Cow-ffee

Mood Board

I actually developed the concept for my mood board after selecting the route that I wanted to go for my cup holder and choosing my final design. Since my final design would ideally remain on my desk in my room at home, I wanted to maintain the overall aesthetic that had already been established which consisted of various shades of blue, black and white, along with paint and LED-type lights.

Preliminary Sketches

Prior to sketching, I had already decided that I wanted to do utilize the heat gun quite frequently and do a lot of heat bending in the process of developing my prototype.

In my first set of sketches, I created a few study cases of how I would bend the acrylic if my design was purely organic and did not have much structure to it--making the basis of the whole design depend on the contours of the bent acrylic.

In my second set of sketches, I focused on cow themed mug since they are one of my favorite animals. Also, since I have a cow painting above my desk, I thought it would tie in that theme to my room at home. 

Lastly, my final sketch is a more refined rendering of what my final design would look like in  more natural setting. 

Laser Cutting

Below is a a CAD drawing of the design, along with the final laser cut product prior to heat bending.

Progress Shots

This is another progression shot of when I was bending the acrylic with the heat gun. I used a cow-shaped cookie cutter in order to form the acrylic to that shape. The pencil was used to push the acrylic into the contours of the cookie cutter so that it would cool in that shape with a more defined edge. 

Final Product

Below shows the finished product of my cup holder once the cow-shaped handle was attached, along with a zoomed in version to show a little bit more of the detailing.