TASK TO RITUAL KANSO BONSAI PROCESS BOOK PAUL DUFOUR SUMMER SEMESTER 2016
TASK TO RITUAL This process book is the culmination of a 13 week studio course completed in the summer of 2016. Designer: Paul DuFour Professor: John Dixon Course: Product Design Studio INDL 4044 Semester: Summer 2016
TABLE OF CONTENTS OVERVIEW
TASK TO RITUAL WHY RITUAL MATTERS GOAL SETTING
SECONDARY RESEARCH
JAPANESE DESIGN PRINCIPLES BONSAI TOOLS
PRIMARY RESEARCH
TRIP TO THE NURSERY INTERVIEWING BONSAI SOCIETY MEMBERS LEARNING FROM RANDY
FRAMING
INSPIRATION FIELD TRIP OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFICATION
IDEATION
INITIAL SKETCHING KEY INSIGHT FINAL DIRECTION
PROTOTYPING FINAL MODEL
OVERVIEW TASK TO RITUAL WHY RITUAL MATTERS GOAL SETTING
TASK TO RITUAL The goal of this studio was to examine the effects that ritual has on the daily lives of product users. Through research and observation, I built a foundational understanding of ritual and how those elements can be employed through product design in order to elevate an ordinary product exoerience to a more meaningful ritual that adds value to the user’s life.
WHY RITUAL MATTERS In order to help us understand how ritual relates to product design, John gave some examples of brands that use ritual effectively to create more meaningful product experiences that users value. By doing this, the companies build lasting brand loyalty with their consumers (though that wasn’t the main point John was trying to make). Festool was one of John’s major examples. As a brand, they’ve created a consistently exceptional experience for their users. By considering every touchpoint and micro-experience of the product experience, from purchase to usage to storage, they give their users an experience that is high-quality, purposeful and unmatched by competing brands. Because of this, Festool has an enormous following of loyalists that use exclusively Festool products.
GOAL SETTING Along with examples of how ritual is applied in product design, John also gave us some goals to help frame our thinking throughout the process of this studio. They were quite different from the typical goals of Product Design courses, which I found refreshing and inspiring.
THE GOAL IS NOT:
THE GOAL IS:
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to design a product based around efficiency
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to design something that enables ritual in the user’s life
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to design a product that can be scaled up to mass production
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to design something that encourages the user to perform the ritual on a regular basis, even if the ritual takes more time than a more convenient, less-fulfilling alternative
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to design something that we can actually create with the resources we have (e.g. woodshop, etc.) Basically, he encouraged us to focus on how the product would really be made, and then make it. Since most projects I’ve worked on have been concepts involving complex manufacturing (injection molding, etc.) I was excited to actually create something real and functional with my hands.
SECONDARY RESEARCH JAPANESE DESIGN PRINCIPLES UNDERSTANDING THE ART FORM BONSAI TOOLS & PROCESSES
JAPANESE DESIGN PRINCIPLES I began my research by learning about Japanese design principles. This helped give me a broad understanding of the values that drive Japanese design and culture. This new understanding helped to give me a new lens through which I could view product design.
PRINCIPLE 01 KANSO Simplicity or elimination of clutter. Things are expressed in a plain, simple, natural manner. Reminds us to think not in terms of decoration but in terms of clarity. A kind of clarity that may be achieved through omission or exclusion of the non-essential.
PRINCIPLE 02 FUKINSEI Assymetry or irregularity. The idea of controlling balance in a composition via irregularity and assymetry is a central tenet of the zen aesthetic. The enso (zen circle) in brush painting is often drawn as an incomplete circle, symbolizing the imperfection that is part of existence. In graphic design, assymetrical balance is a dynamic, beautiful thing. Try creating beauty in balanced assymetry. Nature is full of beautiful and harmonious relationships that are assymetric, yet balanced.
PRINCIPLE 03 SHIBUI / SHIBUMI Beautiful by being understated, or by being precisely what it was meant to be and not elaborated upon. Direct and simple way, without being flashy. Elegant simplicity, articulate brevity. The term is sometimes used today to describe something cool but beautifully minimalist, including tech and some other consumer products.
