Keyring

DES100 - CCC

Inspiration

for my keyring I drew inspiration from several places

Leather

Brass

apple watch strap

While In do not own an apple watch I am a big fan of this particular watch band design. I appreciate how the bumps in the strap give a novel texture to the leather I tried to experiment with this texture on my keyring

Boat spirit level

This spirit level used to belong to my grandfather and I absolutely love its design, I have always wanted to work with brass so I took the opportunity to incorporate the material into my keyring

I began with some concept sketches for the keyring. I knew I wanted to incorporate leather and brass into the keyring so I focused on that, the keyring also incorporated a D ring or a spiral ring on which the keys can be attached. When I began concepting the keyrings were very round, as I continued they began to stretch out into more of a keystrap. I liked this direction because the strap added more utility to the object as the strap could be used to grab the keyring. the design that I chose to progress with is the design in the top right corner with an added brass plate for the logo to be placed on.

Logo Design

when designing my logo I wanted to use my initials H.H these would provide interesting possibilities with adding symmetry and multidirectionality to my logo. I focused on drawing potential logos in small circles in the corner of the canvass because the logo needs to be easily readable from a distance.

experiments

to test out the readability of my final logo I laser etched it onto my craft knife, as you can see even when the logo has been damaged and is held at a distance it is still readable

Final piece

reflection

over the past week of using my keyring in daily life I am satisfied with its utility. one concern that I have is the logo is beginning to wear off of the brass, I believe this can be solved by utilizing a stronger etching mode on the laser cutter. another thing that is wearing away is texture on the leather, I think this can be solved by pressing the leather harder and for longer. the most significant lesson I learnt while undertaking this project was a lesson about ergonomics, initially I made the strap far to long. the strap was more than too big for my hand and the keychain did not fit in my pocket. this lesson will aid me in my design explorations going forward as it has given me a new awareness of how the things I design relate to the real world and must satisfy certain physical constraints