DC Postcards: The Presentation

After one additional critique with Professor Volchansky, a very informative lesson on glass panes from Professor Ira Shertzer, finally - we were ready to present! We decided to create a presentation board (kudos to Jade!) and Richard put together cards for our audience to convey our vision & message while I worked away at the drafting of our plan, elevation, & section. Continuing with the message of "oneness," we decided to update our tagline to "Send one home!." Send this one postcard that represents this one very special experience from your awesome DC trip home...

Overall, our presentation went very well. We were well-spoken as a group and ensured that everyone had an opportunity to speak. We had carefully thought out our vision and laid it out - and even the points of "contention" - we were able to argue successfully (or at least we thought so). We knew our vision, we knew our creation, and conveyed it.





I believe Jade is hiding behind there somewhere...see our vision summary?! As soon as I find my connector, I'm going to upload the drafted documents as well!

There was one missed opportunity that Professor Anderson brought up; the audience cards could have been printed on our postcard designs. Tis true - it would have been an excellent piece, but after several days of little or no sleep...next time!

Refinement Breeds Cultivation

The next desk crit involved Professors Anderson, Leshinsky, AND Volchansky! Whew - talk about pressure! Overall, they seemed to be content with our progression, but really encouraged us to take it to the next level and to really think about our design decisions. Professor Anderson in particular encouraged us to keep going back to our product and to think of how each decision affects our product mission statement (which at this point is still in development...). At this point we're going for a more modern, sleek, gallery-like element...


We also had our final wood structure and I think that caused some confusion. However, we did receive some comments that spurred some change; particularly about the design of the furniture - Professor Anderson talked about the drawers, the knobs...all of the design choices - no matter how large or small - should fall in line with our product and mission statement. They even talked about the columns of the structure and the "chaotic" approach to the pictures in the plexiglass wall and how it all fit with the whole "sleek, modern" look!

So we removed the drawers from the furniture - easy enough, right? - decided to keep more of a skylight versus the larger area for the roof, and then Richard took the structure home to begin painting it white and putting in the plexiglass.

Once again, Richard, Jade, and I met up to work on the model. It looked great! We started working on the cutouts for the floor - we decided to still use cork; it's organic still, but this will be a "high-traffic" area and its a durable material and won't show off dirt and grime from shoes as much. We also began thinking about how we wanted to arrange photos on the wall. There was some mild contention on the design decisions as one would expect in a group; my suggestion was for us to bring both versions of the floor and the postcard photos. You can't just imagine it - it needs to be visual. Jade's solution was to email Professor Leshinsky (something that came back to bite us later.)

Jade and I decided to take some pictures of model outside to see how it would look in its "element." Boy, was it cold out that day! Our hands were freezing but the photos were well worth it!

But it was THIS photo...

That let us know we were on to something! It reiterated the sleek, modern feel of a gallery - but there was this apparet serenity - Jade called it "oneness." One building, one light, one desk...

Refinement...Continued

Well, Richard, Jade, and I met over the weekend again to develop a new model. We decided to change our dimensions - the constraints were to remain 10x10x12 - we just decided to use our 12" as width to provide additional floor space for tourists to walk through the space more comfortably. We came up with our own spin of projecting the images by including HDTVs.

Professor Anderson had also suggested we begin thinking about how we would attract tourists to the kiosk - yes, a large structure in the middle of the National Mall is eye-catching, but how does it communicate that we are selling postcards? We decided to continue with 1 solid wall, but then the opposite wall will now be plexiglass with some of the postcards visible to the outside in order to attract consumers.

**Though I love being in a photo, Richard doesn't seem to understand a girl needs to fix her hair first! Thanks!

In our next class Yau brought in the wood version of model...our final in-progress. He also brought our proposed display and the cashier's desk.

A Group Effort...Refined

Overall, our first critique went well. I did miss the actual presentation part of it because I was sick as a dog (sinus colds/infections are THE worst!). However, I made it just as Richard, Jade, & Yau were presenting and they did an awesome job in presenting our concept. The feeback from Professor Leshinsky was pretty positive, but I think overall it reiterated the areas we already knew needed work.

As we brought our ideas to the table, Richard presented a logo and a name for our kiosk: DC Postcards! We also came up with a tagline: "Send it home!" The thought behind the tagline is that a tourist would want to send home the experience they had in DC.

We went back to work on developing a new model. The next desk crit provided feed back from Professor Anderson. It got us thinking in a different direction, but I must say, it was a little frustrating. We wanted to continue with the collapsible floor and possibly the organic materials and she pointed out how we should think about it relating to our product. Additionally, we needed to flesh out our environment and how we would display our product.

Initially, our design of the kiosk included a wood frame, collapsible floor, the wall behind the cashier would be solid, and the opposite wall would be made of an organic canvas. But then Professor Anderson suggested we think of projecting the images of our postcards as a way to display them. Agreed, but my frustration arose at the whether the need to be realistic overrode the need to be...creative, for lack of a better word. How would we power something like that? It would be difficult to project onto the canvas wall, so we would have to consider projecting the images on the solid wall - above the cashier's head? Obviously, that wouldn't work but we still needed to think through displaying the postcards, finding a different design for the roof....*sigh*

A Group Effort

In our next assignment (which we hope to be our last, but we know better), we are working in groups from our product categories (Pens & Stationary) and developing a kiosk for our product. In my group, there is myself, Jade, Richard, & Yau. Previously, I worked with stationary; Jade with maps (i.e. stationary); and Richard and Yau had both developed some great products with pens.