PRINCIPLE 04 SHIZEN Naturalness. Absence of pretense or artificiality. Full creative intent unforced. Ironically, the spontaneous nature of the Japanese garden the viewer perceives isn’t accidental. This is a reminder that design is not an accident, even when we are trying to create a natural feeling environment. It is not a raw nature as such, but one with more purpose and intention.
PRINCIPLE 05 YUGEN Profundity or suggestion rather than revelation. A Japanese garden, for example, can be said to be a collection of subtleties and symbolic elements. Designers can think of ways to visually imply more by not showing the whole, that is, showing more by showing less.v
PRINCIPLE 06 DATSUZOKU Freedom from habit or formula. Escape from daily routine or the ordinary. Unworldly. Transcending the conventional. This principle describes the feeling of surprise and a bit of amazement when one realizes they can have escape from the conventional. Professor Tierney says that, “the Japanese garden, made with the raw materials of nature and its success in revealing the essence of natural things to us is an ultimate surprise. Manay surprises await at almost every turn in a Japanese garden.
PRINCIPLE 07 SEIJAKU Tranquility or an energized calm, stillness, solitude. This is related to the feeling you may have when in a Japanese garden. The opposite feeling expressed by seijaku would be noise and disturbance.W
BONSAI TOOLS & PROCESSES To learn more about how Bonsai is practiced, I researched the tools and processes that are common to the art form. Most of the information I gathered was found through online stores, websites of Bonsai masters, and tutorial videos on YouTube.
PRIMARY RESEARCH TRIP TO THE NURSERY INTERVIEWING BONSAI SOCIETY MEMBERS LEARNING FROM RANDY
TRIP TO THE BONSAI NURSERY Once I felt like I had a pretty solid understanding of the processes used in the Art of Bonsai, I seeked out a local Bonsai nursery where I would go to purchase a Bonsai of my own. My goal was to better empathize with the user by experiencing the pain points of practicing Bonsai for myself. By doing this, I’d identify legitimate product opportunities for Bonsai artists.
CARING FOR THE BONSAI The nursery owner, Dick, showed us around and taught us some fundamentals about Bonsai. Some of the critical things he shared with us were: •
Check on the Bonsai tree everyday to see if it needs water -Judge by dryness and wight of soil
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Pinch tips of buddings to cause them to branch out into two directions
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Be mindful of how long you leave training wire on - if left for too long will scar the tree.
Dick also helped me pick out my own tree. He recommended that I buy a fig because they do well indoors and are rather hardy, so they make a good beginner tree.
My Fig Tree Purchased at Reminiscent Herb Farm
INTERVIEWING BONSAI SOCIETY MEMBERS After purchasing my Bonsai, I sought out Bonsai artists to learn more about their habits, preferences and behaviors. I called the Cincinnati Civic Garden Center on a Thursday afternoon to see if anyone there was knowledgable about Bonsai. The women on the other end of the line informed me that the Bonsai Society of Greater Cincinnati meets one Thursday every month, and it just so happened to be the Thursday that I called! I packed up my new Bonsai tree that evening and drove it to the meeting.
GETTING TO KNOW THE ARTISTS There were about 20 people at the meeting, representing every level of experience. Complete novices as well as experts who had been practicing the art for 40+ years were in attendance. I met a man named Randy who had just cut all of the leaves off of this Red Maple when I introduced myself. Removing all the leaves is known as “defoliating” and is a practice that encourages the growth of smaller leaves. In Randy’s case, his trees leaves were very large, which made them look disproportional to the small tree trunk. Randy is a really nice guy who has been practicing Bonsai for about four decades. I showed him my new Fig tree in hopes that he could help advise how to begin working on it. He exceeded my expectations by inviting me to his home where he’d help me re-pot the tree. We made plans to meet up sometime next week to do that. I also met a man named Dave who seems to be the patriarch of the group. As I understand it, he’s been practicing Bonsai since sometime in the 70’s after visiting Japan while he was stationed in Korea working for the military & State Department. I observed Dave as he consulted another group member about how to shape a tree. Repeatedly, I heard the phrases ‘apex’, ‘front’, ‘movement’, and ‘space’. All of these words referred to the design of the tree and how Dave thought it would look best. “The key is to mimic nature the best you can,” he said as he jinned one of the trees branches. Jinning is when you strip the deap part of a tree’s bark to emphasize the deadwood below.
