Reflecting on my first design school project: the anti-hand
Early projects in design school focused on the process and foundations of form and function more than a useful outcome.
Our prompt for our first major design project was to create a paper wearable that emphasized joint movements somewhere on our body. I went the other way with it and restricted joint movement by blowing up my left hand and visually constricting finger joints.
In the early stages of an Industrial Design project, the same question often pops up: how does an object's function dictate its form? I had to re-examine the basic form of the human hand and how it enables function in order to impede movement. This meant thinking about a hand's shape, joint flexibility and skin in a different way.
Initially, the concept was going to take on a sinister undertone. As I experimented with concepts, materials and construction methods, it was clear that a playful element was more impactful. I took inspiration from balloon animals, elephants and squids. Concepts grew from hand-sized to larger and larger hands until I landed on this. I papier mached balloons from Party City, with the largest balloon they sold as the palm. Then, Velcro was super glued at the joints to hold it all together.
Out of all the projects that followed in school, this one cost me the most sleep. There were many days of working late as an Assistant Manager at a restaurant and then driving straight to school to experiment with different paper, jointing techniques and papier mache methods until the sun came up.
I love making people laugh (and eyeroll) at dumb jokes, so this was more than worth the sleep deprivation to see people smile and laugh at my hand on site. As a cherry on top, the Anti-Hand was showcased at the entrance of NCSU's College of Design for several weeks and nominated for the Art2Wear fashion show.
I typically use this blog to analyze other people's work and words, but I feel that reflecting on this project, which at first glance seems to have little to do with Industrial Design, gave me a unique perspective of the design process. When I was an aspiring designer, this taught me how to experiment with direction, study the form and function of humans and artifacts and to break assumptions of what could be. What better way to jolt yourself out of conventional thinking than to make something un-useful?