We went to work and discussing ideas immediately! We decided to focus on postcards as our product, since it was new for all of us. In order to start getting some work done, we decided to develop 4 postcards each and to come up with some ideas on sketches for our kiosk. Our target market would be DC tourists and each of us had a category for our postcard design within that target market. I had DC-life in the daytime; Richard focused on DC-night life; Jade was focused on family attractions while Yau focused on children.

Since I'm not from DC originally, this was fun. It helped me to find some new spots I'd like to try; including brunch at the Tabard Inn, afternoon tea at Teaism, possibly a "getaway" wedding / elopement at the historic Mayflower Hotel (my Grandmother would kill me!), or lunch at CoCo Sala.

The idea behind my kiosk sketch was a 3-walled construct with 2 full-length wall displays with pockets for postcards. The third wall would provide a space for the cashier. By using a "v-shape", it would allow for tourists to stop a look at postcards with room to manuever. Or so I thought.

Well, my group wasn't so big on my initial idea :) but their critiques were valid. We needed to consider our roof and if placement of this kiosk would be in a high-traffic area, it would definitely need to be more open. Things started to take shape...

We even started working on different ideas for the kiosk displays...

Our initial ideas were to make it make it collapsible and mobile. A stand that a small team of 2-3 people could break down themselves and easily transport. Our initial idea is that this kiosk would be set up in a Metro station, but we wanted a type of roof that would allow a lot of light in, especially if we decided to go outdoors.

On Sunday; Richard, Jade, & me met to put together our first model. Interesting, huh? It's a tad awkward, but the great thing about it is it's really started to help us think through sizes a measurements, the spacing we would need for a cashier, and for multiple people to pass through the kiosk. We also realized we wanted to incorporate "organic" materials like cork on the wood displays and focus more on being outside, like on the National Mall.

Something Interesting...

In my Drafting course, we were asked to find 50 "Architectural / Design" style images that we liked. One of my new favorite architects is Zaha Hadid. Here she is in a 2008 interview with Charlie Rose, along with the 2008 Pritzker Prize winner Renzo Piano, and Jean Nouvel, and Frank Gehry! AWESOME interview!

Display: TKO (i.e. The Final Product)

Finally - it is finished! Granted, after pulling an all-nighter on this one, I felt like I was the one that had received the TKO! Though there were still a few things that I would have like to have addressed, I was actually pleased with the final product.

As far as my critique, it went pretty well; the comments were positive regarding my precision and craftwork.


One of the improvements I included in this project made upon the Packaging & Modeling...the Finale design, was to also create interior boxes. The intent behind this addition to the design is to prevent the cards from spilling or shuffling about when the display is moved. It also adds protection for the cards when a customer pulls out the drawer to retrieve a set.


I was able to achieve my goals in creating a 360-degree display that spins! I was able to create a "spinning tower" by fashioning a cross stich hoop into a "Lazy Susan." Additionally, I created tiers in-between the boxes by using plastic bobbin pins. Both the hoop and pins were spray-painted a matted silver to complement the frost gold Canford paper. The tiers added height, but also an improved aesthetic design.

All in all, I am quite pleased with my handiwork. Thanks for the photo, Cassy! :)

Display: The Final Stretch...

So despite my fears, Tuesday's desk crit went pretty well. I felt WAY off base, but I suppose it's coming together. I came up with a final sketch - after revisiting the tower-drawer concept. Four drawers will give the desired 3-D display and I was still toying with the idea of whether or not I needed something between the levels (I think, yes).

Just think it looks better with separation between each box. My model (as Professor Lechinsky pointed out) was 3x3x1 which is a half-scale of the full 6x6x2 scale I will produce.

Each drawer will open and contain a set of stationary. Professor Lechinsky suggested making the drawers into containers themselves, which a customer could take with them. For display purposes, I think they best serve as storage. For example, a customer has already purchased a card set contained in the package previously designed and they would like a refill - they would pull from this display:

The final materials will consist of museum board covered in the frosted gold Canford paper. The inside boxes I hope to cover with photos from the Branding project - we'll see how that goes...

Display: Second Round

At this point, I really do feel like I am in a boxing ring with this project - and it's winning! Argh! I am totally mentally exhausted and OVER this project! Seriously!

Now that I am done with my venting, let's get back to the project. Following the last desk crit, I thought how to scale down the size and more interactive. My inspiration was a treasure chest. My vision included a box that would gold like the previous project and as it was spun, each little window could be latch-opened and would reveal a photo, or memory, of why a customer would need multiple Thank You cards. The cards themselves would be stored inside.

From Professor Lechinsky's perspective, I was re-creating the package and seemed to be getting too far away from the product and focusing too much on the photos. So I spent much of the week frustrated. I started looking at wood and spent a couple of hours in Plaza Art bouncing ideas in creating a display stand; I thought the cards and photos could alternate on this helix-shaped stand...just couldn't quite get it to come together. So back to the box...

I started thinking I could reintroduce the drawer concept. Create it at a scale that would allow me to store 2-3 drawers...

From there, instead of windows, the photos would be visible on all sides...

Professor Lechinsky suggested that I might cover the box in the photos to incorporate them, but said to focus on the drawers - try to meld the tower idea with this one. At this point, I'm sick of models. But I've got to figure it out for Tuesday...we have to have an idea in our sketch book as well as model to scale.