Dave also helped me with my tree. First, he helped me identify the ‘front’ of the tree, and explained to me that the smaller trunk behind the larger trunk would create a sense of perspective similar to that seen in a forest, where the closest tree appears largest. He used his shears to trim off different limbs, emphasizing that you focus on the ‘essence’ of the tree, before the details. Defining the proportion was the first order of business, so he lobbed off quite a bit of height, in order to make the trunk of the tree appear thicker. The way he went about designing the tree is a thought-process that is very familiar to anyone who designs: blocking in the big idea and then dialing in the details. He told me that clipping growths would encourage the remaining limbs to bud further, giving the tree a fuller appearance.
TOOLS, TOOLS, TOOLS As I spoke to people, one topic that continually came up was their tools. Naturally, tools are at the center of the Art of Bonsai. Without them, there’d be no Bonsai. This was an insight I hadn’t really considered until speaking to so many artists. Something interesting that I noticed while learning about each artist’s tools was how they liked to keep them organized when not in use. Some people didn’t have any organization system other than a large bin that they kept everything in when traveling. Some artists had pocketed rolls of canvas or leather that they used. Some artists had tool baskets, which seemed to vary in size quite a bit depending on the number of tools the user had. While speaking to one of the artists, Julie, about her tools, an interesting insight was uncovered: “One of my favorite things about Bonsai is the organization of my tools... Getting them out, putting them back in...” she said. “The ritual of it?” I asked. “Yes, exactly! The ritual!” She went on to explain why her tool basket was so much smaller than the one next to hers. “I don’t have nearly as many tools... I’m still learning how to use them. You really only need about three tools starting off. From there, you begin to purchase the ones that you prefer depending on your particular needs. Since he (the owner of the larger tool basket) has been doing it for so much longer, he has acquired many more specialty tools.”
That’s when I realized that the size of your tool collection is, in most cases, an indicator of how much experience you have working in the art form. The more tools, the more experience. Through talking to people, I found that most artists start small with only 1-3 tools, and build up as they learn more about the art form. This spurred an interesting thought in my mind: What if I designed a tool organization system that grew with users as they acquired more tools? It would start small, providing enough space for the typical “beginner” set of tools, and offer a certain modularity that would allow the user to add on to their organizational system as they acquired more tools. In this way, the organizational system serves as a way to tell the story of the artist, and would indicate to other artists the experience level of the owner. The system could be made of materials that reflect the age and use it has gone through (maybe leather, metal that will form a nice patina?), which would serve as yet another indicator of the experience of the user. The older the system gets, the better, and more worn it looks - each system component having its own unique patina depending on how long the user has had it. In this way, the gradient of patina would serve as a visualization of the user’s growth as an artist.
“For Bonsai, it is important to learn the basics, and add to those techniques over time. If one doesn’t understand the basics first, it will prove limiting in other aspects of Bonsai.” -Keiichi Fujikawa, Owner of Fujikawa Kouka-en Nursery. Osaka, Japan
POST-MEETING THOUGHTS ThE quote above comes from an interview with Bonsai farm owner, Keiichi Fujikawa. He was speaking about the process of becoming a master and the importance of starting with the basics and building onto it - a philosophy manifested in the tool organization system concept described above. This is an interesting idea that I'm going to explore further by researching what types of organizational kits are already on the market. I think there's also opportunity to design a system that creates a space for the Bonsai to be kept in the home with tool organization, so that's something else that I'll continue to explore. Another thing I noticed while talking to people: it seems like there might be opportunity to design a system that makes it easier to transport the tree from place to place (e.g. outside to inside, home to Bonsai Society meeting, etc.) Most artists just kept their trees in a cheap box when taking it from place to place, so maybe the tree could be transported in a more attractive and thought-through manner. As I've been caring for my own tree in my apartment, I've already noticed some opportunities for improvement for my own indoor set up: Bonsai pots have drain holes, so in order to water my tree without getting my apartment dirty, I have to carry the tree outside before watering it.
