Title: Smart Dog Bowl
Medium: Cardboard and Hot-Glue
Size: 8.5 inches
Completed: December 22, 2021
Expedition Text: A smart dog bowl, perfect for mixing medicine into your dogs food. Its a convenient device that'll make sure your animal gets the proper care. I wanted to make a simple design that won't look out of place in your home but also guarantee that your pet will be feed and taken care of. My inspiration was the simplistic design of many smart dog bowls in the market that offer a lot of help to pet owners who struggle in taking care of their animals.
Medium: Cardboard and Hot-Glue
Size: 8.5 inches
Completed: December 22, 2021
Expedition Text: A smart dog bowl, perfect for mixing medicine into your dogs food. Its a convenient device that'll make sure your animal gets the proper care. I wanted to make a simple design that won't look out of place in your home but also guarantee that your pet will be feed and taken care of. My inspiration was the simplistic design of many smart dog bowls in the market that offer a lot of help to pet owners who struggle in taking care of their animals.
Activities:
For the first initial classes we started off my getting our brains to work. Starting of with fun drawings, in which animals were put in absurd and unusual situations. This allowed us to be creative and think outside the box while also having fun. I wasn't able to take pictures of them, so here are replicas of what I could remember. Keep in mind, these were done in under 10 minutes, as the point of the activity was to be creative.
After this activity, we had to now think, and write down things our pets do that we think they need help on to improve their living style. Then we had to go home and find things our pets do, from what we see, hear, feel, and smell. This involved getting our parents/sibling, etc in on the project, as we also had to go ask what they had seen. What came from it was quite interesting as everyone had different observations of our pets.
We also did a small storyboard, a made up story of 2 objects we saw in the classroom. Me and my classmate picked out a creepy doll with a skeleton and batman. Our story consisted of the little sketleton wanting to be freed from the hands of the doll, he called and called for help to batman, but he never seem to come.
Ideas:
I want my ideas to revolve around dog bowls. The reason for this is because my dogs are quite sensitive to foods, and my mom has to manually mix the medicine in their food whenever they get allergic reactions, and it can be a hassle since they someone find a way to separate the medicine from the food. Therefore I wanted a dog bowl in which could crush up the medicine into fine powder and mix it into the food with the click of a button. I had in mine a coffee machine for this as it has similar mechanics.
Third Idea:
I honestly did not like this idea at first, since I felt like my first idea was better, but the more I added to it the more I liked it. I began writing notes for each of its components and even design it a little more. I added the buttons in the middle later on, and then decided it'll be nice if the buttons made a small face, more as a unique touch to a simple design.
Prototype:
For my prototype, I generally just wanted to see how the shape would work, and if I needed to make modifications. I liked the shape of it, however this is when I realized I wanted to also building the components inside the product, To make the showcase at MIAD more interesting. However, the material I used was really hard to work with, and I was planning to use this same material for my end product, but due to how hard it was to cut, I decided to not use this for my final product.
|
Building Process:
First, I had to think about what materials I wanted to use for my project, here is a list the materials I was debating on:
- Styrofoam
- Cardboard
- Wood
- Clay
In the end I went ahead and used cardboard as it was the material I had most of. I was going to do it out of wood, however, I don't know how to work with it therefore decided on cardboard in the end. For the process and found a bowl that was bigger than my dogs bowl. Then I used it as a guide to make 4 circles. I took one of the circles and used it as a base, and build a wall around it. The circle was about 8.5 inches, the reason is due to the fact that I wanted to make somewhat of a close match to what the actual product will look like, based on height and width.
|
Inspiration and Critique:
Most dog bowls I saw had very simplistic designs and I liked that, therefore made mine simplistic looking as well. If we notice, these two dog bows have cameras that work with their program, a very big difference from mine as i did not add that onto my product as it wasn't a necessity for what I was going for.
Reflection:
This project was most stressful for me as I was trying very hard to create something new. However, sometimes new things cant be made however you can improve and fix things that already exist. With this approach in mind, the project became less stressful, I still had a hard time making a product, and figuring out how it'll make it. The process of building the object was fun but ended up with many burns from the hot glue. Overall, I liked the design of my project, but I am not sure if I like the execution of the actual thing. I definitely come back to this project in a couple days, to fix it and make it better before the MIAD presentation, I will be also doing some small design changes. Throughout my project, I was stressing out over the fact that my design was very simple, and I had to keep reminding myself that based on my inspiration, this is the approach I wanted to take with it. I feel as though I am trying really hard to make my product stand out, but that not really what I want, especially for something that is meant to be put in a house and fit right in. I learned how to think outside the box, as well as think not only about a design, but how the design will benefit people and how its going to work, focusing on the components it'll need to do its job.
Connections to ACT:
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
I wanted a product that not only looks nice, but also makes sure my pet is well fed, I think the difference between my inspiration is that they made this product thinking about how it will help multiple people, I mostly focused on it helping my mom.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Their goal is for a simple, yet nice looking product that can fit right into your home without looking out of place. As well as an easier way to take care of your pets diet and well-being.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Many people need products like this because they can't always be home to feed their pets, these products make it easier for said people to travel and be away from home without having to worry that they pet is not being taken care of.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My big inspiration for this piece was my dog and my mom. My dog because he always gets rashes, and gets sick so we have to give him medicine, however the only way to give him this medicine is if we crush it so he doesn't spit it out. My nest inspiration is my mom because, she has trouble crushing the medicine due to a disease she has that affects her hands if she puts too much pressure into them, making a device like this much easier for her.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
There are a lot of things to think about when making a product, who you will cater to, who it'll benefit and making sure it does work, a lot of passion has to go into this.
Citations (MLA FORMAT)
“Dogness 6 L App Feeder in Black-843775108652.” The Home Depot, https://www.homedepot.com/p/6-l-App-Feeder-in-Black-843775108652/317278442?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US.
“Dogness APPFEEDBLK 6L App Automatic Pet Feeder - Black, 1.” Kroger, https://www.kroger.com/p/dogness-appfeedblk-6l-app-automatic-pet-feeder-black/0084377510865.
“4.5L Smart Automatic Pet Feeder W/ Camera, App, Portion Control, 2-Way Audio.” Best Choice Products, https://bestchoiceproducts.com/products/automatic-4-5l-smart-pet-feeder-w-camera-app-portion-control-2-way-mic.