Students’ products inspired by Crate & Barrel, Room & Board, more; share final project experience in photo essay
Menomonie, Wis. – The warm, sweet, earthy smell of fresh sawdust, the roaring sound of bandsaws and ventilation hoses, and the shush-shush-shush rhythm of sandpaper on wood grain greet you as you walk down the long ramp tucked away on the first floor of the Applied Arts Building.
Tie your hair back and put on your safety glasses, because you’re about to enter UW-Stout’s Process Lab. Each year, one thousand School of Art & Design students visit the Process Lab – a space for them to bring their creative concepts to fruition.
This week, industrial and product design students are building their final projects – “entryway assistants” – for their Product Form and Visualization course, led by Associate Professor Dan Neubauer.
Follow three students’ design processes in a photo essay.
Their entryway assistants need to at least hold one coat or other items their clients deem important. The project encompasses the full design process – market research, concept sketches, form studies, iterations, low-fidelity prototypes, and final models built of wood and metal.
“The unwritten course objective is the life skills that they’re building,” Neubauer said. Quoting design expert Don Norman, he adds that, “Good design is invisible,” meaning the “best designs are those that seamlessly integrate into our lives.”
Aaron Burnham agrees. “Most good designs we use, we don’t even notice. We don’t even think twice about,” he said.
Think of how often you enter and leave your home. How often do you hang up your coat or remove it from a hook to throw it on before stepping out into the cold? How often do you use an item as simple as a coat hook and not even appreciate its simplicity and utility?
Burnham’s entryway assistant design is based on a link in a chain. “I was inspired by the simple shape and desire to create something that was sculptural and visually appealing, even when it isn’t being used as a coat hanger. It was important to me to create something that served multiple purposes, both functional and purely aesthetic,” he said.
He has two designs – one is 8 inches tall and the second is 16 inches. He initially thought of creating a 36-inch-tall chain link but went with the smaller sizes to keep it simple, while providing options.
Burnham is building the links of cherrywood and curved stainless steel pipes, with a chrome finish. The metal pipes are sunk into the cherrywood to join the two elements together.
The links are fixed to the wall via two posts inserted into the back of the link, so that it will sit out from the wall, giving it depth and making it appear as if the coats are floating as they rest atop the design.
Burnham researched CB2, a sister company of Crate & Barrel, but with a more eclectic vibe, he said. Many of CB2’s designs have Greek and Latin names, and Burnham is hoping to find a link – no pun intended – to the word “chain” as he decides on a name for his entryway assistant, which he’s building for his fiancé, Hannah, and their home.
Across the lab, Alex Koszarek’s freestanding 6-foot-tall oak-frame coat rack is designed for college students living in shared houses. The coat rack is 36 inches wide and 12 inches deep and can hold six jackets and six pairs of shoes. The sides of the frame are arched.
“My goal was to make something functional for tight, chaotic student spaces – something that would support coats, backpacks, shoes and other essentials without feeling bulky,” she said.
She researched IKEA as her design company, “focusing on their warm, organic aesthetic, and simple forms and clean lines that feel at home in any interior,” she said. She’s waiting for inspiration to strike to name her design – possibly a Swedish name to follow IKEA’s model?
To shape the coat hooks, Koszarek cuts and bends 16-gauge metal plates and mills out the oak frame, so the plates sit flush within. Working with Machinist Doug Stodola, she inserts countersinks to secure the plates to the frame.
She cuts and planes slats for the two shoe shelves and meticulously spaces the slats, forming a balanced latticework. Each shelf has a curved edge.
“The curved arch forms and layered shelves come from wanting the piece to feel friendly and easy to use,” she said. To create the arch forms, Instrument Shop Coordinator Deano Samens crafted a custom steamer for Koszarek – based on the concept of a garment steamer hooked up to a PVC pipe. The oak planks are placed in a pipe, which is filled with hot water. The wood is steamed for eight hours in a steamer. The planks are then clamped onto a curved wooden frame – crafted by Koszarek – to dry, forming the arch.
“Students learn that an idea might look nice on their laptop or sketchbook, but now the challenge begins of ‘how do you make it?’ How do you turn a concept into a real object?” Samens said. “That’s the cool part about Stout’s polytechnic model: Students are actively engaged in the making process.
“In their future careers, they may work with engineers who might say something can’t be done, but here, the designers can say, ‘Yes, it can. I’ve done it before.’ It’s key that they learn their limitations here, as well as the steps they can take to succeed. These students have a grasp on what is possible,” Samens added.
The Process Lab is more than a wood shop. In one corner of the room, you notice heavy plastic curtains and the sharp smell of heat on metal. Inside the welding area, you don on a green flame-resistant welding jacket and helmet.
“The benefit of the Process Lab is that all the students are creating in one room. Everything they need to complete their projects is right here,” Neubauer said. “If I need to show or demo a tool, we can gather in one space. And if they need my assistance, I’m right here. We don’t have to walk across campus to another facility. Our classroom is right upstairs, and we come down to the lab when we’re ready for the build process.”
At a welding table, Jackson Killinger ignites a torch and practices connecting trial T-bars in preparation for creating metal shelving.
Having previously worked as a welder, Killinger’s 83-inch-tall design is heavily constructed of metal. His entryway assistant mounts over the top of a window frame, with a wooden shelf that rests on top and another that rests on the windowsill. Two metal shelves sit at angles toward the base of the frame, serving as shoe racks.
His entryway assistant is inspired by Room & Board and Crate & Barrel designs, with clean, angular lines and a modern look. It is a gift for his wife, Caroline. As his client for the project, “She’s given a lot of input to my design,” he said. Maybe he’ll name his design for her?
‘Engineer-thinking and artistic expression’
As a welder and woodworker, Killinger likes to work with his hands. “Industrial design allows me to be creative and use my skills. It’s a good middle area, where I can have a reliable career,” he said.
Koszarek has always been drawn to hands-on problem-solving and creating objects that people interact with daily.
“Growing up, I analyzed how certain things were made, and I started thinking about how this thing could be made easier for interactions. Industrial and product design is a healthy mix between engineer-thinking and artistic expression, and that’s what truly pulled me into the program,” she said.
On the flipside, up until about two years ago, Burnham didn’t know that industrial and product design was a career field.
“What drew me to industrial design was the fact that I would have the opportunity to work on projects that could create an impact on people’s lives and solve problems that others might not recognize. I can work to understand people and apply that understanding in iterative and creative ways,” he said.
UW-Stout’s School of Art & Design offers bachelor’s degrees in animation and digital media; game design and development-art; graphic design and interactive media; illustration; industrial and product design; interior design; studio art; arts administration and entrepreneurship; fashion design and development; and video production, and an M.F.A. in design. UW-Stout also has a new program in game and media studies.
UW-Stout, a member of the Universities of Wisconsin, is Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University, with a focus on applied learning, collaboration with business and industry, and career outcomes. Learn more via the FOCUS2030 strategic plan.