Maybe there’s a way to contain the water after it has been drained. One opportunity I’ve thought of with regards to this is draining the water into a humidity tray, which is a tray that is commonly used for Bonsais indoors. They sit beneath the Bonsai and add humidity to the environment as the water evaporates from the tray. This way the drained water is repurposed as a “gray water” after draining from the pot. Initially I had thought that maybe I'd design a Bonsai pot, but after talking to people, I found that it's very common for individual pots to be made for particular trees, in order to compliment them aesthetically. For this reason, I think it'd be wise not to expend much effort on designing a Bonsai pot, unless it's intended to be a one-off production for my particular tree. I also considered designing the tools used commonly such as shears and pliers. All of the Bonsai tools I saw today, regardless of the brand looked exactly the same. I suspect that the reason for this has to do with the history of the tools. There were some artists who told me that they'd appreciate a better designed tool (spring-loaded, ergonomics, etc.) but I'm not sure yet if that's where I should focus my energy either. It seems like the current tools have a certain amount of heritage that I'm not sure needs disrupting.
A VISIT TO RANDY’S Randy, one of the Bonsai artists I met at the Bonsai Society meeting, invited me to visit his home to view his Bonsai collection. He had more Bonsai than I’ve ever seen in my life all over his home. It was quite impressive. He also offered to help me repot my plant and show me how to properly care for it. He was very knowledgable and had a lot to teach me about the subject.
He showed me some of his tools, and explained what he thinks could be improved about them.
He showed me the process of re-potting a tree from beginning to end, and even gave me a pot.
01 SET THE BASE
02 STARTER SOIL
03 REMOVE FROM POT
There are large holes that you need to cover with mesh to keep the soil from falling out. Along with those holes, he poked two smaller ones in the base with his pocket knife.
Then we threaded two long wires through the base and covered them with some soil. These will be used to secure the tree in the pot, since the soil is pretty loose.
After that, he trimmed some of the roots and fibers from the base of the tree in order to remove it from the plastic pot it came in.
04 PREP FOR PLANTING
05 PLACE THE BASE
06 LET IT REST
One root’s large size would have made placing it in the pot difficult, so he chopped it off with his concave prune.
Once the base of the tree was loosened up enough, we determined where the front of the tree was, and placed it in the pot accordingly. Then we tightened wire around the root base to keep the tree in place.
This is how it turned out. Once the tree was repotted, Randy gave me some tips regarding fertilizer and watering as well as trimming the leaves and defoliation. He also showed me how to properly wire branches so that I could shape the tree.
OPPORTUNITY FOR ORGANIZATION Throughout the evening, we talked about the tools Randy uses. I gained an interesting insight into the way he organizes them and opportunities for improvement. He has two organizational systems: 1. A large white bag where he stores all of his tools 2. A black roll-up pouch that he uses to transport the specific tools he needs at any given time. He complained that his white bag often becomes disorganized because there’s no organizational system in the large pocket. Maybe there’s a better way for him to keep his less-used tools organized so that he can access them easily when he does need them. One other complaint he had was the trouble he has with keeping his training wire organized. When we got some out to shape my tree, it took him several minutes to locate the end of the roll because it was tangled up like christmas lights. There must be a better way for him to keep his wire organized. I uncovered some good insights during the 2.5 hours I spent with Randy. My next steps are to translate these insights into design goals, and then to ideate solutions that could meet those objectives.
FRAMING INSPIRATION FIELD TRIP OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFICATION
INSPIRATION FIELD TRIP As a class, John toured us around Over the Rhine for a class period to check out some local shops that make and sell products relevant to our project. Throughout the afternoon we visited Artichoke Curated Cookware, Design Lab, and Losantiville Design Collective. It was a really great afternoon that helped inspire some new ideas and directions. Above are some pictures of products that I saw that inspired me.
