Week1

Brainstorming

This week I started with brainstorming, then I tried to focus on 2 themes: Nature and Traditional Culture.

Idea1:Nature

The first scene I thought of for nature is the ocean, so I used fish as my inspiration, and would like to use the fish scale as my basic pattern.

Idea2:Traditional Culture

Since the Chinese Lunar New Year is coming up, it’ll be cool to use some Chinese elements to design. So I thought Chinese Knot could also be an alternative. As the Chinese knot pattern is more parametric, it’ll be easier to create different shapes.

Then I decided to prototype the Chinese knot first to see how it went.

Sketching

Here are my simple sketchings for different ideas. I found that the fish scale would be harder to press-fit horizontally. Comparing to the scale, the knot seemed more reasonable.

Prototyping

I started by creating the central square, which defines the basic shape of the knot. I created 4 smaller squares by offsetting them. It took me a lotta time to adjust their positions. Cleaned up the useless lines in the design. Then I used the “Create overall slot” function to create outside of the knot. To keep the design consistent, it’s better to use mirroring to create slots for the other side. Offset the slots to create the width of the string. Cleaned up the lines and I got the first draft of my Chinese knot.

Improvement

I found that the pattern was not perfectly symmetrical, so I deleted half of it. I created a slot to make it modular and mirrored the half of the pattern. To make a complete lock, I created the arrow on the other side which allows components to be connected.

The patterns are ready to be printed now!