Special Carriers
Pears or apples!
9/24/2020
It was useful to play with the cardboard. I was in the group that was considering the corner of a square. At first it was difficult for us to think of a way to make the corner without using tape, and we were all working in silence for a long time. Eventually we all came up with different solutions. I did a slot and tab, though it was quite ugly. Another person used a separate piece of cardboard to lock the pieces, and another slid them together with specific cuts.
To draft mine, I made tiny paper models. I threw them away, though.
9/29/2020
For my sketch models, I made two different designs. The pie, and a basket.
Pros: Apples fit and don’t roll around, reads well, delighted my friends
Cons: Needs more structural reinforcement, uses tape and glue, concept is too obvious
Pros: Sturdy, no tape or glue used, can be carried in hand
Cons: A little too big (apples don’t roll but I’d like them to be more snug), doesn’t communicate that it’s meant for apples aside from the visibility of the apples
9/30/2020
This time I decided to think through my design a little more. Despite that, I ran into several problems, like the problem that my design didn’t work.
First, my design had tall windows, almost the same height as the apples; I realized this quickly and adjusted so that the windows would instead be square-shaped.
Then, my apples were too wide (or the box itself wasn’t wide enough) and it didn’t form the triangle shape that I had originally intended. Instead, a pentagon shape was formed at the sides.
I tried all sorts of ways — by which I mean stubbornly jamming the tab through the slot to get it to fit, to no avail- to get the triangle shape, but eventually cut off the triangles altogether. With the sides gone, the apples weren’t in too much risk, but I still didn’t like the ends exposed. If you were to shake the carrier, they would roll out; so to close them, I used the leftover cardboard from the cut-out handle and slid them through the slots meant for the triangle tabs.
Lastly, my apples were heavy. With just one layer at the bottom, it started to curve; so I cut out an extra piece of cardboard and slid it under the apples. The bottom remained straight with the added layer.
I ended up really liking the look of the pentagon and side handles, so maybe it was meant to be. To improve on this I wouldn’t beat up my cardboard so much trying to force a slot and tab together.
10/5/2020
I’m not sure which design is the best to go with. I still have more ideas so I’d like to explore them, but at the same time I’d like to decide on a design and begin refining.
As we can see, this time I was particularly interested in a vertical design. I finally settled on a concept based off a bottle, most similar to a water bottle but in practice would probably remind one more of (apple) juice.
For this go-around I used glue. I used so much glue that PETA is going to come after me for a lecture about the horses. While in the sketch I had some ideas for a design with no adhesives, I just wasn’t that confident in what I had and decided to try only-cardboard in the next model. To keep everything together I inserted some pins and took breaks for everything to dry.
When I first came up with this idea, I immediately envisioned it fitting into my purse. While constructing, I didn’t know whether to add a cap or leave it plain and elegant. I added the cap to stay true to the original concept of a bottle and because I don’t think elegance fits apples.
I enjoyed making the hand-grip part of the cap because it’s a rolled-up piece of scrap cardboard. Then I tore apart some cardboard to get to the paper so that it would stay flat on top of the rolled-up part. It looks clean, and you can’t really tell that I didn’t measure that part at all. Although you wouldn’t know it was a piece of scrap from looking at it, I enjoy having the knowledge that I was at least a little resourceful.
The window feature is actually supposed to resemble the label of a bottle, if labels were horizontal. Overall I think this bottle looks clean, slick, and makes sense. Next time, if I continue with the bottle, I’ll have to figure out a way to not use any adhesives.
10/7/2020
In these sketches based off of the feedback, I hadn’t yet considered opening it from the top. In my head, I just didn’t imagine liking that orientation. When constructing, I changed my mind so that the apples wouldn’t have to slide out and bump against each other.
In this one I also used glue. I haven’t had any good/functional ideas for how to make this design work in only cardboard. I don’t know if this means I should abandon this idea or just try and think of more ways to be able to exclude adhesives.
Another design I made while in the process was cutting the window to be bigger. When it was thin the apples looked sad, like prisoners in a jail cell. With the extra room it looked like they could breathe a little more, and it’s more pleasing to the eye to see more of the apples themselves.
You could really hold this any which way, in my arm as seen above, with both hands under either end, or holding it in one hand in the middle.
Although the design is completely round like a cylinder, you can see that it stays still when full and when empty. I considered making a base/extra pieces to secure it, just to be sure that no one would add this as a critique, but in the end I didn’t find it necessary. I would rather receive this advice and not actually have to use it (since it does not roll around; or maybe I could, depending on what exactly is said) than use extra cardboard/loose pieces that aren’t attached to the main body of the project itself.
10/12/2020
Overall the peer review went really well, thankfully I was spared from the brutal beating that Luca received. This response was awful foreshadowing because my next iteration took about 5 or so tries. I was extremely stressed. I was screaming internally. I almost needed to go outside and scream into the darkness.
This wasn’t actually because of any real design issues, I just kept messing up. I think the first 3 times were from cutting wrong/cardboard just falling apart? This also happened with the last iteration. My cardboard is giving up on me.
In the fourth (?) version, the spaces between the slots were too small. It ripped and rendered my slot and tabs useless. There was also the problem that my semi-circle didn’t come out horizontal, but just adding another set of slots fixed this problem. Unfortunately, in the last version I ended up still including the extra set, so there are 2 extra slots with no purpose.
Usually, my tabs are pressed flat so that I can push them through slots easily. In this version I left them alone so as to hopefully provide more strength, but this made the quality suffer. Because of the thick tabs, my slots needed to be bigger. It’s difficult to cut thin holes without ruining the cardboard.
These are to demonstrate interaction. The last GIF looks really weird but that’s just me showing the strength of the carrier. To improve on this one I’d cut more carefully, spend less time on it (5 different versions in one sitting killed me. I am writing from the grave), and make the semi-circle higher to provide more semblance of protection for the apples. As if they’re not battered and bruised (from all the modeling and dropping them on the floor). I need to lay them to rest.
10/19/2020
I wanted to give my modeling apples a proper send-off (in the garbage) to let them rest in peace. I did not do this. They had one final job.
I really like the addition of the thumb strap. It adds a nice little touch. I think of it as a little Wii strap. This is a photo for reference of what a Wii strap looks like. This is the first thing that came to mind when given the advice to add an indication of where to hold the carrier, but I’ve never owned a Wii.
The strap on my carrier looks a little big, but it fits well around the thumb up to where it connects to the palm.
To set up my little at-home photo studio I moved to the basement. This is where my mom works (when she needs to finish up work at home; she’s a seamstress) so it has pretty good lighting. The first couple of shots were with a white cloth on the table, and shots with me holding the carrier were with the cloth pinned to the wall. 1 wall was indeed harmed during this photoshoot.
I wore a light gray shirt instead of a white shirt because I didn’t want to risk my shirt getting overexposed and looking like a floating pair of hands with some apples sitting in cardboard.
I don’t own a tripod, so my mom had to take these photos for me. It was… difficult, to say the least. Taking photos is easy enough, but she struggled with centering the photos. These turned out great, though.
I considered editing out my callus but I didn’t in the end because that’s something about me I can’t really change in real life. I could physically take off nail polish (wasn’t wearing any) but I can’t just take off something that’s part of my hand.
I’m nervous about constructing my carrier tomorrow because there are quite a few tabs to fill in. Hopefully they won’t give me too much trouble… we’ll see.
