Separation Gate
24 x 32 in December 2021 this product prototype was an innovated idea that came from two different inspirations. these inspirations helped determine the model, materials, and overall look and style to the final prototype. creating this product provided me with new technical and industry skills. this project revolved closely around industrial design, allowing for new skills and techniques to be learned from a new and different way of planning and thinking. |
INSPIRATION
as an inspirational model, i looked into baby gate designs. i came upon the Qdos Crystal Clear Acrylic Gate. what stood out to me about this specific design was an aesthetically pleasing addition to a doorway or hallway. this feature was what i wanted to add to my own product. this was a modern style baby gate that is pressure mounted to the wall with a push to close functionality. this design has no gaps from the floor to the gate but does has wide gaps in between the frame and the actual door. instead of the clear door of this gate hinging from the sides or the frame, similar to most gates, the clear acrylic is connected to the bottom of the frame, spinning from a cylinder turning point. this keeps the entire gate staying looking modern and sleek. the clear door helps keep the flow and light of the room or hallway. this design is also like by many Qdos customers because there is no need to nail or screw anything into the way like many baby gates require. this is a helpful feature because customers' walls are not ruined with this product. along with this, the gate is easily moved because there is no difficult instillation necessary to station it in a customer's house. |
a very special guest was able to come to my class and present this industrial design project to us. He is apart of the Industrial Designers Society of America and works with GE medical. He has designed products in all of the this companies businesses. he is a true inspiration in the industrial designing field. he was able to inspire me through his process. his process is first being empathetic to what you are considering designing, then he had me sketch out a colorful mind map to keep ideas flowing. after this he has us sketch quick sketches to just quickly think up ideas. he is a creative and imaginative man. these qualities i strive for as an artist and truly am inspired by such a skilled industrial designer especially when designing a industrial design for this project. he was able to help me formulate ideas that i used for my project as well helped me brainstorm how to solve a problem which led me to create my separation gate.
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1. In the first sketchbook sketch of my planning i dedicated it to a non transparent or see through door compared to a gate. Along with this, the door is connected to the wall, latching to a thin strip connected to the wall. Along with this, a thick but short latch connected to this strip prevents animals from being able to unlatch. I added that on top the top of the door has a curved slippery material to prevent animals from getting over. I also added that there was a slight gap between the floor and the door to prevent from floor being scratched or affected in anyway. ADVANTAGES: Animals cannot see through. Slippery top attempts to prevent animals from jumping over or using as leverage. Does not scratch floor. No gap between wall and door. DISADVANTAGES: Blocks off the flow of a room/hallway. The slippery curved top would not be enough to prevent animals from getting over. Possibly ruin wall from being connected straight to the wall. There is nothing special with the latch. |
2. My second planning sketch has a more detailed plan for the latch. This idea has gaps making it more fence like, with horizontal wooden strips. It specifies it having three separate hinges with a similar slippery top ADVANTAGES: A horizontally longer and vertically deeper latch makes it almost impossible for an animal to unlatch it. A thicker wall connector allows for the latch to hold more of the door and none of the wall, allowing it to be more effective. The strips of wood with gaps in between allows for more air flow in a room or hallway. DISADVANTAGES: wooden strips may be visually unaesthetic. may be harmful to give dog and cat areas to touch. gives cat something to climb: resembles a ladder which means that the slippery top would do nothing to prevent the cat from getting over, defeating the purpose of the top. |
3. the third planing sketch was a very similar design to the second one except for instead of wooden strips, there would be a window in the center. the latch concept from the second design was directly taken as well as the three separate hinges and thicker wall connector. this is inspired from the Crystal Clear Acrylic Gate. ADVANTAGES: does not mess up the flow or lighting of a room or hallway. A horizontally longer and vertically deeper latch makes it almost impossible for an animal to unlatch it. A thicker wall connector allows for the latch to hold more of the door and none of the wall, allowing it to be more effective. the glass window also allows the animals to know of the coexisting with each other which could help them get along better later on. DISADVANTAGES: the window would have to be regularly cleaned to remain the flow or lighting of a room. the window could be harmful for certain animals' relationships because they knowledge of their coexisting could be detrimental. |
PROCESS
in my process, i started out with experimenting with pink foam and a thick saw as a cutting tool. I measured out an outline with a ruler, marking 2 inches from the edges all around the rectangular foam, on both sides. using the saw, i began cutting the center of the foam out by first puncturing a point on my marked outline and went from there. I cut all the way around on one side, however, because the foam was very thick and my cutting tool was not very sharp, I turned the foam around to cut on the measured out marked outline on the opposite side, also making sure that the cut went straight through as was not crooked. I had difficulties using this mini saw. i realized partly through this process that this experimentation was not going to work for my final product. i either was going to need a different cutting material or use a different material for the frame, something other than pink foam. I still continued on with this experiment, wanting to gain more skills and experience on how i would go about this with different material types. during this experimentation process, I has already decided that i would need to use a new material, however, i was still planning on making my final product under the same concept as this experimentation was following. |
in the first picture on the right, it is shown how horrendous this cutting tool cut the pink foam. it make a mess and ultimately turned out to be impossible to make the frame smooth. I wanted to be able to make this prototype realistic and a realistic product would not look as rough or uneven. i cut the frame in half to make two separate frames. this cut was very rough and not smooth as well. i continued with my original idea for this experimentation by adding the plastic or saran wrap in between the frames and then putting them back together. again, this process with this material did not turn out looking right or good. i did not glue or connect the frames back together because both sides did not fit back together based on the horrendous cut. the second picture on the left shows how uneven the two halves fit together with the saran wrap in between the. because of this step in the process, i was able to eliminate this material from the making of my prototype of my innovation.
