Material Matrix and Thumbnail sketches

Our next step was to identify possible sustainable materials, other than ones that first come to mind like wood from a hardware store. The website http://www.ecolect.net has a nice library of materials that range from paints to wood alternatives. Brian created a matrix of the materials found, providing the descriptions, uses, and where the company headquarters is located.

Link to full matrix: http://www.sendspace.com/file/bjm7gp

We then started to create thumbnail sketches, quickly sketching some ideas of what the fixture may look like and encompass. After showing and explaining the sketches to Richard and Dave, we started identifying ideas that could be explored further. This is only a first round of more sketches to come.

A couple of the ideas that showed some promise were numbers five and eleven on the first page, and some of the forms that were curvy.

The idea would be to have a hand crank powered light that would be wound by people attending the conference. This light would represent the group effort and the community.

For this sketch, the concept is to have each user group and sponsor to be labeled on each ball, that is connected to one another through a matrix of strings. This would help sponsors and user groups have their own place on the fixture while allowing us to have graphic space on the curved surface.

On Monday we will be taking a look inside the Innovation Center and get a feel for what the interior looks like. We will also be continuing to further push present ideas and provide more.

-Angela and Brian