E4 Exhibition Review

The students of the undergraduate industrial design program at UNSW held a final exhibition of their work on wednesday the 25th of Nov 2009. I was there for about 2 hours - it was great! Of course I won't have time to write about each and every project that was displayed, so I'll just pick a few that intruiged me the most.

Overall the exhibition was very enjoyable and the models were made a a very high level of quality. I might add that they were heaps better than my time! Obviously technology has evolved since then - talking to the students it seems that the IDES department has rapid prototyping technology now. That sure helps!

Alright now to their individual projects.

Longreach

Bugger, i didn't take photos of this one. I'll do up a scan from the catalogue but Samuel, if you're reading this, perhaps you would like to send me a nice photo of your model. I feel that this is quite a clever idea - shooting a rescue pack to someone instead of having to wade out or thrown one. That's certainly a very risk-free way of getting immediate help to a drowning victim. Loved the colours used in the design as well, it seems to be the same as a lifevest. Of course, shooting a full size lifebuoy would be a bit of a joke, so kudos to you for figuring out getting a compacted package designed. The mounting for walls is a good addition too.

Pulse

Transporting a live beating heart! The last time I saw anything near that was the Indiana Jones Temple of Doom movie where this voodoo guys plucks out a guy's beating heart. Oh well it seems to become reailty now:) I'm quite intruiged by this design. If we were to think of this as a traditional Esky used to transport organs, it really does look like one. I am assuming that Gonzalo has gone through the effort of making his creation look like an Esky. Good on you mate

Black Ice

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That sure used a lot of LEDs! Much more than anything I was impressed with the model-making of this project. Stylewise, I would love to own one of these cabinets. Although I couldn't touch the model but I assumed that the bottles were to swivel on those long cylindrical holders. I guess this would be a centrepiece in a luxury home setting and there's certainly a market for this product. The only comment I would have is that reflected ambient light be used. The sharp light and hence reflections did steal attention away from the overall design.

Halo

The first thought that came to mind when I saw this was octopus tentacles. I can't help but feel there is a slight visual and conceptual link between an octopus and this medical lighting system. I mean, if you think of a surgeon and his team it's really an entity with  numerous specialised skills and many hands (hence the idea of tentacles). Not sure if Che was thinking what I just wrote, but hey it's open to interpretation. That's the arty-farty bit. In the technical aspect, why didn't anyone think about this before? It's a marvelous idea. I work with a lot of LED lighting in signage and it's great to know that they are being used in more than just advertising.

What I reckon of the whole event

As said before, it was an enjoyable time. The band churning out smooth jazz helped ignite the occasion and so did the venue itself. 30 Hickson Road has been used for this event for the past 3 years I was told and I'm quite liking the place. The catalogues look great - paper stock was quite well chosen. Maybe the future years can consider hardcovers if the budget allows. I'm assuming that these catalogues have been mailed out to industry people, and hardcover books are more likely to be treasured and kept.

Obviously 3D modelling is a big part of industrial design now - more specifically, Solidworks - but I would have loved to see more hand sketches.Some students did display their hand renderings (like Che) which I think is a very big part of design. I somehow have to do sketches nearly everyday to convey my ideas to fabricators, suppliers, project managers and clients. There's also more individuality in hand sketches, not very different from handwriting. Chuck a 3D model into Hypershot and you've got a nice picture with all sorts of indirect illumination. But it lacks character, it's too pristine. I'll be writing a blog on sketching some time very soon.

The food at the event was great! Although I didn't get to eat much, that was the second best thing apart from the design projects :)