Biomimicry Children's Toy
Pineapple Ukulele
Drawing for Design/ Computer Aided Product Design
2017
This assignment was first introduced to me by my Drawing for Design professor at the end of my freshman year. Our assignment was to look at forms in nature, draw them, study them, and pull inspiration to incorporate into a product of our own. After I fleshed out all of my ideas and sketches, there was one that excited me the most. The forms created when a pineapple and a ukulele were combined to produce a fun fusion of instrument and fruit. Also, their fun themes incorporated seamlessly and created a product I was confident would bring joy to the general public and children specifically.
During my Computer-aided Product Design class sophomore year, the class was asked to create a product from previous sketches and bring it to life using 3D modeling on the program Rhinoceros. My mind went instantly to the all the work I put in the year before developing the Pineapple Ukulele and I knew I had to create it on a digital platform.
A traditional ukulele has a flat surface on the front and back, I decided to draw inspiration from the curves a pineapple possesses to make the ukuleles a streamline form. This created a more natural fit into someone’s torso when they play it.
Since the targeted consumer I had in mind was children from the age of 2-7, I added an exaggerated pineapple texture to the back of the Ukulele for increased texture stimulation. The addition of bright colors added another element of amusement to the toy and a pop of color to the traditional color scheme.
Overall this project was an amazing experience to see how much work it takes to develop a product from initial conception, to finalized sketches, then 3D modeling within a digital platform. As a designer, it was a very beneficial process and I learned the importance of detail-oriented work, simple designs, and the perseverance it takes to see a project all the way through to production.