I liked the way these spoons and ladels hung on display.
Joseph & Joseph in general makes great stuff. These nesting bowls & measuring cups were a great way to keep things organized.
I liked the legs interacted with the seat of this Ligne Roset Bar Stool.
I also really liked the way the legs curved to form a platform for the seat of this Gubi Bar Stool. It’s very natural and plain.
OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFICATION I’ve spent the last couple of weeks practicing the ritual of caring for my Bonsai tree and reflecting on what I’ve learned so far. This has helped me get a deeper understanding of where product opportunities lie. Now that I have a good understanding of what I’m working with, it’s time to frame my project so that I have clear objectives that I can aim for. I identified some Japanese Design Principles that I felt would be good to help guide my thinking both aesthetically and functionally: •
KANSO: Simplicity, or elimination of clutter. Reminds us not to think in terms of decoration, but in terms of clarity.
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SEIJAKU: Tranquility, or an energized calm, stillness, solitude. The opposite feeling would be noise and disturbance.
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SHIZEN: Naturalness. Absence of pretense or artificiality. Ironically, the spontaneous nature of the Japanese garden the viewer perceives isn’t natural at all. This is a reminder that design isn’t an accident, even when we are trying to create a natural feeling environment. It is not a raw nature as such, but one with purpose and intention.
Along with the design principles, I also defined my project objective to clarify what my overall goal for the project is. PROJECT OBJECTIVE: Design a family of products that can be used by an apartment-dwelling Bonsai artist.
TOOL ORGANIZATION •
Beginner Bonsai artists start off with a limited tool collection, which then grows as they develop their expertise. How can we design a system that grows with the user as their needs change?
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As tool collections grow, some tools are used frequently and some are not. How can we create a system that allows the user to easily access their frequently used tools, while still maintaining organization within their less frequently-used tools?
BONSAI HOME •
It’s important to keep a Bonsai tree by the window so that it gets enough sunlight, but most apartment window sills aren’t deep enough to hold the tree. What could be used as a home to keep the Bonsai by the window? How could a tool organization system be integrated?
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Bonsai artists like to move their Bonsais around from time to time, whether it’s to move it outside, or to visit a Bonsai Society meeting. How can we make transporting the Bonsai from its “home” easy and seamless?
WATERING •
I have to carry my Bonsai to the sink when I want to water it. While watering it, I hold it with one hand and water with the other. How can watering the tree be made easier so that I don’t have to hold it in the air while I water it?
IDEATION
INITIAL SKETCHING KEY INSIGHT FINAL DIRECTION
INITIAL SKETCHING After framing the opportunity areas, I ideated some initial concepts that could fit within the scope of the project.
FEEDBACK ON INITIAL CONCEPTS I selected the concepts that I felt most strongly about and presented them to the class. I got some really good feedback that gave me some new perspectives and directions to think about.
“Is there a way to make the watering system cyclical so that all of the water is used or recycled? Gray water?” - Jia Lu Ni “Your tool blocks remind me of the traditional Tatami floor mats. You should look into those some more to see if you can draw inspiration.” - Erin Hurm “It seems like this could turn into a really nice home good furniture piece.” Terah Coleman “Have you thought about hanging the tools instead of laying them flat?” - Samuel Cook “Do some research on the relationship between Japanese and Danish furniture design. There are some really interesting ties there.” - John Dixon “I think it’d be helpful to think more about what time period of Japanese design is going to influence your aesthetic. Traditional Japanese design vs. modern Japanese design are two very different things. Modern Japanese design typically fits better into homes.” - John Dixon “How exactly would the Bonsai Home system be stored? Think more into that” - John Dixon
MOVING FORWARD After the crit, I decided to focus on thinking deeper into how I could integrate Tool Organization with the Bonsai Home system and how it would actually work. The Grow-with-Me Tool Organization space was interesting to me but my research findings indicated that there isn’t as much of a need for it as there is for the Bonsai Home. Some of the most interesting insights/questions/suggestions from the feedback that led my thinking throughout further ideation after the crit: •
• •
Take inspiration from traditional Tatami floor mats used in Japan to line floors. There are specific proportions and arrangements used to arrange these mats in rooms of traditional Japanese homes. The individual storage blocks for each tool could call back to this tradition. Look at the relationship between Japanese furniture design and Danish design. How could this relationship influence the aesthetics of my design? How would the tools and overall system of the “Bonsai Home” table concept be stored?
