method called cross hatching (see structural drawing).  Gestural drawings capture the movement of the object.

My partner Sonia told me that I should work on my gestural and structural drawings, working on shading and portraying movement.

Self as Designer

I drew a picture of my hand to represent myself because they are what I use to do everything.  I see myself as a very literal and serious person, so the pen drawing represents who I am as a designer now.  I drew my hand again in purple to represent who I want to be as a designer.
At the end of the class, I hope to develop skills in visual communication and learn to use different tools to do it.

Product Improvement

When brainstorming, Sonia and I thought of the problem of tangled earbuds.   We wanted a way to store them without them getting tangled or in the way, so we came up with the following design.  

It is a new case that will store earbuds by allowing you to wrap the cord around two knobs and close over the cord.  A plastic piece covers the cord and snaps shut.

When changing design, one must consider the problem, buyer, convenience, and appearance.  It is important to document your brainstorming so you don't lose your ideas.  Sketching your ideas allows you to convey your ideas to others.  It also will help you prove that you thought of the idea on a certain date in case someone else tries to say they did.  It was effective for Sonia and I to share our engineering notebooks when presenting.

Design Project 1: Bridge Design

For our first design project, we were to design a bridge to support clay blocks with two pieces of card stock and two support clay pieces.  We folded the card stock into triangle shapes to give more support.  Brainstorming is helpful when solving a problem because you are able to sort of test out ideas without physically testing them out.  It leaves your mind open to new ideas that might be better.  When building the bridge, we realized there was an issue with weight distribution in the middle of the bridge that we did not anticipate.  We tested it and had to move the bridge pieces closer together to provide more support.  A successful team must have good communication.  Team members should have open minds and be ready to listen to the other team members.  If we were to do this again, we would add a support block in the middle which would allow the bridge to be longer and support more weight.