After a year of research, design and construction, it’s finally time to showcase my work to the wider world. Throughout my planning the one constant was the desire to produce a final product that was both a physical creation and one that people were encouraged to interact with. On opening night it was fantastic…
Topical Typography
To ensure that my mid-century theme was accurately reflected throughout my design, I wanted to use era-appropriate typography as I felt that this would enhance the nostalgic narrative of the final piece. I researched games produced during the 1950s, to identify the text style used on the boxes, in the printed game rules and the instruction leaflets. The font used…
Sitting Comfortably
To encourage prolonged engagement with my Space In A Case gaming unit, I decided to convert one of the cases into seating. By splitting a case between the lid and main body, with each section adding a small upholstered frame, a case could be converted into two seats. To create the seat cushion I upholstered…
Atomic attraction
The elements of the Space In A Case project have been finally coming together, through the conversion of the vintage suitcases into a traditional gaming compendium. I investigated a range of styles for the game boards and felt that standard, plain designs produced a haphazard feel to the final unit. With each section offering a…
Toptafel Time
One of the games I have been keen to create is a traditional toptafel skittles game, based on a 1950s original woodworking pattern that I had discovered online. Positioned inside a drawer fashioned from one of the cases, it would be both unexpected and also provide a competitive gaming environment. The original instructions showed how the…
Traditional game play
During my design process I have experimented with various, often overcomplicated vintage or nostalgic concepts (for example those discussed in my Retro Wrapping post). The decision to utilise a more simplistic design for the outer shell and wood as the main construction material, led me to investigate more traditional wooden board and pub games. I felt that…
Refining the Design
In Back to Basics I discussed how I had refined my original design for my Space In A Case project and decided to create a more simplistic construct, both internally and externally, to encourage user engagement with the suitcases. Although this design had been significantly amended from my original ideas, it still requires further refinement, to…
Back to Basics
In my previous post Retro Wrapping I discussed my preliminary design considerations for my Space In A Case unit. In retrospect, I concluded that some of the ideas were overcomplicating the design and could be diluting the narrative of both the vintage suitcases and the notion of constructing a tool for engagement. By adding multiple design…
Retro Wrapping
In addition to designing the internal components of each suitcase (Retro Refit), I also needed to consider how these would be stored, transported and advertise themselves to people to encourage usage. Following the nostalgic theme, I began to experiment with retro inspired designs, based on classic vintage objects of the twentieth century, such as a…
Retro Refit
Having decided to utilise vintage cases as my main component part of my design project, I needed to consider how they could be transformed into spaces, that would encourage people to engage with their contents. I started to sketch a series of different potential contents and layouts for each case: Design considerations included hinged lids, a pop-up miniature…
Julie Holgate 