Uttishta Varanasi PORTFOLIO 2016
UTTISHTA VARANASI I am currently a 3rd year at NID, specialising in Product design. Having an interdisciplinary design education combined with my passion to travel and explore different cultures has allowed me to have a lot of insights and exposure into the applications and effects of design. I believe that there is no ‘best’ design; as the next better iteration is still left to be made.
ABOUT ME education
skills
Dubai Modern High School Class XII -ISC National Institute of Design Product Design (current 3rd year)
Ideation Research Sketching Digital Rendering 3D Modeling Drafting Photography Video Editing Physical prototyping
experience Second Runner Up at the Autodesk Swarm 2016 Internship in Prinitalia, Italy in Furniture Design 2015 Branding and logo for upcoming musician. 2015 Promotional Videos for College festival 2013-2015 Representation at the Harvard Model United Nations 2012 Represented the UAE in the World Robotic Olympiad 2010 Top 3 in the National Robotics Olympiad 2009,2010,2011
software Adobe Creative Suite Microsoft Office Rhino Keyshot Invision AutoCAD Sketchbook Pro Final Cut Pro X
Contents The Spray Fan
the money maker
the jar scraper
connected communities
REPRESENTATION SKILLS
THE ITALIAN JOB
RAILWAY WORKSHOP
WORK iN PROGRESS
THE SPRAY FAN
The spray fan was a product of a 2 week session in model making, material exploration and workshop skills.
Building the spray fan was a ultimate test of precision. With several different components fitting into each other, and several complex mechanisms, the product was extremely complex and required precision and skill with various material to make. The organic form was constructed using MDF moulds and vacuum forming polystyrene.The inner mechanics of the fan were completely wired together from scratch, and the bottle at the bottom was turned on the lathe before adding M-seal to give it its ridges. The final product was spray painted in several steps from primer to the final coat. The proud result of a model making excercise, which aided in furthering my prototyping skills.
THE MONEY MAKER
An app that uses your dreams and aspirations to encourage you to be more financially literate, and aware.
“Success is one-half working for money, and one-half working that money.�
THE PROBLEM
Research Only 24% of young Indians exhibit a high level of financial knowledge, and only around 40% exhibit a positive financial attitude. However at 68%, the Indian youth have an excellent behavior towards their finances.
financial literacy among the Indian youth
FINANCIAL KNOWLEDGE
What does that mean? Young Indians have a good financial behavior, i.e. they have a high propensity to save and consume, and to plan their finances. However, they do not have the knowledge or the attitude towards the financial system to actually plan and take action.
FINANCIAL BEHAVIOR
What does it lead to? As seen in Western context, low financial knowledge and poor utilisation and distribution of financial resources leads to problems such as bankrupcy during times of financial contingency. This misutilisation of resources also causes a snowball effect where the ‘poor remain poor’, and and are unable to afford a higher level of living and education.
FINANCIAL ATTITUDE
What’s needed? More and more young Indians have bank accounts but are unaware of the financial repurcussion of not utilising or misusing financial services. This is because they don’t see the need to handle their finances, and that finance is a ‘dry’ topic for another time.
How can an interface make finance fun and motivate the youth to take responsibility? The power of dreams.
dream cost calculator that takes into account inflation, time period and other factors
learning tools with the latest financial news
investment calculators and ‘to do’ lists
gifs for easy, visual learning
DREAM ON.
The app is designed to use your dreams and aspirations, and the possibility of achieving them as motivation to learn more about personal finance and the tools available for investments. The app was designed keeping the younger target audience in mind.
Inspiration and investments. Dreams and deposits. Fun and funds.
See the final prototype here: https://invis.io/ZA6RNMMQU
THE JAR SCRAPER
A simple product that solves the problem of food wastage from jars.
WASTE.
We can’t have what is beyond our reach. Thats why we design. So that we can have what we can’t. When we can’t access the leftover spreads, like nutella or jam, from jars, it becomes waste. On an average, 1 additional sandwich can be made from each jar. If we account for just Nutella’s sales figures worldwide, thats a staggering 11 million more sandwiches a year. 11 million sandwiches being wasted. Glass jars that can be easily reused are thrown away in favour of new ones, due to lack fo a tool that can help them clean them easily. What a waste.
Research Done through online surveys and personal interviews with users from houswives to students to sandwich store owners. The results revealed that the problem, while not one of urgent importance, is prevalent and requires a product solution.
Task analysis done in varied conditions and among varied users from the 5th to the 95th percentile to determine the pressure points during the excercise of emptying out a jar. This led to several new insights and findings.
