Advanced Wood Products Laboratory

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Project 3 "Designer's Choice " assignment

Project 3 Designer's Choice

Objectives: To further explore programming for the CNC machines and design for manufacturing. To focus on furniture design developed within the categories of the IWF competition. To gain national exposure for the student, AWPL and Georgia Tech through competition.

Deliverables: 1. 2D Design concepts

2. ¼ Scale Model

3. Color/finish swatch

4. Tally of time and money spent on the creation of the project. This includes an itemized parts list

5. Full set of CAD drawings in AlphaCAM

6. Presentation board highlighting manufacturing techniques and features

7. Completed piece of high quality furniture

Each student is expected to design a very high quality piece of furniture to be submitted to the IWF Design Emphasis furniture competition. This is a national competition that invites all collegiate furniture design students to participate, of which approximately 75 are selected as finalists. Approximately 250 pieces are entered. There are cash prizes awarded to the Best of Show, Category Winners, Merit Awards and Honorable Mention pieces.

Each student will pick a category within which to design their piece. The categories are: Seating, Case Goods, Occasional, Contract, Ready to Assemble, and Design Creativity. Within your chosen category, you will design and build one piece of fully functional furniture. The piece must meet the criteria of the competition. Further information will be provided on the specifics at the time of the project.

During the project, each student will present concepts and a ¼ scale model of their project to the class. The concepts can be sketches, renderings, computer models, etc. You will present a minimum of 3 concepts to the class. The scale model can be of materials of your choice.

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. As part of this exercise, you will provide an itemized list of parts/materials required for your project with realistic retail costs.

Prior to the completion of the furniture piece, each student will create a swatch board of the materials used in the project to illustrate different finishes, paints, stains etc. Each sample size should be at least 4” square and labeled with a description of finishes used.

Each student will create a presentation board measuring 22” x 28” that explains in words and images the function of the piece as well as any specifically interesting features that may not be readily apparent. This board will be used if the piece is chosen as a finalist in the competition.

The resultant furniture deemed worthy by the instructor will be entered into the IWF Design Emphasis Student Design Competition. This event is held in Atlanta in August of 2008. Finalists in this competition will have their furniture placed on display at the Georgia World Congress Center for the duration of the show.