Tor H. Industrial Design

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Final drawing

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Prototypes, iterations, tests.

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Getting back the nylon printed parts means I have the final dimensions for the bottle locked in. I’ve experimented with different ways of applying text and branding to the form and have decided that physically including it in the geometry. This is a potential issue for injection or blow molding but the overall design benefits from it. It is a stylish way of displaying the brand and other methods such as stuck on decals, paint, drawing by hand, etc are not perceived in quite the same way. A paper sleeve for instance is often found on cheap products, indicates mass production and doesn't have the gravitas as embossing.

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I have chosen to use this cap design as my final for nylon printing. Although to properly injection mold this you would need to do it in two shells and affix it via adhesive or some other plastic welding technique.

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Test print. This design may not be injection moldable but i like how it looks. It’s a contrast point to the next design I am printing which has a much more subtle form.

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Printing high resolution 0.08mm layer height PLA bottle mold and mold spacer.

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Shape exploration. Trying to incorporate shapes abstracted out of the ankh and considering how to approach the visual communication of DNA/medical usage.

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The small, curvaceous form of the bottle is working well I believe. It has a sense of preciousness not unlike a perfume bottle but still draws on the shapes of medical glass from my earlier developments that carries a beaker-like quality.

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Vacuum forming is a method of fabrication singled out by the brief. I wanted to get some early experience with the process as it was new to me. Although my model had the proper draft angle I had added 6mm of spacer to account for the bevelling of edges where the plastic meets the vacuum plate. This resulted in a nice full edge but the drawback was sanding the plastic to a flat and even shell was made difficult because i needed to evenly remove 6mm after extracting from the mold or reprint the piece to get a flush edge to sand against.

Another issue I have with vacuum forming is the wastefulness of the process for such a small product. Cutting out the mold from the center of a larger sheet of plastic renders that plastic incapable of holding a vacuum so it cannot be reused.

The wastefulness of the process in this context is a contributing factor to my hesitation to produce the final part with vacuum forming. I will need to further weigh my options before making a final choice on the matter.

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A collection of form explorations.

I wanted to look into the relationship between life and death in regards to the dilemmas of ‘eternal’ life as it has been manifest in mythology. The shapes of urns, canopic jars and old glass bottles full of medicine or poison were all considered as avenues for inspiration.

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Context

In our not so distant dystopian future the mega wealthy indulge in medically enhanced health and longevity. Vials of specially engineered stem cells are not only a medical miracle but also symbols of prestige and power to be displayed.

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Egyptian textural inspiration

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☥

The ankh is a symbol connected to life and living in Egyptian mythologies. It’s one of the more pervasive symbols in modern day occult. Weaving in symbols with meanings related to life to the design of the vessel can both convey meaning, add design detail but also say something about the context I have chosen. It might be able to explore an aspect of irony between the use of a spiritually grounded symbol in the promotional material of a spiritually bankrupt industry (the context being future pharmaceutical company catering to high paying clients who can afford to stave off death).

An interesting write-up on the ankh ☥ can be found below.

https://www.ancient.eu/Ankh/

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Scientific glassware is a good source of inspiration and visual language for a part medical part artistic piece.

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Here are 3 series of concepts that I am going to look at further developing.

The first is a potentially difficult but interesting manufacturing challenge, designing a face that can be vacuum molded and put together with two halves. I like that this is exceptionally impractical a design. It has more art deco influence than medical. Stem cells, the pursuit of youth and health in the future are often portrayed as inclinations taken up by the rich and indulgent. This representation may further explore that.

These are a bit like beakers in a laboratory. That alone is somewhat standard but where I really see potential in this line is in the cap, building something technical, ornate, machine arm clasp-able and balanced by a slender stout. A deep stopper that projects into the neck of the vessel creates a nice seam between the contents and the cap.

These are more traditional glass shapes but with an ornate ringed cap. The way the cap rises up out of the neck of the bottle and curves around like the horns of some abstract animal is something i’d like to explore further. Some carefully applied speculative branding on the raised edges could be very nice because of the more subtle angle on the sides.

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As a context for my vessel project I have decided on a near future corporation and as a liquid a stem cell slurry. There are elements of retrofuturism, dystopian corporate identity, cyberpunk motifs, notions of medical hardware as both utility pieces and symbols of prestige and affluence that I would like to explore.