The four preferred tools for jar scraping and spreading; the spoon, the knife, the silicon spatula and the finger. While the knife is the best for spreading, the finger and the spatula are optimum for removing the leftover spread.
Ideation Rapid sketching followed by quick prototyping through various materials such as styrofoam, PU foam, polystyrene, acrylic and silicon.
mt
the jar scraper The mt scraper uses simple straight folds to give a strip of plastic multiple functions. The combined functions of scraper and spoon ensure you always manage to ‘mt’ the jar. Designed to be sleek and thin enough to enter any jar, and scoop out the parts from every corner. The spoon function allows the user to use the product even when the jar is full.
SPOON/SPREADER FORM
SCRAPER FORM
Final prototypes which underwent rigorous user testing to test ergonomics, and scraping effectiveness.
Creased Polypropelyne for the main body and soft silicone for the scraper portion, as well as the white scraping portion. The creases will act as hinges for the change in forms.
PROPOSED MATERIALS
prototyping SIZE
Ergonomically sized with a length of 200mm and a varying width of 6-75 mm, the scraper fits both your palm and your drawer perfectly.
PACKAGING Proposed packaging to give the impression of the scraper in a dirty jar.
PRICE
Keeping in mind the middle class urban Indian, material and manufacturing costs, and the market prices, the product will cost about 200- 250 INR.
CONNECTING COMMUNITIES
An installation to show how a simple act of holding hands could bring people together.
can we connect?
We live in very disconnected communities nowadays. We barely even know our neighbours, and are unaware of their stories, their struggles, and their strengths. Can we still connect as human beings? All our greatest achievements have ultimately been a result of forming human connections, be it building the pyramids or stepping onto the moon. Its time to connect again. If history serves us right, the results are nothing but beautiful.
the bubble machine
The aim was to show that even a simple act of standing together and holding hands can lead to something beautiful, something simple and elegant, a bubble. The installation requires people to stand together, holding hands and two foil receptors. As they do so, machine starts to light up with a countdown of LED’s. As the last light switches on, the machine whirs to life, and the bubbles are blown towards the users.
we can connect.
The installation was installed at the Conflictorium, a museum in the old city of Ahmedabad. An area of several different communities, we invited the locals to come and see our installation. Several of them ran around to find and make friends, and made new connections along the way. The simplicity and beauty
of the bubbles appealed to them, and there was an added plus to them formed by the fact that they felt that their connections, and effort had created them. While the installation was meant for children, the adults seemed to enjoy themselves more! Adults and children alike, both
always left with a smile on their faces, happy that they made something beautiful and simple, having seen the simple bubble. It was all achieved using simple circuitry, an Arduino, a little soap solution and a lot of imagination.
REPRESENTATION SKILLS
Sketching to rendering to 3D modeling.
30 second sketches to detailed sketches and alcohol marker renderings.
Photoshop and Sketchbook Pro renders. Taking pencil sketches onto Photoshop, cleaning up the renders, and rendering them. Learning composition skills as well as the importance of CMF(colour, material, finish).
3D models on Rhino and renderings on Keyshot Detailed 3D modeling on Rhino of existing and new products. Using Keyshot to best represent a 3D model, and thus learning about various lighting positions and the effect on various materials.
THE ITALIAN JOB
A short one month internship in Northern Italy was spent learning about various materials, and manufacturing methods, as well as the Italian concept of ‘beauty.’
Worked under a group of Italian furniture companies called the Italian habit, where I got to visit various firms such as Santa Lucia and Midj, and spend a short period understanding the design process, and how the process of ‘industralisation’ of a product takes place. Important takeaways from my short stint were balancing consumer needs and expectations with manufacturing capabilities, and industrial limits.
Field visits to Verona and neighbouring cities, to understand and experience the variety of colour, material and finish, and understand its applications. Other visits to the Venice Bienalle, the World Expo, and the Trienalle in Milan exposed me to the history of design and the connections between art and design.
RAILWAY WORKSHOP
An intensive workshop where we researched, ideated, and came up with a solution in a weeks time, for problems regarding the railways.
The current ATVM ( Automatic Ticket Vending Machines) at the Ahmedabad stations are extremely inadequate and irrelevant, thus are not utilised at all. By making the ATVM more accessible through a better looking form and a more accessible user interface, we can increase the number of passengers using these machines. With additions such a glass panel, behind which a help can sit for passengers who need assistance, and additional payment options, with better ergonomics.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Ongoing design project working with solar energy. Harnessing the untapped power of the heat of the sun to cut through wood and other materials.
contact details
Š Uttishta Varanasi
Email: uttishta_v@nid.edu uv0995@gmail.com Phone: +918758615065 +971502729466