Designing the Absurd

Project # 2

Made with Shirley Wu, with help from her husband Alex.

I really came into my own with fabrication for this project. I went from general discomfort in the shop to feeling comfortable with picking up and experimenting with the tools. Not that I know what all the tools do, but I won’t hesitate to poke around and try things out. I also went from strangers with the Dremmel to best friends. The Dremmel has changed my life and I pledge my undying loyalty to it. Anyways…

The remote control housing is something like what is pictured on the right: A little floating LED bath toy. We gutted it and Shirley managed to use the battery holders already equipped in the toy to power our remote. It already had a strong suction cup on the back, so it worked great to stick on the wall next to the toilet.

The body is made out of cat toys. Mouse on a spring not pictured.

Looking at the prototype I imagined two possible designs that would make the DoorLock cute and communicate what it does. This was an experiment in merging my maximalist style with good design, because I don’t believe good design has to be minimalist.

The two ideas I came up with was to use and exclamation mark motif or a key motif, both incorporating the nice rounded shape of the bath toy as the remote.

Prototype with slot at top for flag to pop out of, and niche for the remote to rest in.

Adding exclamation mark motif to prototype.

Unsure of how to proceed, I went to the Junk Shelf to see if it would show me the way.

My ode to the junk shelf

On this particular day, the junk shelf provided inspiration in the form of a clock.

If you look closely at the clock on the left you’ll see a small window for the day and the date. I found a disassembled clock that had the same feature, which is essentially a wheel with the numbers 1-31 on it. I decided to use the date wheel to create a padlock aesthetic in the design.