Table Design Progress For Furniture Competition..

[Guest industrial_poptart]

Hi, I am working on a new project and I'd like any comments/advice, right now I have just a few of my process pages posted, these specifically are variations on one direction I have and I have not yet scanned in all of the ideations with alternatives yet so please bear with me. I am using the brief from a furniture competition as a guide for this project however it will not actually be entered in the competition because i don't have $$ to ship a miniature model of the finished design to Spain lol. Eventually I'd like to design some chairs to go with this, but I want your guys opinions before I do that. So here's the brief, & I will do my best to explain the direction I am going for with it:

 

BRIEF:

 

Design a chair/table.

 

- Tables: The main material shall be Beach wood, Oak wood or Walnut. Tables may be veneered board or plywood.

- The use of other materials such as metals, plastics, glass, etc. is allowed when complimentary, structural or incidental

to the above.

 

Specifications:

 

- Possible innovative features related to design, quality, technology, production processes, etc. and in general anything

that adds value to the presented project.

- Possible adaptation of the product philosophy of Andreu World S.A. (F.Y.I. their products are very reminiscent of

classic/mid-century modern, clean lines, square, lots of parsons tables)

- Production costs and/or recovery.

- Functionality: fulfillment of the functions for which it has been designed.

- All-round simple & viable mass-production possibilities.

- Possible versatility and suitability for development into different sizes and heights.

- Suitability to numerous ambiances and uses.

 

 

 

[Guest KEVMORTENSEN]

Hate to burst your bubble, but we just built this exact table for an architect here in San Diego. The center flower holding section was stianless, and the table was Paldao.

 

It came out working quite well.

[Guest industrial_poptart]

Weird... Anyways, I am re-considering my direction for this. This concept direction is based on bringing people together who are normally busy and don't have time. I was exploring ways to make the table (which is always such a static, unchanging piece of furniture) into something more dynamic what would a ) promote family/friend interaction b ) serve multiple purposes that would affect the mood/atmosphere/activities during different parts of the day. As I started to develop it it the central bin part turned into not only a flower vase, but had interchangeable functions that could change the mood/allow different activities among users such as a fondue-maker, storage bin, mini herb garden (that would allow users to pick the leaves right off the plant and garnish foods with them), flower vase however now I am second-guessing and while i feel that the idea behind it is well-intentioned it may be too novelty. What do you guys think?

[Guest Lilith]

nice layouts, would like to see more

[Guest industrial_poptart]

Here are some variations on table designs. I am trying to figure out which shape would work best with the bin in the middle. Will post more later.

 

[Guest industrial_poptart]

Here are more.

 

[Guest newt @ MWE]

Hey

 

I like the subtle variations in each sketch. Very good exploration.

[admin 22]

I like your idea to create an even more social meaning to the table (it is already a social product), that you are adding features to enhance that meaning: bringing people together

Have you brainstormed about other features, like playing games, sound/music system or ambient lighting?

Is the rectangular shape of the table the best solution for your intended meaning?

Then, how to make the interchangeable functions easy to use with less effort?

[Guest industrial_poptart]

Thanks guys for the feedback. I really love this forum because it gets you motivated when people share interest in your projects. To tell you the truth I was really excited about this one at first and then started loosing steam on it feeling like I was actually getting sidetracked on all the different leg variations lol instead of focusing on the concept, which is the user-interaction part. Whenever I start feeling lost like on a project I lose interest quick. Does anyone else have this problem? I think I may sketch up a few more pages on this now possibly storyboarding the user interaction part to get a sense of how it all fits together and makes it easier to use the different pieces. The reason it is square is because I was trying hard to keep it this way since most of the designs the company sponsoring the competition has are very close to parsons tables/mid century-classics, and, consequently, very square. Also, most modern kitchen designs are square. So basically what I tried was starting out with a parsons table and doing surface treatments/tweaks. But, this doesn't mean I shouldn't explore other shapes. Besides, the competition's over and I'm not giving them my design I'm just doing this for myself and using their guidelines as a brief so I don't really care if it looks like their brand or not lol.

[Guest ProductDesignResources]

My favorite is the top center on one of your sketch sheets. The table with the strong beveled edge. There's something inviting about that one. Although, you would lose a bit of table-space...

[Guest John Fitzsimmons]

make the height adjustable. I saw a slick table years ago that a guy built with a dentist chair base, and a large butcher block top, it adjusted from coffee table height to dinner table height. I would take that a step further and make it go a bit higher for use at parties, ie bar height. There are standard mechanisms for doing this ment for medical equipment.

[Guest kaiza]

have you seen the Milk Table?

 

http://www.milk.dk/

 

Has a similar modular system, but it's a work desk. I love the idea of using it for a dining table.

 

Great sketches and form exploration too.