Habit of Mind: Collaborate

Habit of Mind: Express

Core Skill: Material Exploration

Project Paragraph

Growth Paragraph

Core Skill: Concept Development

My clock puzzle, titled Time Teasers, is a puzzle where you use posters and clocks around the room to get a four-digit code to enter into a combination lock. The project started with the idea that clocks could help create an interesting puzzle. While brainstorming, I came up with the idea that you could get numbers through subtracting one hand from another. The first time anyone tried to solve it, they had no way of knowing you needed subtraction so I made a math clue and a hand clue to help point them in the right direction. After adding these hints, the puzzle was much more successful. The next step was improving the clues and clocks to make them more accurate and realistic, and we made many prototypes. In its final form, the puzzle works by helping escapees make the connection between subtraction and the clock hands using the math and hand poster. Afterwards, solvers will do the math from subtracting the small hand from the big hand. Next, they will put the numbers in order based on the clock and its order on the four-part puzzle. Finally, they will put this code into a combination lockbox and get the name after opening the box. My puzzle is meaningful because there are a lot of clues and connections the solver can make to help them solve the puzzle and help give them the sense of accomplishment after solving each part of the puzzle.

In this studio, my main goal was to improve on skills related to prototyping and coming up with ideas, as well as using as many materials as possible in order to best introduce myself to the NuVu tools. I would say that in these ways I was most successful, and despite my original goals being more related to ideas and collaboration, later on in the project I became more comfortable with a variety of tools and materials and improved towards higher-fidelity physical fabrication. Specifically, the final week of this studio I worked with laser cutting, 3d printing, and used Figma to create images. This week was important to my growth as a designer because it is very representative of my progress throughout the studio, and the speed at which I created my prototypes helped show me my progress throughout the month. This project overall helped me improve at utilizing NuVu’s different types of equipment and ways of creating prototypes and served as a great introduction to Rhino, the shop, and the 3d printer. My goals shifted more towards the end of the studio, but still overall I am happy with my progress.