Sustainability

One of my most recent assignments for class was to make a personal seating device entirely out of cardboard. This was our second project working with this medium, but now on a much larger scale. The requirements were to make sure the chair was personalized, and that it functioned. We basically had the liberty to do what we wanted with it.

With endless possibilities, I finally narrowed my initial design to a sort of lounging chair. I sketched out a chair that would be low to the ground with arm rests and a foot rest. After going over this design with my instructor, he suggested I simplify it a bit due to time constraints. I decided to keep the look of the first chair I drew, but take off the foot rest, raise it off the ground, and make a large back.

After figuring out the proportions of the height and width of the seat, customized to my size, I began thinking about how I would be putting it together with all of the cardboard. We had learned some different techniques for cardboard use, but I needed to decide which method to implement with my chair to make sure people could sit in it.

Originally, I was going to paint a city-scene on my chair, but I finished the assembly a few days before the due date and I didn't want to rush the painting. Instead, I covered the chair in paper to give it a finished look. Leaving it blank really allowed me to realize how marketable something like this could be. I think it has a lot of potential. People could decorate their chairs however they please!