Design Log book - Contemporary Cloth Rack

C O N T E M P O R A R Y C L O T H R A CK L O G B O OK W A R R E N WU

H A L L WA Y C L O T H R A C K

With a series of questions...

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Here Is How It All Started

WHY CLOTH RACK

With the growth of population, our living space is shrinking over the years. As so, clothes stand is gradually disappearing in our homes cause simply they just do not provide sufficient amount of functionality to justify the large amount of space they occupied.

However, I do believe in the use of a good cloth rack. They H A L L WA Y C L O T H R A C K

are quite representable of the first impressive of a home since they are usually setting by the door. They bridging us between our home and the outside world...

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DESIGN BRIEF

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Therefore I set my

as

Designing a new clothes stand / rack for hallway targeting young adult who live in a typical urban life with limited among of space. A product that not only capable but yet simple and beautiful fit well in context.

AIM To upgrade cloth stand;Bring it into the modern living.

Providing the storage capacity and functionality it meant to have nowadays.

To minimize the space it take.

Hallway is already a tiny area in home, Maximise walk path.

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In order to updated the design of the cloth rack and bring it into the present. Firstly, there are lots of question needed to be answer.

“WHAT HAS BEEN CHANGE?” CHANGE IN LIVING ENVIRONMENT

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PERCENTAGE OF HOUSEHOLD SIZE IN 2015 UK

AVERAGE NEW HOME SIZE IN M2 IN 2009

Researches and figures showed the situation of UK housing demography.

Arguably we are living in the smallest living space yet. Modern furniture should respect space provide the most within constrained living environment Making room for free space. There is a huge market audience existing might be appealed to this product.

Moving forward, I have to understand the audience.

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CHANGE IN LIFESTYLE

Content

Young adults put a lot of attention of stylising themselves, as so we tend to own more garment and accessories than we used to be, especially in winter season. They are the finishing touch on our presentation.

With this being said. My target customers often switch outfit in and out context. They would need the set places in somewhere easy and fast to access.

This is something the product could likely solve. Flexibility of storage is important, as all of us own different kinds and types of garment and accessories. The new hanger will required to handle most of these, if not all.

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As an young professional individual, a lot of us are quite outdoorsy. We go to gym regularly and travel during holiday. Because of the gym schedule, we will usually have sport outfit ready to go. Social life is huge for young generation as well, we spend just as much time as we in front of screen as with peers. We are constantly communicating with somebody.

Club and pub are the go-to place at night. Some of us like to re-dress for night, ladies in particular. Moreover, being an potential/existing user for contemporary hanger, they would have their taste and appreciation in art and style. Likely to go in and out of shows and exhibition occasionally. Lastly, it is quite common to work at home nowadays. So our home can also be our office.

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WHAT TO STORE

In order to find out users’ interaction with cloth rack, I carried out an informal short interview with students, asking them only an simple question how do your interact with you cloth rack when they get home. And here is what People mentioned: Clothes, coats, shoes, slippers, accessories like gloves scarf, bag (backpack/single-shoulder bag), brief case, key and random small items they would place.

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WHAT’S OUT THERE EXPENSIVE

INDUSTRIAL

DE-SPOKE WA R R E N W U

CHEEP

The variety in the product is huge. At the low end there are industrial Max manufactured ones that provide most of its functionality with bad aesthetic. The opposite on the other end. Few stand in between.

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WHERE IS IT

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To understand the location I did an investigation in small flat.

From the measurement of its hallway. I figured the size limit of the rack and visualised it.

Hallway: H 235mm L 130 W 90mm Door: H 205mm W 72mm Size limit

H ≥2000mm L ≥500mm W ≥400mm

This limit ensure there is sufficient amount of space for user, but more is better.

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Moon Board

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With enough knowledge of the product

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I Began To Brainstorm Ideas

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INITIAL IDEAS

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The idea was to keep its design minimal. I started with a long triangle shape since it go well in long hallway space.

I picked two as template of further development.

Smaller in size + Angle help with + open door Lack of Space for storing?

1600x500x300mm

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More storing + space Room for

+

accessories Easily

+

“Flat-packable�

Take up space -

1400x850x300mm

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HANGING TEST

Horizontal Hanging layout

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Mock-ups made to investigate both hanging method.

This was a bit more creative

200mm

and visually interesting as its 3D shape.

200mm

Angled

Due to model limitation, clothes were too heavy for this mock up structure. So I use tissue in the length of a clothes demonstrated how it work.

