3D Design: Inter School Challenge

 

Challenge: To produce an authentic version of the logo for another school.

This challenge was based around our junior school students taking a design from another school and taking that design and replicating it in a 3D environment to test our students CAD design skills.

We went through a number of stages with this project.  

The first was we took the logo from a prominent Auckland ADS where we are connected via a staff member.  Our students have no prior knowledge of the school, having not been aware of it or visited it before.  To do that we looked at the school website, discussed the character of the school and used tools such as Google Earth to build some knowledge about the school and the area.   Our school is very much a rural school in New Zealand, the Gardens School is urban in Auckland, New Zealand s largest city.

One of the longest discussions with our students prior to any creation focussed on the logo itself and the different features of it.   We stressed to the students about the different aspects of the design and how we could replicate it authentically.   There are some design tasks in the past that we will not attempt on the basis of making sure that is appropriate to do so. 

When we have been producing iPhone and iPad stands we have occasionally used the Versa Sign Maker to produce a finished product such as shown in this example.  In this instance we wanted to challenge the students design skills to focus on a design we felt they could replicate.

The different aspects of the font, the 'flashes' that were around the koru all proved to be challenging for the students.  We gave them physical copies of the logo and then discussed their attempts.  We focussed on the logo itself, compared it to the original and then looked at positioning, size and detail.  The students were given a free choice with the design template from Tinkercad.   Most opted for 'scribble' which allowed them to attempt the logo, although several also tried to create the logo using the geometric shapes of the main Tinkercad interface.

The feedback given to the students allowed them to modify the designs and swap ideas with each other.  The next step was to take the designs and look at using the AR/VR function of Tinkercad to project them at various locations around our school.  This also allowed the students to experiment with the scale of the designs and how it might look in a different background and environment.   By rotating and flipping the design they also could ask themselves what it might look like from different angles.

An example is like the one shown left, this basic design when projected onto the School field using the Tinkercad App and the students iPad made the object appear several stories high (in this case about 8 metres/26 feet).   There is no green screening etc required to complete this - using the iPad the students can project it at any location and the size of what they can project can be easily manipulated either small and detailed (such as #Tinkercadhunt) or oversized and attention getting (such as Ollie the Octopus).   This also allowed students to again view the design and look at the details when compared to the original.   If you compare the location of the Koru in the design left and the 'flashes' location again refinement can be seen to be needed.  This student also used the ability to change the Tinkercad design colour to accurately depict the colours from the original design.   

The next step was to incorporate the design from the students into something that we would describe as practical.  The starting point for this was the 2025 School Market Day - we created a bank of products from this event each of which could be personalised and these each could be adapted for the school - so we could make a 'The Gardens School' nightlight, glow-in-the-dark Minecraft Garden Nightlight or The Gardens Flexi Christmas Tree, iPad stand etc.

Multiple times we have mentioned on this blog the creation, the designs and the 'making' process which leads the students to create to innovate and make but might not lead each project to a 3D Print and this is another example of this.   We have started the process of selecting certain designs from the class of twenty five to look into aspects of the printing.

There is an entire detailed slideshow showing non 3D Printing projects (which are designed using an iPad and Tinkercad but do not lead to printing) located at the tab here.

The first example show left took one hour on the Bambu H2D and was designed by an eight year old student.   The student used Tinkercad, their iPad, the iPad App and the scratch tool in Tinkercad to produce this print.

We are now using this as an example and taking it back to the original question posed to the students - how close is this to the original? What needs to be refined from the design to make it more accurate? A logical next step for the students would be colour matching with the design - as the Bambu H2D can print multiple colours at one time.   The other other obvious aspect is that the print is currently a static print that is 100mm by 100mm and took one hour to print.   By introducing a hole through the design it would convert easily to a keyring.

However this is all dependent on the print, the project and the process being successful as judged by the school - we want the design, the process to be as authentic and accurate as possible to ensure that is ultimately successful.