Industrial design
Meld
Categories
Furniture Design
Industrial Design
Woodwork
Tools
Woodwork Shop
SolidWords
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Photoshop
Team
Cindy Lin
Andrea Merson
Helena Pareywck
Devon Pianosi
Award
2017 Wood Week BC: People’s Choice Award, awarded by Judson Beaumont
Led by Industrial Design professor Christian Blyt, the team was asked to work together over the period of four months with Emily Carr University and BoConcept Vancouver to design a high, medium and low stool built from 100% BC sourced solid Hemlock wood.
Design Brief
Meld, is a collaborative design project with Emily Carr University, BoConcept Vancouver and BC Wood that focuses on creating a high, medium and low stool that could function for commercial use and for Emily Carr University new campus furniture in both public and private spaces. Using 100% BC source solid and composite hemlock as the main component of the stools, we wanted our stools to be structurally strong, yet have physical and visual lightness to it. In order to create this physical and visual lightness, we took away wood and pushed its limitations to use as little wood yet be structurally strong enough to hold a person and endure abuse when used in a high demanding University environment.
Client Research
BoConcept’s mission is to make modern design furniture available to urban-minded customers. They are dedicated to manufacturing quality, functional, attractive, and good value furniture. BoConcept has what they refer to as an “Urban Danish” style. Many of their products consist of two strong colors or textures, often combining nested wood into visible metal elements. The company appeals to a younger, “hip” consumer base (modern city dwellers).
With a basic knowledge of our client, we visited the BoConcept store in Vancouver, and spoke with the manager for a deeper understanding of their requirements and goals for the stool design.
Inspirations
Lines in the city inspired our design process. There is a lot of beauty within lines, particularly converging buildings, lines in bridges and sidewalks and power lines that create art within an urban landscape. As a team we wish to create a stool that brings the beauty of the city inside. We want to take inspiration from the stark beauty of urban landscape and turn it into a versatile and durable seating solution for BoConcept’s modern city dwelling consumers, as well as for Emily Carr University Students. We want to capture this intense urban beauty and bring it inside on a more intimate scale. We want to play with a mixture of warm and cold materials; the same way humans are juxtaposed against the hard angles and industrial surfaces of a modern city.
Moodboard
We created a moodboard that would help keep us focused on our design throughout the process. We also choose specific keywords that we wanted to incorporate into our design:
REPETITION
GEOMETRIC
NEGATIVE SPACE
URBAN
DURABLE
MINIMAL
STREAMLINED
VISUAL CONTINUITY
INTRIGUING
MIXED MATERIAL
ELEGANCE
Paper Prototypes
Once we had a better understanding of the direction we wanted to pursue, we began to construct and ideate our first design ideas. As a team and individually, we made several paper prototypes. We made 1:10 scale models using wire, paper etc. We concluded our paper model explorations with 30 different prototypes that would be evaluated at our first critique with BoConcept.
Full-Form Prototypes
The next step of the design process was to blow up our small paper prototypes to full scale functioning prototypes. Making full scale prototypes allowed us to test strength, structure and design. In addition, we were able to see how the stool would interact when using it.
A Change in Direction
After weeks of trying to make the a front leg work with our design, we chose to simplify the legs and add more character to the stool with unique details. One idea was to split the leg to visually lighten the form and add back the negative space and line details outlined in our design brief.
There were structural concerns with the new leg but after building the legs and testing them, they proved to be quite strong.
Second Critique
In this critique, we received better feedback in comparison to our first critique. We had developed a good foundation and a design concept. Our high stool had a lumbar support which we simplified by using bend-ply for the backrest and the seat component in hemlock. The mid and low stool did not have a lumbar support however the mid stool had two footrests whereas the small did not.
The critical point that we took away from the critique was that our backrest seemed as an “add-on” and did not work well with the tall stool (perhaps of dimensional differences in comparison to the other components of the stool). The mid and low stool however received good comments and was liked. As a team, we decided to take away the lumbar support, not only because we were not allowed to make a full bend-ply but also due to ergonomically complications.
The Build
Footrests
We came to our final chosen foot rest design by comparing the various positions of potential foot rests on CAD and then strength testing the chosen design to ensure it could easily support much more than the weight of an adult male jumping on it.
Since our stool was meant for a commercial setting we knew strength considerations should be a major factor in our design. We also opted to add leg supports to the mid stool to ensure it had adequate strength.
Rails
Our first stools that we made for the BoConcept utilized 60mm deep rails that were parallel with the legs. While these seat rails did indeed support the seat and the chair legs they were far too bulky looking and added unnecessary weight. Since one of our main goals was to make a stool that was both visually and physically light we redesigned the rail and changed it’s position so that it would be less visible and be as light as possible.
By increasing the length of our rail while maintaining it’s minimal height we were able to drastically increase its strength while still keeping it relatively light weight and maintaining the look we desired.
Finishes: Staining & Painting
We wanted to finish the stool with a rich colour to add a sense of elegance and additional polish to the stool. We gathered stain colours and began to experiment with different hues. We found that the hemlock was very difficult to stain, and the outcome felt very blotchy and did not achieve the look we wanted.
After deciding that a stain would not be suitable we opted to explore opaque paint for the seat. We wanted to pick a colour that would enhance the hemlock wood legs. First, we pitched a Danish Oil to finish the legs so we could complement the hue.We wanted to paint the tops in 2 different colours to show the customization ability of the design. We looked through hundreds of colours to find a suitable pallet. We were really happy with the colour and received a lot of positive feedback on our selection.
Final Design
Vancouver’s city landscape is a tapesty of people, cultures, and materials all working together in perfect harmony. It’s this detialed beauty of the urban city landscape; the layering of materials, interwoven lines, and interdpendance of people, that bring a city to life. MELD is our reflection of Urban Living
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