TATAMI CONFIGURATION While drawing up 2D concepts, I also started playing with my Bonsai tools to figure out the best way to arrange them in storage. Nearly everyone who sees them comments on how beautiful they are, so I wanted to find a way to arrange them that would hopefully show them off, rather than hide them in a box. Above is an image of a test layout I did using a traditional Tatami mat
Realizing this relationship between the tree and the tools led me to a question:
TOOL & TREE SIMILARITY While I was exploring different ways to arrange the tools, my classmate, Jia Lu stopped by and shared what I thought was a really profound observation. She commented on how the Bonsais kind of look like Bonsai trees. When you think about it, she’s totally right. The tools are shaped from single pieces of very honest materials into beautiful, organic, curved forms that reflect the process of Bonsai.
How can I celebrate this relationship between the tools and the tree? Is there a way that the Bonsai Home can be a part of this relationship? I started to think more seriously about ways that the tools could be visible to viewers even when they weren’t in use. While ideating, I researched Danish and Japanese furniture design to gain a better understanding of their relationship and how they might be able to influence my project.
FLOOR SITTING As I continued to research and ideate, I discovered a new insight that greatly impacted the direction of my design. While researching Japanese and Danish design, I stumbled upon an article about the interior design of a Japanese-inspired home in California. Above is an image from the article. Notice the people in it are sitting in chairs that don't have legs. Seeing them sitting in those chairs made me think, “My concepts have mostly revolved around stools and chairs that are lifted off of the ground... What if the artist sits on the ground while they use the product I’m designing?�
FINAL DIRECTION I sketched out a rough concept inspired by the chairs I had seen. It involved using blocks for storing the tools that stacked on top of each other when not in use, and kept the Bonsai elevated to ensure it is at the same level as the window sill to get enough sunlight. When the product is in use, the user unstacks the blocks and sits on the ground, transforming the environment, positioning the user at a new perspective.
This transformed environment serves as a psychological activator that puts the user in a mindset that helps them focus on practicing the art form. Studies have been conducted that show that performing a single task in a particular setting and nothing else can lead to greater focus because the mind learns to associate the space with the task that is performed in it. Transforming the space only when the user is practicing
TRADITION OF FLOOR SITTING Once I had this concept, I decided to dig deeper in order to learn more about what the legless chair means to Japanese culture. Above is an image of some notes I took on the subject.
ZAISU & ZABUTON I learned a lot about the history of traditional "Japanese Floor Sitting", but one of the main things I took away from the research was the types of products used in floor sitting: the Zabuton (floor futon) and the Zaisu (floor chair).
With this new information in mind, I continued to ideate.
PROTOTYPE 1.0 It was time to bring this idea into the real world to test proportions, ergonomics, etc. I started by building two 18” x 18” cubes. I decided to build two identical cubes because I thought it would be a good way to streamline production - you could use 8 multiples of a single part to build the product. I chose 18” as the dimension because, when stacked together, the cubes would position the Bonsai to be as high as a window sill, allowing the tree to soak up as much sunlight as possible. By trying out the first rough mock-up, I found that the overall height of the boxes was good. I did, however, find some room for improvement: •
The boxes’ depth was too large, they should be shallower.
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When unstacked, the box on which the Bonsai would sit felt too high. It should be shortened. Doing this would shorten the overall height of the structure when stacked, however this opens up the opportunity to create a storage space for the seating solution.
