STERILE SHOEHORN
2016
Sterile Shoehorn is a piece that conveys particular feelings. The design practice asks for designers' unique understanding of human langue and expression through design works.
Project Type
Studio Project
Project Length
1 month
Key Words
industrial design
design language
manufacturing study
Responsibility
Market research, Design language, structure innovation, Physical interaction，2D and 3D prototype, CMF, and Manufacturing
01
Immersion
To understand the multiple meanings of the word "sterile", I build up the mood board according to official explanations and public recognition by talking with local people and asking questions on the internet.
Word definition
The subject I did was sterile shoehorn. To express my understanding of sterile, I defined it as unemotional, untouchable, and transparent.
02
Word definition
The subject I did was sterile shoehorn. To express my understanding of sterile, I defined it as unemotional, untouchable, and transparent.
Untouchable
Untouchable means the perfect moment that people want to cherish, such as the snow mountain.
Unemotional
Sometime sterile means no life. The images of machine makes people feel cold and unemotional.
Transparent
I use transparent to describe sterile, which presents feelings of light and clean.
03
Sketch and Ideas
According to the three key words, I came up with different ideas and made tests to see if they work great.
04
Concepts
Refraction
Refraction is a unique phenomenon only for transparent objects, such as water and glass. The design inspired by the phenomenon keeps a perfect and peaceful moment that easy to be ignored, showing users the detail of water layers, reflecting the keywords “unemotional” and "untouchable".
Machine
When it comes to “unemotional,“ images of robots and endless repeating work of assembly line surged to my mind. I chose mechanical arm as a design element to link shoehorn to a feeling of calm and "unemotional".
05
Concept Iteration
I chose "Refraction” in my direction. And decided to combine one flat piece plus two straight shoehorns into the shape.
I explore structure and manufacturing ways to achieve the "sterile" look. And user testing contributes to a more reasonable shape and portion.
At first, I chose to put the shorter shoehorn downside for sitting. However, after try it, I found a lot of people actually took off the shoehorn with standing status instead of sitting. So the position is not intuitive. As a result, I decided to put the shorter shoehorn upside and the longer one downside.
06
Design Refinement
Detail Research
I went to several furniture shops to see how sterile products show details, which materials they use, and how they assembly.
Apart from existing designs, I was trying to add features related to my concept. Thus, I found that the layers of water surface and the edges of transparent things are fascinating.So I use glass layers combined to metal layers to present the details.
Rendering Preview
I tried two opposite colors and materials. Finally I chose the Left one because it appeals more to waterlayer.
07
Sructure Design and Modeling
I took some reference that could be applied the structure of my design. Then I design how the structure looks and made out the prototype.
Functional Prototype
3D Modeling
08
Product Testing