Also it cant hang a wide range of items as it was.

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300mm

A n d d oes provide good functionality.

B u t i n order for this to work comforta b l y . It should be away from the wall

300mm

i n s u r e enough space for our hand to g e t a round the back. From experience 1 5 0 m m minimum.

I found out that even clothes were presented in a nice, organised way. But It does require a tiny bit more afford to sort out them as something the lower hanger will get in the way.

A major issue with this was the third hanger was way to low, leaving clothes touching floor.

Triangular Hanging layout

T h i s lay out looks very presentable.

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I tested this again with a 200mm distance between hanger.

I noticed the distance on this model makes more sense as they were more accessible on height and there was about 120mm left at the bottom in height for shoes storage.

Arguably there might need more.

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CARDBOARD MODEL

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To test out estimated size in context, I made a 1:1 cardboard mock up placed it in a small hallway.

1600x500x300mm The rectangular looked too slim and felt disproportional. It needed to be widen because it cannot hold much shoes unleast there were double layers shoes rack. But it do offer enough space for user and work fine next to the door where it is hardly usable before hand.

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Also investigated way to store and organise shoes.

Content

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DEVELOPMENT

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Summarised on hanger test, I developed the idea trying to look for the best in each model.

This idea was intended to combine the nice presentation of triangular hanger and the Form of rack.

However, this idea was scraped soon after due to argument of its functionality, the question of what if people were not hanging coats on it.

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As well as zooming into detail like joint

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U bolt had caught my attention as they could enhance the shape of cylinder frame.

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MATERIALS RESEARCH SOLID WOOD Natural surface can make us feel quite relaxing.

But it is a weird combination with clothes - gentle fabric Vs rough wood.

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Content

MAHOGANY This is a premium wood that can really reflect the character of the product. Natural but serious. As wood, it has one of the richest color which can easily stand out from a plain background.

MARBLE Maple is very beautiful material. But it is heavy in way. Not suitable for large use in a clothes stand. However, it does make a solid base can stabilise the stand.

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MDF gives a combination of industry and nature. However does not look durable and premium. Feels very MDF basic.

STEEL TUBE

Content

Steel tube use is kind of Bauhaus, very industrial, Max produced item.

Lack of character these days.

Feels boring.

POWDER COATED STEEL Powder coated steel could be very bright in color. It looks fun and playful. Give an impression of causal and simple.

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COPPER

Copper has a beautiful polished surface, very eye catching. Along with a good quality.

Early material research gave me a sense / feel of different materials go with cloth rack.

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IN DIFFERENT MATERIALS

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Polished Aluminium

Polished Copper

Polished Steel

Sprayed Grey

Polished Ash

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in various materials in

Polished Birch

solidwork to create impressions in context.

I should investigate in mixture of material context

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HANGING TEST 2 Another hanging test with a wood dowel model.

1500mm tall

10mm Both

200

tall 1

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mm

10mm

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0 mm 12mm

aw ay

12mm

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I found that fillet hanging knob is hard to hang clothes on (as on the model), they slide off easily. Also might because they were too large in diameter and short in length.

Possible change: - Make knobs taller - Decrease diameter - Redesign in a thinner knob profile Last, I notice any rough surface can damage clothing during use.

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MOCK UP

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Mocking up for any major change before manufacture.

1750x600x250mm

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Mock up in Hallway

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Overall, It worked as intended in the hallway. Also did provide decent storage space for relatively less room. However, three hanging bar stay at a very close angle item place on them is highly likely to overlap, it did not work as efficient. And I found out both top end of the vertical dowels make up for a nice hanging space for accessories, but in order for it to work it has to be refine.

Change needed to make: - Refine all details that be neglected in mock up.

- Refine the top end of the dowels for extra usable space.

- Try reduce one hanger bar to increase the angle variation, and storage effectiveness.

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H A L L WA Y C L O T H R A C K

LAYOUT CHANGE OF HOOK

I reduced the number of hooks.

The depth of the hanger is a bit shallow. Clothes cannot overlap on hanger.

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Placing hook on different vertical line can avoid overlapping too much. But this is aesthetically unpleasing. And there is unallocated space at different end of hanger.

Layouts that has adapted from the beginning. (Analysis and optimisation)

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This looks more organised and asymmetric. So a big plus on aesthetic. But it does not work well with the other hooking/ hanging mechanism.

In this layout, all hooking mechanism have relatively even space between adjoining one. Stored items can be nicely spread out on the rack.

