Senior Thesis

Senior Thesis:

Our senior show was last week on Main Street. The 18 Industrial Design seniors made posters and models of their final project. We've been working on these projects throughout this semester. It was open to the public all last week. Here are a few shots of it all set up:

We had a cocktail party with an advisory board on Friday night. The advisory board was a bunch of industrial design professionals from across the country who came in to see the work of the first graduating class. We plan on setting this show back up in the armory to display our stuff during graduation. 



This is what my section looked like:

My kayak was 3D printed. I designed this on SolidWorks (CAD) on my computer and then sent it to an engineering lab on campus to have a machine make it for me. It turned out very nicely. I am so happy with it. I kept it gray, but if it was a full model, I would have painted it the color that I intend it to go to market as.

I laser-cut a clear guy with a paddle to scale with the kayak to show how big a person would be next to it. Unfortunately, he fell off of the table right before the cocktail party started. He broke into many pieces. I was pretty upset that that happened, but I did add a mirror to the table so it was easier to see the bottom of the kayak without picking it up. 

  



Here are the renderings of it again:

The cocktail party went very well. I was so happy that my kayak was a hit. Many of the advisory board members talked to me about my design. I've worked so hard on it and I felt a huge sense of accomplishment when I was able to talk about my design with professionals. I could answer any question they had, which was awesome. Here are some extra pictures of the event:

 Me with the Dean of the College of Design

 Libby designed a bottle for the existing brand, Tango, a soda company popular in Europe. 

 Vice President and kayaker (he was excited about my project)

 The girl in the red was a judge for the Merit Awards that I presented for two weeks ago.

 The Dean gave a speech.

 David got an award for creating such a successful program in just three years.

 Amy designed a lighter that is easier to use for people with arthritis or other hand impairments. But it had newly designed safety features so it still prevented children from using it. 

One of my classmates, Derek, is interested in shoe design. He was asked to be in a newscast for Iowa State. Here is the link to his video:

http://www.news.iastate.edu/video/view/id/UAPTS9qthU4



I still have a lot to do. But I only have FOUR days left of classes at Iowa State. Weird. I am designing my process book for my kayak now. Talk to you all later.

My Kayak:

   Sorry I haven't posted lately. I am so busy trying to wrap up my senior thesis. I will set up my senior show this weekend on Main Street. My classmates and I are making posters to showcase our stuff. Some of us will also have 3D models of our designs. I have designed my kayak and rendered it with some computer software. My 3D model is printing right now. When it is finished, I'll have a physical model of my kayak at 1/6 scale of the actual size. I'll post pictures of that model later. I have to keep working now, but here are some of the renderings of my kayak that I have finished:

That's all for now.

Haircut

Haircut:

   I spent a very long time at the salon yesterday. I had an appointment to cut my hair back to being really short. My hair dresser, Doug, really knows a lot about hair and loves having me as a client because I am willing to take risks with my hair unlike a lot of the other old ladies that come in to see him. He suggested I dye my hair a fun color. His two suggestions were "The Little Mermaid Red" or "Platinum Blonde." Bright red is becoming popular and I am not a huge fan of it, so I decided to agree to blonde. Here are a few shots of the process. The first photo isn't the length my hair started, it is a quick cut Doug tried before he cut the rest off. My hair was a little longer than shoulder length when we started:

   I absolutely love how it looks. Devin and Libby and Amy like it a lot. Doug posted pictures he took at the salon to Facebook.
   I can't believe I only have one month left at Iowa State. This month is going to fly by. I have soooo much work left to do. But I will get it done! I am so excited about my kayak senior thesis, but have put that on hold to finish my Merit Presentation that is this Friday. I meet with David tomorrow to go over it and get his suggestions on how to make it better. I don't have any more photos of my project to show just yet. Maybe I'll post my whole presentation when I am done with it.. I don't know. But I need to keep working on school stuff now. 

  Oh, I got an app on my phone to turn people into zombies. Here is what Sammi would look like: