Thursday, July 5, 2012

New Design

We have been working on finalizing the Industries of The Blind design and are looking for some feedback so feel free to leave a comment with your option on the design.

The main concept behind the new design is using the vertical ribs to define spaces and create a place to share the history of the IOB. The system utilizes the three hallways to present visitors with the history of the products, people and stories. We chose to space the ribs on the display walls to standard paper sizes so it would be easily interchangeable as the company grows and develops new products they want to share with visitors. The system also acts as a wayfinding device with larger ribs placed in key areas defining the "special" places within the building. The ribs are only located on one wall commonly the right wall in each space because in some visual disabilities contrasting colors and surfaces help while in other types contrast strains their eyes creating a unpleasant environment. Since the design is only on the right wall those who need the contrast will benefit while the others will be able to focus on the less contrasting wall, this creates a specialized space for both types of visual disabilities.
We viewed the conference room as the center of the company and wove the vertical ribs together on the ceiling which created a zone over the table used for meetings. Between the ribs we added writable and tackable surfaces for brainstorming and presentation displays to make meetings more efficient and involved. There was also a need for a side table for food during meetings but needed to be stored when not in use, to solve this issue there is a table attached to the wall below one of the tackable surfaces and folds down to be stored under the display area. Overall we focused on displaying the history of the Industries of the Blind  and employees as well as creating multifunctional displays used to create a experience for all who view it.

Below are a few images to give you a better sense of the design. 




Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Texture, Color, Light

 The focus of our design efforts is focused on the idea of texture and how color and light play with the experiences of the design. One of the main things we took into consideration is making the system easy to fabricate so the IOB can easily install it into the space. 





Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Recognition and Support of the IOB Design Project

There are many things we have acomplished through this design project some of which is being aproved for continued work as an Undergraduate Research Project. Through this we are continuing to work with the Industries of the Blind on finalizing and fabricating a design for their lobby, stairwell and circulation spaces, conference room, and factory floor spaces. This design will display the history of the IOB as well as displaying the family environment of their company.  Another accomplishment of this project is being featured in the Chancellor's report for 2011-2012 along with being apart of the "Do Something Bigger" campaign.

http://chancellor.uncg.edu/chancellor_report/2012/

http://ure.uncg.edu/prod/inspirechange/2012/01/04/helping-us-see-the-blind/

Spring Independent Project

For the spring 2012 semester Anuj Patel and I ,Kristy Stroud, furthered our work with the Industries of the Blind. We took a few steps back and revisited our past work to create a stronger concept and design direction. Along with working on designing the lobby space we worked with the IOB to create an instillation to display our previous work for the employees and visitors to see. The instillation served as a way to show off our work and gain feedback from the IOB about the design.