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H A L L WA Y C L O T H R A C K

White base color scheme.

The white base is a very good contra to the wooden dowels in texture (Like U bolt). Making the whole design more stand out on its visual.

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Refined Top end hanger.

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Refining

all detail in the making

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Moving Into Manufacture Testing

MANUFACTURE TESTING

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Since Dowels are difficult shape to work with. There for it would be handy to make tools/mould helping out the production processes.

To begin with, I made a base for dowels to sit on.

Therefore there was at least somewhere to clap on stop it from rolling.

Testing and using it for drilling U bolt holes and cut-out.

But this was not accurate enough.

As the images shows all the U bolt holes are not quite in the same line.

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U Bolt Drilling Mould I made two of these drilling mould for U bolt holes in exact size. They are lot more accurate than just the base.

They are the perfect guide for the cut-out.

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The extra mould can work as a rotation lock of the dowel.

Lets holes in line with the others.

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6mm

25mm

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Semi-cycle Cut-out Mould This was made for the semi-cycle cutout for the dent between two U bolt holes where hanger bar could sit in.

20mm

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25mm

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At my first attempt, I failed the cut as the drill was dragging dowel forward leaving a mark on the dowel.

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At my second attempt, It went slightly better. Even I have achieve the cut. There are still spin mark around the cut.

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End cut Mould This cut-out is for “T� joint between hanger bars and left frame.

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But there was a problem with it.

Hanger bars are 20.5mm in diameter.

There are only 20mm or 22mm drill for making the hole.

This was the attempt with the 22mm hole.

25mm

22mm

I also attempted twice for this cut. For my first try I have only stick out a little (dowel) under the drill. And it failed since too much fluctuation during drilling.

At the second time. I poked the dowel through the mould (as the photo shows). That stabilised the process slightly. But still noticeable shake due to the lager hole.

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End cut Mould 2 Since the cut-out was not ideal. I made another mould with 20mm hole.

In order to let a 20.5mm dowel fit inside, I have to sand on end.

25mm

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And the result was satisfied.

20mm

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Fillet Mould This mould is used to create the fillet on the top hanger of left frame.

Refined by sawing and sanding.

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5mm

25mm

R 5mm

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H A L L WA Y C L O T H R A C K

Guide For Angular joint Guide for Augular cut

Both of guides are contributing to the jointing between mid frame and right frame.

Firstly, since mid frame is placing on a angle, put it on the “mid frame slot” on the jointing guide. Stick out slightly outside he guide the sand it till in line with guide’s outline (Do it with both side). Therefore, mid frame would be the right angle.

Then cut out the joint surface with cut guide, finish with sanding.

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Last, they would be ready to joint on the joint guide.

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H A L L WA Y C L O T H R A C K

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The Making

Produce the final model

STRUCTURE Parts and Manufacture processes Mid Frame

Holes drilling (6mm) Cut both end parallel to ground Cut-out (Joint with right frame)

Top Hanger Bar

Semi-cycle cut-out (25mm) Holes drilling (6mm)

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Right Frame

Top hanger cut out Cut-out (Joint with right frame)

Bottom Hanger Bar

Semi-cycle cut-out (25mm) Holes drilling (6mm)

Shoes Rack Bar

Semi-cycle cut out both end (25mm)

Left Frame

Top hanger cut out

Base

Triangular shape cut Drilling (25mm) Spray white

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Materials List

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START MANUFACTURING Hanger Bar In sure all knobs are at a 45 degree angle

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Clap to let it stay in the right angle

Drilling holes for hanging know on hanger bar

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Semi-cycle cut-out Then install with knob

Left Frame Making top hanger Drill, handsaw, finished with sanding

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Mid Frame Right Frame Cut-out the joint surface with guide

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Sanding until they fit perfectly

Place on joint guide and glue

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Mid Frame Before gluing, I marked out U bolt position and drilled them

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Assemble Glue and clap together shoes rack bar, base, right, left and mid frame

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U Bolt Hanger Bar

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In order to tighten the U bolt, I sand off where it join on mid frame

Tighten U bolt Glue and clap the rest

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Finished assembling

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However, I did a big mistake during making by applying finish on dowels before assemble. Lacquer makes glue hard to do any effect.

The structure is fragile. Therefore I decided to screwed it.

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H A L L WA Y C L O T H R A C K

FINISHED MODEL

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H A L L WA Y C L O T H R A C K

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