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If you want to see more if my vector line art work, check out my Instagram which was my first medium in this project.

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Reflection

This final semester was a great opportunity for me to take everything I’ve learnt from all my past three years of study, studio and minor, and incorporate it as a combination into one project. It was a confusing project at first just because of the freedom and broadness of the brief however I created restrictions for myself and as a result I created almost my own brief. My final research question was formed as I proceeded through creating the physical final and observations I made. My final research question for my exegesis is ‘How can a sourced image identified in one medium, be re fabricated to communicate a new design language?

Final Studio Project was a great experience for me because I was tapping into my minor and learning more about the possibilities in that studio. I learnt things such as the way materials react to the laser cutting machine, Measurements is key and it challenge my creativity in producing something with a physical user experience. My main take away from this project would be the differences in studios I worked in. I preferred to work in the digital fabrication lab rather than the UXUI studio due to the fast-paced atmosphere and the hands on working stations such as the laser cutter. However, evaluating my engagement with UXUI studio, I need to practice using things either than my laptop such as post it notes design sprints or the glass table to execute my work which could hinder my perspective on the UXUI studio. I was also excited to learn how to function and operate the laser cutting machine on my own which added huge value to my knowledge in digital fabrication technology and skill set. There were some more observations that I made that I wished I could’ve followed up but was not able to due to time and there were only certain times I could use the laser cutter due to the large amount of other design students that used it too. So, this project would be a great project to take into a honours study in the near future, to continue researching and follow up on the possibilities and observation I made in this project. Overall it was a pleasing project and I strongly believe that the project compliments my value as a designer which are Social change, Celebrating culture and design.

If I could do this project again……. I would but with more money LOL and time as I felt those were my two major obstacles during this project. Materials was personally expensive and I strongly believe there’s more things that can be developed in this project. A great way to prevent these two aspects of the project from becoming a challenge is by more planning and reflection into early first prototype experiments, so when I go to refine, and laser cut second time round Its perfect, instead of picking up on one error and fixing it continuously.

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Final Light Box Portraits Video

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Final Light Box Portraits

Final light box portrait’s are done and I’m super stoked with the turn out. Light box series of three featuring Matt Max, Aravanh Thaivichit and Vili Fakalanu.

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These are the three people who are going to feature on my portrait light box series. 

They have been identified in this medium, which is screen | Instagram, and are going to be re produced in a new medium which is a light box. Because this will be re produced in a new medium such as a light box, compared to Instagram users, this will invite a whole new audience such as people interested in products or furniture creating new analysis and critiques on the context of the Images due to the new medium it has been re produced in. New visual design language is at work.

Instagram: @jt_servant 

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Final Exegesis Research Question

My final research question for this explorative research project is finally ready and it is

“How can a sourced image existing in one medium, be re-fabricated in another medium to communicate a new visual design language?”

This research question came off my personal interest this whole year, in Marshall McLuhan and Andy Warhol work and theories around medium is the message.

I’m not too sure where I stand with this theory, whether I’m for or against this theory but I hope throughout this project, it will give me some answers.

Also I’ve incorporated people from South Auckland as my main people to feature on this project as a way of incorporating my values as a designer which are celebrating culture, social change and design as a combination.

There are a lot of negative connotations that come with South Auckland so this is my way of hopefully creating social change by celebrating the people.

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Working Files

All the laser cuts are imports of illustrator files into rhino and set up for laser cutting.

Here are the screen shots of the rhino files.

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Vili and Matt light boxes

The two new subjects to make my final three light box series also including Aravanh who has been the main person in my previous experiments.

Vili Fakalanu and Matt Max

Hopefully Laser cut goes well

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FINAL EXPERIMENTATION

I have reached end of my experimentation stage in my project.

Lightbox developments were made

now Im goint to create two more as a series to this light box project.

Also spray paint would be nice to give the box more visual aesthetic value and get rid of the burn marks from the lasercutter.

Great place to be.

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Now the reason why im using Aravanh as my only main test subject for my current light box experimentation is because it is a money saver however would be nice to experiment with some other face which brings the question, how many of these am i going to make. 

Well as a final decision i am going to create three light boxes of different portraits of people from south auckland. why?? well i want to celebrate South Auckland. As said previously, this project compliments the three things i value as a designer which are, social change, celebrating culture and finally design. 

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Light Box Experimentation

Second laser cut experimentation was a success, however there were still a few problems.

Laser cuts still did not slot all the way through, and also the light source did not fit under the light box because it was to short.

Now i need to make the legs longer and make wider slots for my laser cuts to fit.

and yes i swapped away the acrylic for MDF which was a huge money saver. my light box went from a $55 light box to a $28 light box which isn't bad compared to the previous experimentation.

However, Acrylic was a nice materials for the walls for users to see the inside and layers but to bloody expensive. sacrifices

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Slots Experimentation

Now slots was a major issue in terms of trying to fit the 3mm wood into the slots. the slots were either too small or too big so here are a few of the test i made and tried out.

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Shadows Experimentation Follow up

I wanted to follow up on one of those experimental discoveries i made and in this case the shadows discovery. made a triangular lamp with Aravanhs face and to see if it could project his shadow of his face on to the wall. good news, it projects a shadow, bad news is that it projected a very subtle shadow which was a huge failure. back to making light boxes lol

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Light Box Experimentation

Shoe box experimentation was a great turn out. Great aesthetic visual and definitely came out the way I wanted it too. Now i gotta laser cut some light boxes using the same slot and holes for light structure. 

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Shadows 3

Test Subject: Eric ‘Eazy E’ Wright

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Shadows 2

Test Subject: Aravanh

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Shadows

Another cool observation through playing around with my experiments. Ceartes cool shadows

Test subject: Talking Krit