The First Year ID Experience: Shoe Fin Project

By Dohadavathi Nalluru, Freshman Industrial Design Student

The shoe fin project is the second project of the Industrial Design 1 Studio class. Students choose a shoe and replicate it as a fin model out of chipboard. The main focus is on the observation and charting of points in three-dimensional space.

Looking at the models done by previous Design 1 students displayed in the DEC Center on campus, at first it seemed that producing work of similar quality wasn’t possible. However, a detailed explanation of the process and help from our professors, Mark Havens and Christina Kazakia, made the path clearer and gave us the tools and techniques to do the project. We learned how to develop a hierarchy of design features, how to chart them across multiple fins and how to give our unique touch to the project, too. Making our own measuring device and learning to use it as well as creating two generations of the model were all done in a month. The first generation, or the “solid fin model”, was a great kickstart towards the “final hollow fin” model. This project refined our observation, time management, craftsmanship, and design thinking skills. It’s the foundation for turning a student mindset into an industrial designer mindset.

I have always loved looking into products, which led me to industrial design. I can see how much this project has taught me as I move forward in the program. Not only me but also the whole class of freshmen could feel their observation and fabrication skills increase through this process. The day we were done with the entire project, we all knew that our approach towards analyzing or designing a product wouldn’t be the same, but a lot better than before.