Browsing by Author "Vernon, Mitzi R."
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- Book bag(United States Patent and Trademark Office, 2003-02-04)
- Book bag(United States Patent and Trademark Office, 2004-10-12)A book bag for easy carrying and accessing includes a detachable wallet styled book assembly. The wallet has multiple pages with transparent sleeves so that information can be presented much as a conventional book. This book bag permits a particular subject area to be collated and presented as a book within a book bag. The book does not require removal from the book bag. The detachable wallet can be quickly and conveniently replaced with another so that updating new study material for students or others can be easily performed.
- Defining Sustainability Through Bentwood LaminationTaylor, Christopher Scott (Virginia Tech, 2015-02-05)What does sustainability mean with respect to furniture design and fabrication? How has technology - created and subsequently clouded - opportunities for new thinking? This body of work explores these broader questions and, more specifically, the efficiencies of bending wood. Historical precedents will guide a distillation of established bentwood technologies, which in turn will generate a more sustainable operation. The framework of this operation revolves around a minimalist approach to design coupled with an increased focus on product longevity - the paramount sustainable attribute. Additionally, an investigation of suitable alternatives to the most common - and highly toxic - adhesives is necessary. Beyond secondary research the primary research will utilize small-scale models to minimize material waste while examining the appropriateness of new processes. These studies will emulate the sculptural plywood experiments of Alvar Aalto and Charles and Ray Eames. The final manufacturing process will make use of these study models with the intent of generating a modular system of interchangeable formwork to customize sustainably produced pieces. Final deliverables include the tangible studies along with full-scale designs utilizing modular formwork and a research component documenting the potential for a more comprehensive definition of sustainability with regards to furniture.
- Digital + Physical: Rethinking the PlaygroundTew, Benjamin Montgomery (Virginia Tech, 2008-09-08)The increasing presence of digital play experiences has become an undeniable part of many childrenâ s lives. These digital experiences have begun to rival traditional physical play. Even with the introduction of the Nintendo Wii digital and physical rarely cross paths. This masters thesis investigates the design of a play experience that embraces digital experience through the combination of handheld wireless technology and playground experiences. The combination of these elements aims to create a play experience that provides the physical and imaginative aspects of traditional play while utilizing the personal, communication, social, competitive, and graphical informational properties of wireless handheld devices. This thesis documents the research, conceptualization and final development of the Funky Bars and Whirly Bird playground pieces.
- The Reconciliation of Art + SciMitchell, Gregory Condy (Virginia Tech, 2012-05-01)In current higher education paradigms, art and science are often siloed fields rather than subjects that inform each other. This dichotomy or hyper-specialization of art and science in higher education is a result of the industrial revolution with production as the telos. The product of this educational paradigm divorces art and science from each other. But how should we educate students for jobs that don't exist today? What learning environments are most conducive to creativity and innovation? What are the potential benefits of teaching art and science as one? What disciplines would work best together? Are their patterns in ones perception of the relationship between art and science? Are trans-disciplinary learning environments a possibility or an ideal? This thesis investigates the hypothesis that the walls between art and science exist only in our minds. This research consists of 27 one-on-one interviews conducted with students, professors and other higher education affiliates, who visualize the relationship between art and science.) The interviews use everyday objects as prompts to build a baseline to the investigation. The instrument consisted of seven questions that investigated if the use of quotidian, everyday, objects as prompts expose the false dichotomy between art and science. Additionally, the research tries to uncover the possible patterns that exist in how disciplines visualize/diagram the relationship between art and science. Each participant was asked to draw how they view the relationship between art and science. The researcher used these drawings as data points to lead the analysis. The researcher developed a series of field notes (thinking sketches) as interpretations of the themes of the participant's drawings. These thinking sketches were then translated into four thinking prototypes (three-dimensional models) which later inform the development of four simple yet profound findings called quotidian proverbs.
- A Reflection of a RevolutionElzamzamy, Mohamed Mohktar (Virginia Tech, 2014-06-05)This thesis explores form and flow of space through the program of a theatre and gallery. It studies the relation between a building and its surrounding landscape, in order to create public gathering spaces. It also deals with the question of scale and its reflection on how you feel the space. In this project, the building is an extension to the landscape where the ground becomes the roof, and where the boundaries of a space are blurred. The project is also a memorial for the 2011 and 2013 revolutions in Egypt. It is a place of memory but also a space to inspire future generations. In studying the relationship between two elements, model making and sketching were the primary means of generating the form. Then the design was advanced through a series of digital models and hand sketches. My drawings in general are a rational representation of the spaces. It deals with the sense, rather than the material aspect, of the space.
- Revolutionizing The Run: A Wearable Technology StudyLindamood Jr, Stephen Douglas (Virginia Tech, 2014-07-15)Recent advances in technology are reshaping and enhancing the role of the industrial designer. While industrial designers are already trained to be experts in process and possess a wide range of skills, there must be a higher level of fusion between design, science, and technology than ever before. This paradigm presents an opportunity in the emerging field of wearable technology; industrial design, engineering and computer science would be an optimal collaboration for the inevitable increase in mixes of disciplines to address all aspects of a product and its development. By investigating products from companies such as Nike and Adidas, and also by exploring themes of personal augmentation in science fiction, this thesis will explore the conceptualization of a soft, wearable garment system for runners that utilizes developing advancements in technology, apparel and graphical user interface.
- A Teaching Toy: Free Forms in an Abstract LandscapeTankel, Jesslyn Elise (Virginia Tech, 1998-08-04)As a young student, I enjoyed a passion for the studio arts and an interest in art history. I ardently pursued these areas in college, continuing their exploration in graduate school in the field of Industrial Design. For the thesis project, my objective is to foster in children an appreciation for art and, possibly, to help them develop a critical and appreciative eye toward their environment. In my research, I find inspiration in child psychology and the toys of child's play, in 15th-century Islamic art and 20th-century Abstraction, and in naturally occurring events such as ivy twisting up a knotty tree trunk and soft ripples in a pond. The assimilation of these elements, together with the ideas that they generate, evolve into the foundation for my project. My intent is to design a toy which provides children ages six to twelve years with insight into both the world of nature and the realm of art. Further, the toy will heighten each child's visual vocabulary to acknowledge the organic, natural line that exists in nature and which is, perhaps, represented in abstract art. These goals are the guiding principles for my work.
- Transition: a process of beginning and endingPeck, Kimberly A. (Virginia Tech, 1997-03-14)Studying the interaction of people with the objects around them is essential to designers. A designer must study in detail: the hold, the fit in the hand, the effect of movement, the placement, and the juxtaposition and relation of objects to one another. Insight derived from such investigation determines the form given to an object. However, the answer is not a static or rote response to function. The designer searches to balance meaning with practicality, while simultaneously pushing the boundaries of perception to make people reconsider how and why objects exist. Questions of changing social customs, habits, rituals and traditions are explored. The resulting form reflects the manner in which the object is used. Shape is given to ritual. The intent is for design to reflect the order of day to day existence. It is not important whether an object is a recognizable form or whether it looks like its predecessors. However, upon consideration one should realize the form is correct. The object possesses meaning; it is appropriate for its time. The process is on-going, requiring the designer to continually re-evaluate and re-define the human condition by assessing the world we make and how we exist within it. One pursues better ways to facilitate daily life, never becoming complacent with existing products. More acutely, it is requisite for the designer to maintain an ongoing dialogue with their work-an empirical process of evaluating and analyzing past objects in order to make the decisions that allow the beginning of the next.