Over the past few days, our focus has been mostly on the project. After discovering that the pomelo material could be molded around objects, we experimented with shaping it into a bowl and creating a larger sheet of pomelo paper. However, we quickly realized that making pomelo paper is quite labor-intensive. This led us to the conclusion that we needed a strong justification for using pomelo paper instead of regular paper—it couldn't simply be a direct substitute. This realization left us a bit stuck, as we struggled to come up with a unique purpose for it. We ended up overcomplicating things, brainstorming ideas around wellness products, intricate lamp designs, and trying to attach additional meaning where there wasn’t any. We even considered shaping the paper into a flower-like form due to its organic texture, but that approach felt limiting and didn’t take us far.
Eventually, we drew inspiration from the fact that pomelo is traditionally given during the Mid-Autumn Festival, a tradition that is slowly fading. This led us to the idea of reimagining the pomelo as a gift for the festival, breathing new life into old customs. The challenge with this, however, was that it didn’t align with the project prompt, which required a product that could sell in U.S. markets. This sparked the idea of blending our earlier wellness concept with the festival tradition. We decided to create a lamp that users could personalize by painting it with naturally-colored essential oils, which would not only emit a pleasant scent but also promote relaxation through the process. Once we had this idea, designing a simple yet elegant lamp shape became much easier, and we felt like we had finally found a direction that could work both culturally and commercially.
One of the days, we had a lecture on the metaverse. While the lecture itself was interesting, I was so exhausted from all the brainstorming the night before, and with the project weighing heavily on my mind, I found it difficult to concentrate. By the time we finished the lecture and grabbed lunch, we couldn’t really start working on our project until mid-afternoon. I felt the same way the following day after another group brainstorming session. We had a fun excursion making matcha and crafting traditional Taiwanese paper ornaments, but the project deadline was still looming over us. Since we left the university for this part of the program and still needed to fit in the critique session, we didn’t start working until around 4 p.m. This led to another late night, as we had to stay up finishing everything. I focused on the presentation while my design classmates handled the lamp construction since they were much more efficient at it than I was. By a certain point, though, my brain just stopped working. I spent about an hour blankly staring at my screen, trying to push through, but getting nowhere. Finally, I decided to take a break and walk around outside, which helped me reset. We managed to complete both the project and the presentation just in time. Honestly, I'm really happy with how it all turned out. The lamp looks amazing, the poster is even better, and I’m proud of all the hard work we put into it. Great work, guys!
No comments:
Post a Comment