I left out the music streaming and science fiction films ideas as they aren't things that I could get passionate about.
The ideas that appeal to me the most are shoes, an app for alcohol units/calories and the Olympic torch "flame finder" app.
I had a look at the Olympic torch and felt that there wasn't a lot of scope to be creative with it. I would probably need to copy the design so that it is recognisable as the torch. Wouldn't be very interesting.
I also looked into the alcohol unit/calories app and found that there was quite a few out there already. I'd hoped that it was an original idea of mine and one I could develop without being distracted by what has been done already.
So that left shoes. This was my favourite out of the three if I'm honest and could tie in nicely with they idea of a luxury item. I decided to focus on Christian Louboutin shoes, which are very exclusive, expensive, designer shoes. Their clientèle would expect a high quality, luxury item as a freebie. Their clients are generally upper class ladies with a large disposable income. Their shoes are also very popular amongst celebrities. It could be given out at the launch of a new shoe collection or party for clients. It could possibly be included into a "goodie bag" that is given out at A-list launch parties, award shows, fashion shows etc. These bags tend to contain a host of designer products.
I created a mood board to get some ideas about how I can design my USB stick:
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| see http://www.christianlouboutin.com/#/the_collection for more details |
The red sole is the trademark of Christian Louboutin and instantly recognisable as one of his designs. I like the heel design on the champagne image and the use of studs/gems on a couple of the pairs of shoes. I prefer the simple peep toe design and think that black is the most appealing colour - it makes the red sole stand out more.
These are my initial sketches I did of the basic shape:
I then looked at different heel designs:
I like the diamanté detailing and the chrome effect, although I'm not 100% sure it is achievable. The chrome could be difficult to spray on. However, the diamantés could be inlaid into a hole that is cut out on the CNC machine. I'm not sure which design I am going to choose but I think modelling could help give me a better idea of which will look best.
I wanted to give some thought to the side view shape. I don't want it to spoil the overall look of the product but I also don't want to overcomplicate it. I sketched a few ideas but I think that having the traditional flat shape would probably be best as any other shape could interfere with how it plugs into the computer. Although it's a bit boring I think it's better to be safe than sorry. Think I might put a slight slope on it though - higher at the heel and slightly lower at the toe end.
After deciding that this is definitely the design I'm going to use, I drew a simple 3D sketch of how it will look with the lid off. Although I'm not the worlds greatest drawer, I feel that I am improving every time I put pencil to paper. If I look back at the early sketches I did at the start of this module in the beginning of October, I have come on so much.
I am happy with how this sketch has turned out. I haven't added any detail to the heel as I haven't decided on it yet. But I think that a well designed heel will enhance the overall appearance and make it look more exclusive, especially if I use diamantés. I will also incorporate the Christian Louboutin logo, probably on the insole of the shoe.
I've just had another thought that I'm going to consider. As I mentioned in the design specification, losing the lid is a common problem so I thought that maybe attaching the lid to the body of the USB with a thin chain could be an option. I'm going to talk to my tutor to see if this it something that would be easy to do.
