Our first product design exercise concentrated on connecting function with form. We were to choose an operation or an action such as storing, cooking, drink, etc., and develop it further by designing a product related to that action. In order to understand the context of our product, an analysis of questions was provided:

What actions will be performed with the object you are planning to design?

What environment will it be used in?

What sort of interactions will the user be having with this object?.

What other objects are part of the setup?

Who are the primary and secondary users

I decided to direct myself to storage, specifically a marker storage product that can be folded or bent, to take the product on the go. Its main environment would be a desk and its secondary environment would be the outdoors. The product is mobile and tactile as well as visually pleasing as it rest on a surface. The marker storage presents itself to the user. The primary users consist of artists, designers, and students.

After analyzing these questions, I started my ideation on the product. I knew that I wanted to design some type of vessel, whether geometric or organic, so I sketched a wide variety of vessels in different forms, shapes, and sizes.

I then chose one form that I felt fit my product and started creating the sketches and the storyboard for it. My idea was a pentagonal case that can be folded inwards that would then hold markers and pencils, or that it can be unfolded and reveal more storage for markers and pens. The product is tilted towards to the viewer, as it presents itself the markers and the writing utensils they need, rather than making the user search through vigorously.

Before creating the poster, I made a prototype as a physical and visual representation of the marker storage:

After compiling and scanning all of my sketches, it was then time to create the poster as a final presentation of the first product design exercise:

Transitioning from the Plastoform to a product design form exercise helped me understand more about how we apply the different forms that we have learned throughout the semester, in day to day products. The form exercises were the basic building blocks in which we learn how to create actual products.