Sunday, March 1, 2009

Bath Chair Final





So the bath chair is finally done..  The project was to redesign the ugly Lumex chair, which has existed sans-update since the 80's and make it both more beautiful, and more functional.  

The project was very open ended and was given to all of Pratt's students in the Junior 3-D
 classes.  We started making 3-D sketches that were supposed to convey the motion of rising and falling.. that was it.  Our sketches were displayed and the 16 best people were chosen to continue the project.  I was lucky enough to be selected and I continued on.

I had no idea how taxing this project was going to be on top of school, 2 jobs, and 1 internship.  The people kept getting narrowed down further and further until I was one of 5 students left.

My focus on this project was to take a product that was sterile, necessary, mechanical, and ugly, and turn it into a thing of beauty that not only would function better, and more comfortably as a chair, but would become an object of desire for it's sitters.  I wanted whoever needed this item, due to either disability or old age, to be able to walk into their bathrooms and be proud of the beautiful piece of furniture they were about to use that could assist them in their shower and help them regain an independence they may not have had before.

Simply put I wanted to take a symbol of being disabled and flip it around, into a symbol of pride, and happiness.