Advanced Wood Products Laboratory

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Project 2 "Crate & Barrel Project " assignment

Project 3 "Designer's Choice " assignment

Project 2 The Crate & Barrel Project

Objectives: To work with a national retailer to gain an understanding of the complexities of the retail furniture market, price points and customer expectations while designing furniture geared towards their customer base. To take an idea from sketch to a fully functional, producible piece of furniture. To learn about and use CNC tools used in production.

Deliverables:

1. 2D Design concepts

2.         Three ¼ Scale Models
3.         Color/finish swatch
4.         One full scale mockup
5.         Tally of time and money spent on the creation of the project.
6.         Full set of CAD drawings in AlphaCAM
7.         Assembly instructions for furniture
8.         Price Point iterations/presentation board
9.         Completed piece of furniture

Each student is expected to design and build a complete, high quality piece of furniture based on input from Crate & Barrel. We will be working closely with C&B throughout the project to gain insight into the needs of their client base. Each student will design a piece of furniture for either the dining, media bedroom or office collection for either C&B or CB2. The majority of the furniture piece must be made on the CNC router at AWPL to emphasize the manufacturability of the piece. There is a 20 point penalty for not following this requirement.

During the beginning stage of the project, each student will present a minimum of 6 concepts to the class in the form of sketches, renderings, computer models, etc. Following this, you will present at three ¼ scale models to C&B of your refined ideas.

After further refinement of the initial designs one full scale model will be presented again to C&B. This model can be foam core, MDF, or other materials. Along with this full scale mock up, each student will present a color swatch board that represents the final colors and materials of the piece. The swatch board should be labeled and presented in a professional manner. Upon completion of this model, the student will begin final refinement and construction of the final furniture piece.

As part of the project, price points will either be assigned or chosen by the student. The student is expected to create two additional design iterations to cover a low, medium and high priced version of their singular piece. You will choose the two price points that are not represented by your furniture piece. This could be a change in finish, materials, color, hardware, etc. These iterations will be in the form of illustrations and written descriptions, not actual furniture pieces.

Tracking of your time will also be an integral part of this project. You will receive a time sheet on which you will give an estimation of the prototype cost, and then track your actual costs for prototyping.

Finally, you will be creating full CAD drawings of your piece in AlphaCAM. This is the program used to run the CNC machines at AWPL. You will use these drawings as the basis of the assembly/use instructions that you will provide at the final presentation. These instructions should be of the highest quality that you would receive with your product.

The final presentation will be to C&B staff where you will display your furniture, 18”x24” presentation board with price point iterations, and assembly/use instructions. If it is determined by the instructor that your furniture does not meet the standards required by the class, you will not be permitted to present to C&B. You will still receive a grade based on the quality of your final product.