Nookshelf. 3D + Graphic Design. 2022.
The Nookshelf, made by me and three of my peers, was a design solution to a real life issue. We worked with the Mar Vista Family Center in Culver City and learned the experiences of many of their members, specifically looking for things that could be improved at the center. Through various conversations, we ended up hearing from many of the students and staff that there were few places to get real quiet alone time. Additionally, they lacked storage spaces and the library bookshelves they had were overfilled and starting to fall apart. The Nookshelf is a design solution to specifically target these 3 issues: lack of private/quiet space, lack of storage, need for more/new bookshelves. (Continued below...)
Though the Nookshelf (as seen above) was our final solution, it was a process to get there. We began by drafting ideas about solving their lack of storage spaces. At first, we sketched out many different modular shelving units but it was missing something that made it different to other products already on the market and addressed only one of the many issues we heard about.
The four of us had many more brainstorming sessions which led us to our first iteration of our final design (seen below on the right). We decided we wanted to make a bookshelf with not only shelves, but a place to sit alone and read, and extra storage for things other than books.
We then worked on prototyping a scale model of what we wanted our Nookshelf to look like. I personally took on calculating the exact measurements for the sized down models and the full size cut file that we would later laser cut.
As we refined our physical design, we also delved into the brand assets of the Nookshelf. The four of us discussed and drafted a variety of name ideas, logo ideas, catchphrases, colors, and typefaces we could use to best promote and brand this product.
Once we picked out our brand assets it was time to put everything together. One weekend the four of us finally got to building, rented a uhaul to move the Nookshelf, and presented and delivered it to the family center. It didn't take long for the Nookshelf to get settled in its new home with visitors and even decorations.
