Studio Blog | Stéphan Angoulvant

Archived

In the interest of making this archive more useful and better organized, here’s a quick reference to the foundation courses I took at Art Center. Here you will find links to the full term wrap-ups and each of the individual course summaries. Tags are also a smart way to navigate the site. You may, for instance, want to view all the posts related to Viscom or posts related to Product Design. You can find these tags at the bottom of each post.

Of course you can still view these posts as they have appeared in the past, by going through them in reverse chronological order.

Term 1 — Fall 2008

• Design Process 1: Form – Using shapes, lines and value graphics to describe intended qualities.
• Viscom 1 – Creating accurate and complex perspective line drawings from imagination.
• 3D Fundamentals 1 – Learning the tools and techniques needed for the creation of industrial products.
• Design Process 1: Space – Exploring the basics of environmental design.
• The Way Things Work – Learning to deconstruct and explain the functioning of objects around us.
• Study Models – Methods to create rapid 3-dimensional representations of a concept.
• Design Fundamentals 1 – Essential lessons in typography and color theory.
• The Way Things Look – A short history of 20th century design and why things look the way they do.

Term 2 — Spring 2009

• 3D Fundamentals 2: Part 1 – Further hands-on lessons in the techniques of industrial production.
• 3D Fundamentals 2: Part 2 – Learning to model industrial surfaces using automotive clay.
• Viscom 2: Part 1 & Part 2 – Using light and shadow to sculpt and define forms in perspective.
• Design Process 2 – Developing a product from research to final model using furniture as an example.

Term 3 — Summer 2009

• Product Design 1 – Developing a functional product based on user research.
• Viscom 3 – Rendering different materials using a wide variety of media and techniques.
• Development of Form – Understanding and drawing 3-dimensional form.
• Rapid Prototyping – Learning how to model parts in SolidWorks for rapid prototyping.

Term 4 — Fall 2009

• Product Design 2 – Bringing a product from conceptual development through branding.
• Viscom 4 – Rapid visualization of nature & man-made things. Taught by the legendary Norm Schureman.
• ID Graphics – Learning graphic design principles for product designers.
• Solid Modelling – Advanced techniques for creating complex objects and assemblies in SolidWorks.

The End

All good things come to an end. I will no longer be updating the Studio Blog. Keep an eye on angoulvant.net and my journal for the latest. I will keep this site up as long as I can, but will remain only a reference.

I couldn’t leave you without fun work from Art Center. First, a video demonstration of Dexter, and second a link to Brand New Classroom, where my graphic design project for the Langham Hotel was posted (and rather well received, if I can say so myself!)

Dexter on Vimeo.

The Langham Hotel at Brand New Classroom.

Portfolio Update

It’s been quiet, I know… Things are right on track and you’ll hear from me soon, I promise. In the meantime, I’ve updated my portfolio with beautiful photographs for you to enjoy. Let me know what you think!

Product Design 2

Product Design 2 was the logical continuation of Product Design 1, in which we designed barbecue grills. The theme we were given this time was “products on wheels”. This was obviously a very broad theme, which hints at the aim of the course: concept development. Our goal during this class was to design an innovative product that uses wheels.

I chose to redesign the creeper, or as I prefer to call it, work sled. This is the tool auto mechanics use to slide under cars and make repairs. The final result was designed to be comfortable, nimble and easy to use.

I decided to call my work sled Dexter (from dexterity) feeling it needed a strong personality and a name that communicated stability and precision in motion. The logo was developed in our course ID Graphics.

The first few weeks were dedicated to research. I found that most creeper users are home users because auto shops generally have car lifts.

I soon found out that most readily available creepers are very cheaply made, and often used just a few times before they are discarded.

I isolated three markets for creepers, from low to high end. My creeper was to situate itself at the medium-high end mark, aimed at car enthusiasts who are in need of a well-designed creeper and casual users who could be inspired by such a product to perform their own oil changes regularly.

The Dexter brand, developed around my work sled was to communicate several key attributes shown below.

The course encouraged us to explore many different ideas, here are some of the interesting ones I came up with, including a wearable creeper and a creeper with spherical wheels. Of course all these ideas were based on the research.

As the form was refined, I realized that my work sled started looking somewhat shark-like and tried to integrate this theme in my form development.

The final result was recreated using the CAD software Solidworks which we learned much about in our Solid Modelling course.

I decided to use plywood to create the basic shape of the creeper and explored many resource for fabrication.

Finally I created a mold using CNC-machined ribs. Thin sheets of plywood were then stacked, glued and vacuumed into shape. The final shape was then trimmed, sanded and veneered.

For the final version I created a metal frame that supported both the seat and the wheels, allowing all four to lock into place with one simple gesture. Lights were also integrated in order for users to see under their cars.

The leather pillow was stitched and printed using the Lumi Process, developed by myself and an Art Center classmate.

I embedded magnets under the veneer, giving these tool rests a very intuitive and almost magical functionality! The tools won’t fall off even when the creeper is placed vertically, but they are still easy to remove.

The frame was a complex piece of metal bending and certainly could be simplified in the future, using different materials. The aim was to communicate the new mechanics I had developed to make braking simple.