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the next step in my process, after deciding against the pink foam, i went back to planning out a new idea. by coming upon the idea of wood. in the picture to the left, the wooden strips were then cut with a electric saw to my desired height, based on my planning. i had two 3/4x1x8 foot wooden strips and i cut each one into four 3/4x1x2 foot strips so that i would have 8 in the end. an issue i ran into was that it was difficult for me to make sure that each strip was exactly 2 feet. this was because i had difficulties using the electric saw. i had never worked with this tool before which is why using this material added a new skill to my abilities. i have never necessarily made many sculptures or anything to do with industrial design either which is why this project enticed me so much. to overcome this issue, i found the shortest strip and marked the others at the same height. i re-cut the others to be the same shorter height and, because of the saw i was using, i ended up having to deal with slightly uneven or not straight strips. they were similar enough that i knew that it would work. the 3/4x1x2 foot wooden strips were planned to be used for the frame of the door. i planned to have the frame doubled so that the plastic wrap could go in between. after these strips were measured and sawed to the acceptable height, i began building the frame with glue. before beginning the gluing phase in my process, i cut the other size of wooden strips which are also seen in the pile in the picture on the left. these are thicker strips measured out to be 1.5x3.5x8 feet long. i had one of these strips and measured and then cut into two 1.5x3.5x2 strips. i had planned to use these for my wall connectors as well as the latch and hinge connectors.
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once the sawing step in my process was completed or done as well as i was able to with my abilities and tools, i moved onto the first part of my gluing step. i originally planned to used clamps to connect the sides of the fram together, however, the process including the clamps was too difficult for me to complete on my own. instead of using the clamps, i improvised as decided to use water weight to weigh down the strips glued together, leaving them long enough to dry. this step was a very difficult process. i ran into many issues, including the fact that the strips were not cut straight or equal enough for me to simply just connect them together from end to end. instead, i decided to glue them on top of each other, having two lay on top of the other two. the other main issue i ran into was making sure the strips were lined up correctly so that it would be a square. this took a lot of trial and error ad a lot of measurements to make sure that a square was achieved. i glued together four of the strips to make the first frame and soon after glued the remaining four strip to create the doubled frame.
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the next step in my process was to add the plastic wrap to represent the clear acrylic. i did this by stapling the plastic wrap to one of the wooden frames, shown on the left. this step went successfully with no issues. i moved to the next step which was gluing the two frames together, shown on the right. for this step, i used the clamps so that there was a great pressure applied because the wood was slightly warped. |
CRITIQUE
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SIMILARITIES:
both of these were designed to maintain the flow and lighting of a room or hallway with the clear door. these two products are also both pressure mounted to the wall. they both also have a strop of material on the bottom of the gate to prevent the swing from scratching or touching the floor. DIFFERENCES: where the Qdos baby gate is made out of metal material, my own prototype separation gate is made out of wood. instead of having top and bottom cylinder hinges, i used door hinges for the convenience, accessibility, and aesthetic. |
REFLECTION
reflecting back on this design, there were many issues that i had to resolve which resulted in having to redo the entire planning phase, change entire design, and even having to find new inspiration. i believe that if i had possibly planned out my idea better or been more skilled in this medium, i would have not had to deal with as many problems during my process. if i had made my idea according to the material tools that were available to me my process may have gone smoother. along with my process, i had issues researching inspiration. i had a very set idea before finding inspiration. i believe that if i had found inspiration before making my whole plan and coming up with an entire idea i would not have had to completely change my idea in the end. however many problems that occurred during this project, it was an enjoyable and useful product to create. i am very interested in sculpting or building in this manner and now i know what to do better in the future and how to overcome problems that i had to deal with during this specific project. overall, i feel that i was successful in this project and was able to acquire useful new skills.
