Industrial designer with several years of experience in the
tool industry, consumer products, design leadership, and corporate branding strategy.
Passionate about user-centric processes and creating satisfying solutions.
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Design
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Over the Rocks
A two-week design sprint in partnership with the RIT Vignelli Center for Design Studies and the Corning Museum of Glass honoring the Vignelli design ethos.
materials & processes, design sprint
“It is through the choice of materials and their finishes that we articulate the shape of an object to express its content, to celebrate its appropriateness, to reveal its soul.
Texture and color in a mutually supporting dialogue define any creative artifact - anything waiting for us to decode its inner secrets and thereby enrich our perception and transfer it to whatever we chose.”
-- Massimo Vignelli, from the Vignelli Cannon.
Research in the Vignelli Archives
I was struck by the impression that many of the Vignellis’ pieces (such as Hellerware) had relationships with counterparts that fit precisely and gave them satisfying user-interactions.
Something as simple as setting a cup on a saucer was elevated by its precise execution.
I was first inspired by the delicately and precisely scalloped edges of the glassware the Vignellis designed for the Ciga Hotels. Laid out before the glass was a meticulously hand-drawn cross-section of the exact pattern that would be used to create the glass. This transformed an otherwise simple object into something which playfully refracted light.
Ideation
I began with the concept of a pair– a drinking vessel which requires a counterpart, like a champagne bottle might require a bucket of ice.
I thought of various beverages that required some sort of heating or cooling.
I was enamored with the idea of creating a pair of vessels to warm sake, but dismissed it after learning about the delicate nature of soft, non-borosilicate glass.
Instead I focused on a pair that would chill whiskey.
Critique
CAD Mockup
Quick renders helped to visualize the light refraction of texture & liquid
Production -
Jeff Mack, Glass Artist
Using 3D-printed models to explain the concepts to the glassmakers.
To achieve the ribbed texture on the inverted part of the cup, the cup had to be created in two pieces. To created the inverted part, the heated glass was blown into a steel mold to achieve the ribbed texture.
The outer part of the cup was first blown into a bubble then carefully opened up and shaped.
To combine the inner and and outer part of the cup, both pieces had to be heated and then carefully pressed together. This took several attempts before it succeeded.
The seperate vessel which would hold the ice was also blown into the steel mold to and then shaped.
Finishing touches and removal from the punty.
The base of the cup was then cut off to reveal the cavity inside, allowing the cup to be placed onto the ice vessel.
Final Product
The Team of Designers and Glass Artists
Publications
Design x Glass | RIT Vignelli Center – Over the Rocks
https://www.rit.edu/vignellicenter/avril-griessbach