Mesh Mashup: Concept Generation

I began this assignment struggling to come up with any ideas, because similarly to, I think, most people who haven't been trained to think outside the box, I was convinced "Every idea that I could come up with has already been done".

Even though that may be true, I tried to put the thought in the back of my mind and move on. In a couple of these situations, I created the first thing that came to my mind, no matter how outlandish I thought it was. More often than not, I found I actually ended up with some interesting designs, even though they weren't necessarily the most practical.

First, I made bookends with one of my favourite SuperMario characters.

I decided to put these two figures together because Yoshi transforms a pair of, otherwise, boring bookends, to a feature of any bookshelf rather than an eyesore. Both of these objects now present more like action figures, even though none of the initial practicality was lost.

Yoshi: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:585767 by Coldfireagc, published Dec 9, 2014
Bookends: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2420075 by T-E-C, published Jul 5, 2017

Next, I put goat figures on each lens of a pair of Sunglasses

I wanted to do something completely opposite, so rather than making something more interesting/ not removing the practicality, I made something that removed all practicality the object ever had.

Sunglasses: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:985064 by normeow, published Aug 26, 2015
Goat: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:649717 by DViktor, published Jan 23, 2015

Returning to something more practical, I made a coat hook (or bag hook) that can suction cup to the bottom of a table. In this design I'm trying to improve how easy it is the lose a small portable coat hook, and how much easier it would be if something a little bigger was attached to it.

Question Box: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:678683  by JRex, published Feb 12, 2015
Coat hook: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1119249 by mstewmakes, published Nov 8, 2015
Suction cups: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:386187 by misan, published Jul 6, 2014

Next I made something mostly for the sake of irony. I made a flying device for a bird

Rocket: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:427789 by gCreate, published Aug 14, 2014
Bird Box: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:20961by mread, published Apr 13, 2012

This is a water fountain with a Venusaur on the top. I've always understood water fountains to be used for the audio element, or the calming sound of running water. In this design, I'm allowing the sense of sight and sound to work together to create a more joyous experience

Venusaur: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:471932 by cyyeung1234, published Sep 22, 2014
Bowls: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1747831 by nikpin, published Sep 1, 2016

This next design is a depiction of a breakfast scene 

Table: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1637723 by Dan2JCAD, published Jun 23, 2016
Chairs: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:21830 by pmoews, published Apr 22, 2012
Cereal Box: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:700136 by LordBananaMan, published Feb 26, 2015
Bowl: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:386343 by SerialNano, published Jul 6, 2014
Spoon: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:226875 by hacklabnobo, published Jan 15, 2014

Then I created a fish with legs, again playing with Irony. I created a fish that could walk on land, even though it never will be able to walk on land because it wouldn't be able to breathe

Fish: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1022910 by BridgerThreeD, published Sep 18, 2015
Legs: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1639450 by Forpost_D6, published Jun 22, 2016
Top Hat: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:131657 by IonEwe, published Aug 11, 2013

I wanted to make at least one design where the material was the focus of the object, even though that's not the easiest thing to do in Tinkercad: For this design, I made a tote bag out of teddy bears
*Note- The file ended up being huge, and crashing the browser, so I took the picture before it crashed again, even though it's not perfect

Teddy Bear: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2041423 by freeoutlaw, published Jan 16, 2017
Tote bag (used as reference): https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1170593 by scorch, published Dec 3, 2015

 For this design, I came up with something that seems "helpful", but at the end of the day, it may simply create more work for someone trying to brush their hair.

Robot arm: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:408402 by fazzy, published Jul 27, 2014
Hairbrush: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1455262 by stano316, published Mar 31, 2016

To end on a high note, I created this after I created the Walking fish, I was experimenting with placing different animals on different kinds of legs. I call this design "What the Duck"

Duck: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:139894 by willie, published Aug 25, 2013
Legs: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:164159 by rith, published Oct 11, 2013

Objectified response - "Low Tech Solution"

   The first assignment that I recieved in the OBDF 110 course was to watch the documentary Objectified by Gary Hustwit.

   This morning, I sat in my chair in front of my computer, with my hot chocolate in front of me and my notebook on my lap, ready to stay in one place for an hour and 15 minutes. Not even 10 minutes into the documentary, I found my mind wandering about all of the things I use every day that I never thought were specifically "designed"

   One of the concepts described in this documentary that really resonated with me, was that an every day object that is well designed, shouldn't seem like it was even designed at all -or as the experts call it,"simplicity".

   Although, at least to me, removing elements of a design is a daunting task, this type of editing is useful to get rid of any unnecessary elements, make the object more user friendly, lower the cost of the design and, typically, make the design more aesthetically pleasing.

   This concept inspired me to re-create one of the most useful things I own that I rarely look at twice. This rubber door-stop that I have created is only useful because of its shape. Its pointed end acts as a wedge between the door and the door frame,  and the circular end acts as an extra constraint, keeping the door in place so there is less chance of the wedge falling out of place.

   In my efforts to look at this object through the eyes of a designer, I found that this simple object is actually quite complex, in that it was well thought out and kept a door open while saving me from stubbing my toe on more traditional door-stops.