reflecting back on this design, there were many issues that i had to resolve which resulted in having to redo the entire planning phase, change entire design, and even having to find new inspiration. i believe that if i had possibly planned out my idea better or been more skilled in this medium, i would have not had to deal with as many problems during my process. if i had made my idea according to the material tools that were available to me my process may have gone smoother. along with my process, i had issues researching inspiration. i had a very set idea before finding inspiration. i believe that if i had found inspiration before making my whole plan and coming up with an entire idea i would not have had to completely change my idea in the end. however many problems that occurred during this project, it was an enjoyable and useful product to create. i am very interested in sculpting or building in this manner and now i know what to do better in the future and how to overcome problems that i had to deal with during this specific project. overall, i feel that i was successful in this project and was able to acquire useful new skills.
CONNECTION TO THE ACT
1. Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration upon your artwork
the cause and effect relationship between my inspiration and my final product is shorty identified through my critique. i demonstrate the similarities that are seen in the work such as the clear aspect of both gates. this is the main feature and unique aspect in my product that differs from other products. along with this, a direct cause and effect seen between the inspiration and final product is the way in which it is mounted on the wall. instead of being nailed or screwed into the wall, it is pressure mounted onto the wall or door frame. this eliminates damage and increases the ability to move easily.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
the purpose of the many unique feature in the Qdos baby gate is to achieve the tagline that "baby proofing does not have to be ugly". their goal is to make a modern baby gate that blends into the rest of the house.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration
a broad generalization is that people are more likely to buy a needed product for their house if it blends in with the aesthetic of their house. based on my research for inspirations i discovered that the Qdos gate had better reviews than the gates that were not aesthetically pleasing and were an "eyesore".
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspiration research?
i wanted to find a sleek and seamless addition to a house that would be similar to my idea of a separation gate. there are no in-house gates to separate animals, however, baby gates hold a similar concept. this is the central idea or theme around my research to find an inspiration.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the bases of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
even in products used around individual's houses, the elements and principles of design are used as a major influenced. the lines used in different baby gates are designed for structure and to achieve the purpose of the gate. this is the main use of the elements and principles of design in the products i researched.
1. Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration upon your artwork
the cause and effect relationship between my inspiration and my final product is shorty identified through my critique. i demonstrate the similarities that are seen in the work such as the clear aspect of both gates. this is the main feature and unique aspect in my product that differs from other products. along with this, a direct cause and effect seen between the inspiration and final product is the way in which it is mounted on the wall. instead of being nailed or screwed into the wall, it is pressure mounted onto the wall or door frame. this eliminates damage and increases the ability to move easily.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
the purpose of the many unique feature in the Qdos baby gate is to achieve the tagline that "baby proofing does not have to be ugly". their goal is to make a modern baby gate that blends into the rest of the house.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration
a broad generalization is that people are more likely to buy a needed product for their house if it blends in with the aesthetic of their house. based on my research for inspirations i discovered that the Qdos gate had better reviews than the gates that were not aesthetically pleasing and were an "eyesore".
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspiration research?
i wanted to find a sleek and seamless addition to a house that would be similar to my idea of a separation gate. there are no in-house gates to separate animals, however, baby gates hold a similar concept. this is the central idea or theme around my research to find an inspiration.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the bases of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
even in products used around individual's houses, the elements and principles of design are used as a major influenced. the lines used in different baby gates are designed for structure and to achieve the purpose of the gate. this is the main use of the elements and principles of design in the products i researched.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Lawrence Murphy, IDSA.” IDSA, 22 Mar. 2017, www.idsa.org/lawrence-%E2%80%9Cmurf%E2%80%9D-murphy-idsa.
“Lawrence Murphy, IDSA.” IDSA, 22 Mar. 2017, www.idsa.org/lawrence-%E2%80%9Cmurf%E2%80%9D-murphy-idsa.