Group 2: Waverly Bagley, Katie Jung, Richard Yang
For our chair designs, we were inspired by the tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears. In the story, Goldilocks goes through a series of three different porridges, chairs, and beds to find the perfect fit for her. Furniture strives to provide a fitting experience for public users in the same way – the way in which the chair is designed in texture, height, and even material, all alter our perception of comfort, discomfort, or the context of where the chair is located. Through our iterations made to the standard IYA chairs, our team wanted to evoke a different sense of emotion in the audience whether it was uninviting or practical.
Through the software Blender, each of our group members ideated and prototyped three different versions of an IYA chair. After scanning the chair, we altered components such as the chair’s texture, height, roundedness, and the designs that can be seen on its surface. As it was our first time using the software, our group members went through numerous trials and errors getting the object to be correctly sized in proportion to the mannequin as well as figuring out the different shaping tools.
Katie: When creating my iteration of the chair scan, I was immediately drawn to the height of the chair. The original chair was designed to be a tall chair with longer legs in proportion to the rest of the object. I focused on shortening the entire height of the chair to make it a desk chair as to a standing table chair. Then, I wanted to alter the shape of the chair by adding a rounded edge to the top of the backing and rounding the chair’s arms. The final touches that I added were smoothing out the overall texture of the chair and flattening out the legs.
As it was my first time using Blender, it was difficult to figure out the exact tools for what I intended to perform on my design. Additionally, scaling the object to print and getting the printer to work was another challenge that I faced during prototyping. I ran into an issue with the 3D printer where the first model only printed halfway. Amidst the number of trials and errors made, I was able to come out with the final interaction of the chair. Carefully removing the support attached was crucial as the chair structure was extremely brittle and thin.
Waverly: In creating my iteration, I had troubles with smoothing out the surfaces. Instead of trying to make it perfect, I decided to make this part of the design. My chair is supposed to be more organic and geometric as opposed to being perfect with all perfectly smooth and natural surfaces. I added slanted pillar shapes to the sides and backing of the chair to get it more dimension and personality. It was also my first time using Blender and I found it difficult to navigate but I was able to use the sculpt and modify/edit features to make these changes to the initial scan of the chair. I also spent a long time removing supports and making sure the final product could stand on its own.
I think the biggest lesson I learned in this process was ensuring that your 3D design is feasible. The legs of my chair are definitely fragile and a few sort of broke while I was removing supports, however I was able to glue them back on. One of the most important parts of 3D printing is the trial and error that comes with it.
Richard: After importing the scanned chair onto my laptop, I utilized the sculpting tool to carve an infinity mark on the chair’s back and to etch the USC sign on the top surface of the seat. However, the true challenge in this project was refining the 3D printed object. Given the chair’s delicate legs and the proximity of the supporting material to the bottom legs, I inadvertently broke two out of the four legs that were intended to be part of the 3D-printed final product. I attempted to use glue to reattach them, but the adhesive couldn’t hold the legs with just one side making contact. However, I successfully used the glue on the middle part of the chair’s arm, which had two points of contact. Ultimately, I decided to forgo the bottom legs, resulting in a shorter chair than the original design in Blender.
The primary lesson here is the importance of considering a product’s actual size and scale during the design phase. If a design includes fragile components, it might be prudent to use a dissolvable 3D printer, which allows for post-production adjustments by simply placing the object in water.