The following is the poster board that accompanied my final model. You can find a full-size PDF here.

ID Graphics

ID Graphics was a great course I took last semester dealing with graphic design, an all-important skill for product designers to communicate their work.

The course started with an exercise in designing our personal stationery including business cards, resume, envelopes and portfolio pages. I will be rolling out the results here and on my portfolio over the next few months!

Our second exercise was closely tied to our Product Design 2 course in which we created a fictional brand for our product. I chose the name Dexter as the brand of my auto mechanic’s creeper. My goal was to create a logo that communicated reliability and mobility.

I based my design on the beautiful typeface Klavika by Process Type. Over many iterations I came up with the following logo:

The final color schemed hinted at the traditional automotive primary blues and reds. In this case the palette is shifted a bit off kilter to give it a modern look.

Our final project was to create a piece of branding for our product. I chose to create a sticker used for retail.

Solid Modelling

Moving along with my recap from last term, here are images from Solid Modelling. This course was the continuation of Rapid Prototyping, dealing mainly with the CAD software Solidworks. We started the course by practicing our Solidworks skills and replicating the inner workings of the Team Losi Mini T remote-controlled car.

Recreating hundreds of small parts in accurate detail took us some time but eventually we got quite good with the program.

Once we had understood both Solidworks and the mechanics of a remote-controlled car we starting making our own. Our car was to be created in Solidworks and fabricated using only rapid-prototyping methods.

I focused on making mine lightweight and easy to control. Starch or plaster 3d printers tend to create rather heavy prototypes so I focused on creating parts for the laser cutter. I was very pleased with the final result, it drove very well and the instructor chose it for the school gallery! (Picture pending!)

Our final exercises were in learning how to render our 3-dimensional creations and create exploded views such as this one.

Viscom 4

Kicking off my recap from last term here are the sketches from our Viscom 4 course. This course, much like our previous Viscom courses focused on drawing skills. In this particular course we learned techniques for rapidly sketching objects both organic and mechanical. Many of the sketches below were drawn in less than two minutes, while some of the more elaborate ones took about fifteen.

Almost all of these sketches were drawn from life, at one of the many museums we visited during the course. Drawing from life is a great exercise as it helps appreciate the forms better than drawing from photographs. Ultimately, sketching skills require a lot of mileage and in that respect it was a great course.

Happy holidays and a big surprise!

I have some big news! It has been about a year since I launched this blog and the response has been overwhelmingly positive and encouraging. Thank you so much for all the kind words. I’ll soon be posting the results from last term.

Next term/semester I will be taking a well deserved break from Art Center before I dive back in for the second half of my curriculum. In the meantime I’ll be working on a very big project I launched yesterday with one of my fellow Art Center friends. Please check us out!

Enjoy the holidays!

Product Design 1

After my successful results with the insect-inspired family bench last term, I was excited to see what my third term would hold. Product Design 1 was a direct continuation of Design Process 2 with the focus being oriented more towards user research and the development of a functional product.

The project for my class was to create a portable barbecue grill for a specific target audience. I quickly identified “river fishing” as a general market and with a few weeks of research and interviews began to understand exactly what design criteria that implied.

The research phase started with a benchmarking of existing products and retail environments, allowing us to get a good understanding of the market.

After a few weeks we proposed three different directions. My research led me to investigate three river fishing grills based on different cooking methods. Ultimately I chose to design a barbecue based on the concept of plank cooking, a Native American method which uses a soaked plank of wood as a grilling surface. (PDF of the presentation)

By mid-term we had clearly defined our concept and began to develop mockups. I decided to base my grill on a new ethanol fuel which is currently marketed as the FlameDisk. (See the large format presentation here)

My design started to become clearer and tried to remain as compact as possible with replaceable ethanol cartridges that could be loaded from the side and a lid that fit inside the body for storage.

The whole unit was meant to be waterproof so that it could be carried through the water by fishermen.

Vents can deprive the fuel cartridge of oxygen allowing the user to save fuel.

The cedar plank is soaked in water using the lid as a basin. When in use the water evaporates to create delicious smoky flavors.

Our new SolidWorks skills became useful as we started to develop the final version of the design.

The next few weeks were dedicated to finalizing all the details and create the finished model.

My final presentation went fantastically well. I urge you to look at the PDF version of my presentation here.

Rapid Prototyping

Catching up with my recap from last term, here are some highlights from Rapid Prototyping, an aptly named course in which we learned the tools and techniques for creating quick physical models.

Throughout the course we learned to use SolidWorks which allows for the creation of computerized 3d models, mainly for prototyping and production.

Our first project was to design a vase and create it in Solidworks so that it could be printed using a starch-based 3d printing machine. The advantage of this machine is that can build very complex shapes including undercuts.

The result was sanded and painted for our class presentation.

Our second project was to design a plate that would be cut using a flat CNC mill. The constraints were greater in this project because we were limited by the thickness of the material and also by the fact that undercuts cannot be made on this type of machine.

The result was cut out on a beautiful piece of cherry wood which I sanded smooth and finished with wax.

Much of our work at the end of the term revolved around our main studio class, Product Design 1. Here’s a sneak peek of that project: