Make / Remake: Project Process Journal

Edward Allbutt Glasgow School of Art Product Design Year 1 18/1/16 - 5/2/16

A cubic candlestick holder, to be sold as part of a collection.

The melting of hot wax seeps through the indented channels to provide a cacophany of colour, filling up the underlying object; modular pieces stack and collect indefinetely, allowing the wax to seep forever through a channel of tunnels. The candleholder is therefore completely reliant on the candlestick that sits a top. By this token, the design has a sense of harmony and infintity.

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Introduction Following on from the semantics project, this brief asked us to identify the archetype of an allocated product- in my case mine being the candlestick.

We shoud then, having chosen a stimulus product, gain a deeper understanding of this object by method of reitarations, each experimenting with form, material, scale and proportion, for example, but with an infinite number of variables.

With this focus on the form of an object, we were then tasked with looking into its function. From the understanding of the archetype, what the design hopes to achieve in the outset, one should be able to deliver a contemporary design that upholds these values while adding a new facet to the traditional.

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The candlestick I selected was design by Ernest Gimson, around the early 20th century.

Gimson was the son of industrialist pioneer Josiah Gimson: engineer and ironworker.

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Ernest Gimson himself was a pioneer of the Arts and Crasfs movement- a reaction to rapid industrialisationwhere the emphasis was on individual craftsmanship and detailing, while staying true to geometric form.

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Scale Cardboard model of Gimson candleholder

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A liberating process was to experiment freely with the form constructs of the candlestick.

Having split the object into the four portions of: base, neck, upper table and candle ring. Only ever changing two of these constructs each time, I was still left with a diverse range of resultant objects.

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The latter stage of the experimental process involved focusing on the material and texture. Recognising the effort put in by Ernest Gimson on the original candlestick, I waWnted to replicate that somehow. In reaction to the hard surfaces of wood and metal, that give a very rigid structure, I wanted to attempt to construct the same with foam and paper. With this IW learnt about the flexibility of the structure, and potential for play.

In recreating the indented metal, I could create a similar texture and pattern as seen in the Gimson detailing.

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My moment of design inspiration spawned from the image of a tree and its roots. Almost organically symmetrical to its upper half, the tree’s roots equate to its branches above the surface of the ground.

The linear branches seem to continue their path and seep downwards into the earth, using the trunk as this middle channel. I was interested in equating this concept of continuity and infinity to my designs.

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The Olympic Cauldron, by Thomas Heatherwick, was a point of reference in my process.

Each seemingly lit ball of flame was upheld by a single stalk. This provided a lot of unused space due to the height of the individual stalks and the resultant negative space underneath. I was interested in this high structure; the burning flame atop with the long channels below.

I experimented with guiding the wax dripping from a candle through a constructed path through a series of idealistic sketches

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Many similarily organic forms I related to this idea of a tree and its continuous roots. A dandelion, an hourglass, an iceberg, a cotton ball.

Something i took from these references was the candle holder being circular, or not necessarily circual or oval but functional on 360 degrees.

I became interested in the concept of the candle operating into infintity. By making it upturned when the wax ends, emphasing a self-sufficiency and recurrence of use.

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The design seemingly most effective was this result. It involved cutting these consistent, straight channels into a solid block, the idea being that the wax would travel down these chosen runs and fill the underlying, closed centre with beautiful colour.

Although not as purely organic as other considered designs, this provided an attractice juxtapostion between the man-made, synthetic aesthetic and the natural form and colour constructed by the dripping of wax

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I experimented with cutting channels into a solid polysterene form, with a number of different models varying the angle of the cut, depth, volume of negative space, form and shape of the whole object.

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The most evolved and aesthetically pleasing prototype was this. Candle wax sitting atop drips through the foam block and out through the descending channels at various heights.

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My final resolved design involved modular blocks, the resultant composition is simple and harmonious. Just as the tranquil candle flickers and keeps the room calm, so does the design that hold it contiue, providing an organic and flowing, flexible base for the wax to drip through infinitely. The product user is asked to interact, moving the cube to each of its edges to guide the dripping wax as it wishes.

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Edward Allbutt Glasgow School of Art 18/1/16 to 5/2/16