After this first run-through of prototyping, I thought about the beginning-to-end product story in order to identify any other holes in my design that I hadn’t yet addressed. One in particular came up that I hadn’t really addressed - How does the product get to the user? Do they pick it up? Is the product shipped? Is it pre-assembled? Is it flatpacked for the user to assemble it?
USER EXPERIENCE I thought about my target user and what would be best for their circumstances. Since I’m designing for someone who lives in an apartment in the city, it’s likely that they wouldn’t have a car to pick up or transport a pre-assembled piece of furniture. With that in mind, I thought about furniture brands that offer space efficient, flat-packed solutions. Obviously, IKEA came to mind. I found a brand that is similar to IKEA that I thought was interesting. The brand is greycork.
Like IKEA, Greycork’s furniture is simple, flat-packed, and easy for the user to assemble. Along with that, they ship it straight to the user’s doorstep. This seemed like the ideal scenario for my user, so I decided to look at ways that I could incorporate easy shipping and flat-packing my design.
A detail shot of Greycork furniture being disassembled.
I started by thinking ways to fasten the different parts together.
I also spent some more time thinking about what each component component could look like.
PROTOTYPE 2.0 I built another iteration, this time using dowels for the Bonsai table. I did this because a principle in feng-shui is openness, which allows the free flow of energy in a room. I shortened the legs of the Bonsai Table, which felt better in use. I compensated this shortening by adding a space to store the Zabuton at the bottom. With this iteration, there were still things to improve and questions to answer: •
Hanging the tools at an angle would be nice.
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Shorten top of box so tools can be seen more easily
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Should there be a storage drawer for extra tools?
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How can I make this look like an integrated piece of furnture rather than separate pieces stacked on top of each other? Or should I go the opposite route and emphasize the fact that they are separate from each other? To answer this, I need to look through the inspiration I’ve collected and nail down some aesthetic directions.
HIERARCHY OF COMPONENTS One thing I like about this concept is that it organizes all of the components in a hierarchy based on order of importance: 1. On top is the tree. Without it, the product would have no purpose. 2. Below the tree is the water. Without it, the tree would not exist. 3. Below the water are the tools. Without them, the tree would not be able to be shaped. 4. Below the tools is the zabuton. Its use on the ground makes its positioning at the bottom a logical choice.
FINAL PROTOTYPE I built a final prototype to define all of the final details about the dimensions and function of my concept. This served as a tool to communicate my final concept to my professor for approval before moving forward with purchasing supplies for the final model.
HARD MAPLE I chose to build my model out of hard maple for its strength and light color. I wanted the model’s light color to contrast with the dark Bonsai tools on the peg board. By doing this, the model would almost fade away as a secondary component, allowing the tools to be the focal point of the design.
FINAL MODEL BUILD Once my concept was fully defined, it was time to build the final model. This experience gave me a new appreciation for woodworking and the skill that craftsmen have.
KAN
NSO BONSAI
HIERARCHY OF COMPONENTS Kanso organizes the workstation components in a way that reflects their hierarchical relationship, placing the most important at the top.
01 BONSAI TREE The Bonsai tree is the most important part of this workstation. Without it, everything else would serve no purpose. For this reason, it is placed in the highest position.
02 WATERING CAN Water’s direct connection to the tree’s ability to thrive makes it the second most important component of the system. For this reason, the watering can is positioned directly below the tree.
03 SHAPING TOOLS The tools are what enable the artist to shape the tree. To celebrate their visual similarity to the curved branches of a fully trained Bonsai tree, the tools are displayed for viewing when not in use.
04 FOLDABLE ZABUTON The tradition of floor sitting is deeply rooted in Japanese culture. To celebrate this tradition, the floor pillow is included in the system to help the artist sit comfortably on the floor as they work.
USER EXPERIENCE
1. Approach Kanso Bonsai Station
2. Remove Bonsai pedestal
3. Place pedestal on ground
4. Remove zabuton pillow
5. Unfold zabuton pillow
6. Sit and begin practicing
NO-TOOL ASSEMBLY & DISASSEMBLY COMPONENTS NEST FOR SHIPPING
Thank you. paul dufour paulrdufour@gmail.com +1 502 797 0060