Exploring Visual Information II

[thenielchetty1]

This is Chloe and I’s presentation document for our design proposal. We put a lot of thought and effort into the design of the furniture and the stepping stones. We like this design as it introduces a natural feel to silo park which is surrounded by concrete. Our design is also a place where people can sit down with friends at Silo park as there aren’t as many seats there. 

We believe that we have achieved our design goal by integrating a natural feel through the story telling of the fish in the area to the industrial environment.

[chloebia-blog]

This is also another design for the stepping stone tile. These tiles about a Maori story was designed by Theniel.

[thenielchetty1]

I designed the story in three parts which will be spread across the stepping stones. The user’s will have to follow the stepping stones to get the whole story. The dots indicate where they are in the story for example one dot = part one, two dots= part two, three dots = part three, ect.

[chloebia-blog]

This is the final design for the stepping stone tile.

With the draft of the snapper done and laser cut, we decided to continue it. With the feedback with our laser-cut and engraved snapper, we decided to make the information left aligned rather than have it all centred.

For the rest of the fish, I drew them in illustrator and altered the lines to give more effect.

Also, for our design we decided to include the Maori translation of the type of fish in italics under it’s English name. I think that it’s important and relevant to keep the Maori translation as it’s part of New Zealand, and part of the Maori culture.

The below links are websites in which I researched and found information about NZ fish as well as popular fish around the Hauraki Gulf. It includes species information as well as fishing rules. Fishing Rules: https://www.mpi.govt.nz/travel-and-recreation/fishing/fishing-rules/auckland-kermadec-fishing-rules/

Fish Species: https://www.mpi.govt.nz/travel-and-recreation/fishing/fish-species/ https://teara.govt.nz/en/coastal-fish

Common Fish Species of NZ: https://www.megabitesfishing.co.nz/fish-species.html

[thenielchetty1]

These are our laser engraves stepping stones which are made out of MDF. I sanded it down to get rid of the burn marks but some of the dust get stuck in the small crevices of the letters. It turned out really well and its what Chloe and I envisioned for the stepping stones in our outdoor furniture instillation.  

[thenielchetty1]

We spray painted the bases of the seats to make it look like concrete and it turned out pretty well. We like the contrast between the concrete base and the wooden seat top. By using wood for the seats we introduce more of the natural materials to the concrete silos that are in silo park

[thenielchetty1]

We 3D printed the bases of the seats and we are going to spray paint it using a granite spray paint to give it the “concrete” look. We laser cut the seat tops and are going to make it look like wood with a grain.

[thenielchetty1]

We did some test laser cuts to play around with the layout of the seating and to see what engraving wood would look like. We decided to have the information on the stepping stones. There will be a couple of stories spaced out on the stones which will be broken up by information about the various fish in the area. We came up with a system for users to follow when trying to read the story. They have to follow the dots. The more dots there are, the further they are in the story. We still need to play around with the layout of the stepping stones but the outdoor furniture is a set design.

[thenielchetty1]

So this is a possible layout I came up with. For the ‘fin’ shaped bench there are squares which can either be filled with either fish tales or information about various fish. The font is still a work in progress. We are going to laser cut/ engrave MDF to see what the effect is with different font types. We also want to engrave a simple outline of the fish we are providing information on on to the seat.

[thenielchetty1]

We decided to make the outdoor seating cylinders as it is easy to manufacture and can fit more people on it. We decided to arrange the seating in a shape of the fish which can only be seen from the gantry. We decided to have various heights for each seat as it looks visually interesting. We decided to add the story to the stepping stones. We just need to come up with an appropriate system which people can follow.

[thenielchetty1]

These are some test prototypes using balsa wood tubes. I didn’t get a chance to stain all of them as it takes a long time for the wood stain to dry. The grey represents concrete. I quite like the half concrete half wood look. Chloe and I need to discuss which pattern would fit our design.

[thenielchetty1]

While I was waiting for the wood stain to dry on the balsa wood seat prototype, I decided to use poker chips as a way to test out the stripe pattern. The blue represents the wood and the red represents the concrete. I came up with different patterns. I will see what it looks like using wood.

[thenielchetty1]

Adding on to the previous post, I did more sketches on the pattern of the wood and the conferee in the seats. After talking to Chloe about it, we decided we might make the seats look more like fish scales and arrange it in the shape of the fish which can be seen from the gantry. And we will make one big seat in the shape of a Fish eye which will seat more people. We were thinking of maybe getting rid of the alternating patterns and maybe having it half concrete and half wood. I am currently in the process of making seat mock ups and painting them so will see which material combination looks best.

[thenielchetty1]

While exploring the outdoor 'silo' inspired seating I decided to do some sketches on the shape and the mixture between the wood and concrete elements to see what it would potentially look like. I like the idea of the wood wrapping around the concrete as it's a juxtaposition between the natural materials and man made materials. I am going to test out the wood and concrete patterns on a 3D model.

[thenielchetty1]

We have decided to make outdoor seating in the form of silos. We are thinking of mixing the materials of the seat between wood and concrete. We are also thinking of placing it randomly around the park. We went from a fixed seating area with shelter to seating placed randomly within the park.

[thenielchetty1]

These are some more wire frame experiments of the silos. It's a bit messy but the point of these silos is to contrast the heavy, monolithic existing silos with light wire framed silos. I like this idea but it may be too abstract and may not work with the 3D map we are aiming for. We will continue to experiment and find another way to make the 3D map interesting.

[thenielchetty1]

This is a wire ‘silo’. It contrasts with the solid, heavy look of the current silos. My original idea was to have it look less like a ‘spring’and have it more like the outline of the silo but I wanted to try this out and see what it looks like. 

What I’m planning to do next is maybe experiment solid forms with different colours and materials. 

[thenielchetty1]

These are some more sketches on the ‘3D map’ concepts. We tried to change the shape of the base so that it matches the shape of Silo Park and this resulted in a weird shape so we tried to fill it out to make it more geometric.

We then decided to make the concept more fun and we’re currently finding new ways to do this. The last picture shows a ‘wire frame’ Silo Park which is juxtaposed with the heavy, concrete silos. We will continue to work on different ways to make it fun.