Shoyū

The exercise began with the selection of an action word. This chosen word was then studied and understood. The brief was to develop a product that could be operated by hand. The product was developed by deriving from the chosen action word. Propping was the word chosen for this exercise.

Objective:

To develop a deeper understanding of form and use it to solve mundane day-to-day problem

Project Duration:

four weeks

Understanding the Word

Propping was the word chosen for this exercise. The word is defined as supporting or keeping in position. In a physical context, it means supporting something physically, often by leaning it against something else or putting something under it.

This brief deals with a common problem faced in offices. A large number of stationary which exist on an office table are largely used for holding or keeping paper together. It is often viewed to be chaotic and hard to manage. A large number of basic office stationary are not effective or efficient. The brief tries to create flexible stationary which could have multiple uses to reduce the number of stationary one needs to have.

Understanding Mechanism

A simple adjustment to a few existing stationary may reduce the load off the stationary front and may bring up an elegant solution. The product/contraption must be able to hold the paper together but at the same time, must not damage the paper. It must exert sufficient clamping force to prop paper together while allowing free turning of paper.

Pen caps have a clip-like form which is used to hold it on the shirt pockets. However, on close observation, we can see that these pens are also kept on the edge of a bunch of paper or the spiral of the spiral binding. It is a subconscious behavior that people do to store the pen somewhere within hand's reach.

Prototyping

The next step was prototyping. 3D printing of the redesigned pen caps were done using photo-polymer Resin. After this the product was tested for effectivity and one of the designs was chosen to further the iteration.

Product Look

The look of the product was defined by using the context of use of the product. As it is a pen cap, plastic was the preferred material of use. Durability being a key, the design was done in a way to keep in track with these factors.

Identity

The pen cap clip developed was named Shoyū. Shoyū (所有) is a Japanese word which means 'hold'. The name fits the context of the product and gives an identity to its action.

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