Braggin' 'Bout Buttons

Well I think many of you have been guessing what the heck Industrial Design is all about. No, we don't just do toilet seats. This was what I was up to the past 6 weeks; the biggest project of Sem 1: Year One Design of Control Buttons.

Basically we're supposed to come up with 3 different buttons, be it a press button, a shift or a turn button; or whatever else. And all 3 have to belong to the same family and be made out of the same material.

Here's how the journey has been for me.

Week 1: My concept - Band Aid

My tutors asked me whether I was trying to humour them. God, I was so freaking pissed that day. It wrecked my entire week.

Week 2: I loved this modification of the Band Aid, too bad my tutors didn't. Another week wrecked.

They asked me to do more research on the material and to test out different tactile reactions of buttons. So I did. (The square button you see on top was made out of black foam and a layer of PVC.)

The prototype that got approved. (That was Week 5!! Bloody hell, only one week to finish my final prototype.)

Materials: Leather, MDF wood, Acrylic faceplate.

The key material ......long-lasting yet stylish leather......

.....that I ripped from this ugly handbag. Bought it at a flee market for one buck. Heck yeah!

Now to get started: The wooden base. That's a plain wooden block with laser engravings of my design on it. The acrylic top faceplate was also made the same way. Laser engravers rock!

Oh, that's just how I usually look like when I'm working

So I sandpaper the wood according to my design, using the mean sandpaper machine. Grrrr.....

Once the basic shape is out, I used the miller machine to make depressions on the base to fit the buttons.

Next, I spray-paint the base flat black. (After a whole ton of sandpaper-ing by hand to a plastic-smooth finish, mind you.)

At night its back to more hand-carved depressions for my buttons to function best.

At this point I realised that a plastic top plus leather probably wouldn't go well together. I wanted the top of my base to be made out of a certain type of fabric too; to compliment the leather buttons.

So I went to Chinatown to purchase this heavenly fabric. You guys should see and touch this thing. Ouuuuhhh.....

Spray-mounting the cloth onto my acrylic faceplate. That goes onto the wood; preventing my 3 buttons from falling out.

Once the faceplate is glued firmly onto the base, double-sided tape is used to mount the cloth on the sides.

My super messy room desk that night.

The floor ain't that bad.....

Final touches, sewing the fabric on the corners of the wood base so that the seams are concealed.

Submission Day.

That's my French tutor.
Kept my fingers crossed.

That's how it looked like after six weeks. Haha, quite pretty. **Notice the changes from the start of this assignment.

Positive Comments: It's very sensual; the fabric is very interesting; makes people wanna touch and caress it; blablabla

Negative Comments: I was too high-up on cloud nine that I didn't bother listening.

A very tired but happy me :)