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This product was created through a collaboration with:

Project Goal

Giving a useful second life to Norwood's excess clear acrylic was the teams main goal. The school didn't give any specific product they wanted us to create, so the design team was free to explore a variety of avenues.

Design Constraints

Our main design constraint was that we had to use the acrylic that the school district provided us with. This meant working with strange measurements, an unusually thick material (5/32 of an inch), rounded corners, and scratches in the acrylic. That was not the only size, however. Norwood also provided us with 1/8" thick acrylic dividers. It seemed the 1/8" dividers were in better condition.

We were also faced with a decision as to who we were designing for. In the beginning we designed for both teachers and students, however as we refined our designs, we decided to design for the students. With them as the target consumer, it gave us more opportunities.

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Sketching Process

A number of sketches were drawn up in preparation of this project. The school board did not give us any constraints on what we were allowed to design, simply that it had to be useable by the school in some way.

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Modeling Process

For simplicity sake, our final design was the stencil set design. The school board expressed the most interest in this design and it would be the easiest for us to manufacture.

Modeling Process

Our more complex design idea was a Tangram pencil case. This combined the practicality of a pencil case with the brain exercise that a Tangram provides. The downside of this design is that is would have required more added materials on our end, which the school district was not interested in.

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Prototyping Process

The first prototype model came out successful. The original concern with the design was that the acrylic may be thin in some places, but after running this test, those worries were put to bed. From here, we proceeded with confidence.

We originally tested on the 5/32" acrylic, but after finding out how sturdy the material was, we tested on the 1/8" acrylic.

We felt that our initial tests we sufficient and we swiftly moved onto the final models.

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Final Models

For the final stencils, 1/8" acrylic was optimal. This thickness would allow for pens and pencils to reach the paper when drawing. 5/32" would was too thick.

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