Week 4: 3D

GROUP EXERCISE – EXPLORING AND CHALLENGING

From this exercise, our group came up with the following ideas for my lantern design concept:

I feel as though I (and my group) addressed these components of ‘Exploring and Challenging’ in 2D for my design as a whole, taking into account both the 2D and 3D components, however, I will recap the 3D ones specifically.

EXPLORATION

Designs for the assembled lanterns themselves

Materials that would be strong enough to: withstand heat from lights, being reused and hold their shape. The lanterns below are made from egg cartons!

CHALLENGES

Designing the template for the 3D structure

Will they be easy to assemble?

PRACTICAL – CONCEPT EXPERIMENTATION, VARIATION & EVALUATION

Two experiments I could conduct on my design concept:

1. I will need to work out how to attach the completed lanterns to existing lights (i.e. fairy lights)

This would cross over with the template design, allowing extra tabs to fit on, etc.

Rather than attach the lanterns to the lights permanently, removable covers would be most beneficial for storage, so multiple use is a consideration when attaching and reattaching them to the lights.

Materials would also need to be considered. I.e. cardboard would be better at maintaining hold on a light (with the use of tabs, etc) than tissue paper would be.

2. Once the lanterns have been assembled into their 3D form, storage and re-use is an important thing to consider, as they are relatively fragile.

Can they remain intact but fold flat?

Can they remain attached to the lights for storage?

What sort of storage would they come with, if any?

Size of the lanterns could affect how they are stored.

Below is a template and a basic prototype I constructed:

Pros:

• Being able to reuse the lanterns through considered and correct storage is cost effective.

• The lanterns have the potential to be completely eco-friendly (by not making the attachment permanent with glue, etc). Also the fairy lights themselves could be used for other decorations.

Cons:

• Budget, for the fairy lights and/or extra lanterns for display, also for storage.

• In addition to the time it will take to establish the template, extra time will need to be taken for the consideration of attaching the lights to the lanterns.

Choosing and Refusing

Most of these ideas need to be tried before choosing or refusing to go with any one method or idea.