On February 13, Tim Wall, a product designer with Amazon’s Lab 126 http://www.lab126.com/index.htm , visited the 3-D Foundations 1A class. Tim witnessed the “cardboard chair challenge,” at Morning Meeting, and was impressed with the durability and designs of the chair outcomes. Students in the class had 10 days to research, brainstorm, build maquettes and models, and ultimately create a chair using one full sheet of 32 x 40 corrugated cardboard. Morning Meeting was the ultimate challenge, as the chair had to hold the weight of the designer for the entire 20 minutes.
As students worked through the project, they came up with some properties of a successful chair: light, sturdy, fold-able, comfortable, 2-in-1, woven, portable, looks nice, morphs to the body, stable, symmetrical, the body sinks into it, base/platform, unique, versatile, simple in design.
When critiquing students’ work, Tim talked about the importance of simplicity in design. Also versatility is another key component, and Tim encouraged students to think about their chairs not only as functional seating forms, but also as storage spaces. Each student thought of a name for their chair, plus a marketing write-up, and a pattern for reproduction of the form.
To learn more about Tim’s designs, visit:
http://www.uncollectable.com/
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