DCG Student Assignment 2014

Know what I'm doing for the concept design so far, still haven't decided on a bottle to remake, awful project to say to least!

I meant for the first bottle, find one on the internet to re-do on solidworks? Model it off that.

Haha I know, I did the lectern last year I'm repeating! I made a little water bottle last year as part of my concept design, just drew half it and use revolve boss base I think, then shelled it and coloured it clear and stuck a colour for the cap, very very very basic took no more than 10 mins!

I loved the one last year, ill try find my memory stick and post a pic of my concept, was very proud of my idea Yeah if ya could pull that off it'd be impressive Doin the bottle is fairly simple like, have to find some way to make it complex!

Haha ya everybody copying eachother!

Solidworks..... ugh

I have most of my output 1 draught finished and I began modelling my bottle yesterday. I think the reusable water bottle idea isn't the worst thing they could have given us. Our school bought water bottles for us as there is only 4 higher level students in my class so we bought ones with filters in them (they made up 5 parts) and they are actually pretty complex designs. It's a pity that we can't do any of it at home because I'd love to just get it finished and concentrate on other subjects.

Welldone Eurovison Mad your lectern was pretty cool. I also did the leaving cert last year and achieved 92% in the project overall. The parts that really let me down were my sketches big time as I achieved full marks in every other section of the project bar the sketches even though I got my girl friend to do these sketches which I taught were class but obviously the wa*ker correcting my script taught not. I myself am back repeating, as I missed out on my course unfortunately. I really did go crazy on the whole solidworks my concept lectern was a briefcase which could fold up and become a lectern it was absolutely horrible over 30 limt mates alone just to solve the rising mechanism as it worked somewhat like a chery picker motion (on brackets). I would have some advise for people tough your first model should be that of a simple (well moderately) bottle but do it accurately and correct, try and aim for minor detail done in anal detail then zoom in on these little finicky bits for your photoview work. Don't worry lads this project is so much more easier compared to that of last years. Best of luck

well lads just found this, i have output 1 done and on compare and contrast now. we have a teacher who is just out of collage so he is only learning as he goes, so dose any one have pics of the layout of output 2 im not really sure what its supposed to look like.

Right lads as far as i can see there is some terrible advice been given in this thread but also some good stuff by eurovisionmad and thebigolefool.

Someone said something about only spending a month or two at it so you dont waste time tweaking things, madness, thats what this project is about, doing things and changing them to make them perfect. Personally i dedicated all my study time between around this time and Christmas solely on this and my construction project, and left proper study for after the DCG deadline. Yes this made for terrible mock results but they count for nothing so don't worry you will have plenty of time for everything else. (Just to clarify here i got an A1 in DCG and an A2 in construction and gained almost a hundred points between mocks and the LC to get me a good bit above 500 which was way more than expected this time last year, so it does work).

On the solidworks side of things, as someone said earlier pick something simple and be anal about the detail (On mine i cut the power symbol into the button and modeled all the pins in any plugs, usbs, jacks etc.) , remember there are frig all marks going for difficulty of your modelling, but you need to show your talent so show off these little details in your presentation. Stay away from curvy surfaces as there an absolute pain to model. There is also absolutely no need to make any fancy moving bits work, as long as you explain the concept in your portfolio, think of this as a pre production design brief your giving to a company who will then deal with how it works, its not your problem so dont get hung up on it.

For presentation powerpoint is perfect, its easy to use and easy to access, if you know how to use it well you can make some pretty effective layouts. While laying out your portfolio, keep it in your head that this is a design project. You need to make yours stand out, pick a colour scheme and stick to it, (I used two, blue for the first part and pink/purple for the second (be bold) but there was a clear and marked transition between the two sections), make sure it has continuity, (i.e. same size font, title in the same place on the page), use a border. One point that really annoyed me with other peoples portfolios was their pictures looked really out of place, I took every single photo i used and brought it into photoshop(use gimp if you dont have access) and made the background white, then gave them all the same frame, this stopped them looking out of place and tied them together aswell as making the whole thing neater.

If i was doing the project this year i would be going down the route of a new design. Someone said this means you have to do some of the project twice, yes but you'll be awarded for that. I honestly dont see how you're going to come up with any improvements drastic enough, (but if you have a really good idea by all means use it) so i would recommend picking a theme, (running, football, nature, driving, cars, picking your nose, whatever your into). Design your bottle based on this theme, I picked the 2012 olympics which was still fresh in my mind at the time, and based it on the already prominent design features in the equipment and signage used (google london 2012 and you'll see that they use "shards" everywhere). This worked for two reasons, 1. It showed i had an interest in design and that i noticed the design cues, 2. It gave me something really solid to work off, I was able to trace the designs for say the logo or podium back to press releases and could discover how they were created then apply the same method to my own design. Also remember that the product should really be useful, so dont let its practicality slip.

Sketches are crucial. I was only alright at sketching as in i could shade but could never get the shapes just right. So i decided to print out pictures and roughly trace the bits of them i was struggling with, then finished and shaded them in by hand. This is one area that will take alot of redoing, if you do one that's half decent but you don't think makes the cut, do it again but keep it incase you cant do any better, i made the mistake of throwing away some of my better pieces. Also don't be afraid to throw in random little sketches to explain ideas, especially in the second part, even if they're a bit crap, Its a handy way of filling space, for example i got a whole second page out of my compare and contrast just by drawing the details of the two pieces.

If you take anything from this post let it be that this is a design project. This means a few things, 1. Your focus should be on the concept of the design not on how it works so to speak, 2. Make it look like you have an interest in design 3. Layout and design related content are way more important than a load of text so dont write things for the sake of writing them, explain and justify your ideas then leave it at that.

After that its up to ye, have fun with your idea while presenting it in the most professional manner possible. I dont envy yer topic, yes its not great but we all thought the same bout our lecturns and secretly i think we all learned to love them.

If ye've any questions or anything pm me or reply. G'luck.

Jesus didn't realise that was such an essay, hopefully someone gets something out of it.