Atomic Coat-hooks (Concepts and early modelling)

Concept generation: Web of ideas

- I wanted to emphasize that ideas exist in and of themselves, regardless of their inclusion in a single design or product. 

- For that reason, I did not generate any one design, instead opting to break down designs concepts into their 'atomic' or modular component ideas; To be rearranged into cohesive a final design. 

- I also wanted to note that ideas are not owned. Ideas are held and once someone grasps an idea, no one can take it away from them. Copyright and patent law are the death of design.

- Ideas I generated are detailed in the included images for this section. 

 

Concept refinement: The rod and hooks 

Evaluation: 

Honestly, nobody in my group really knew how to approach or grade my ideas. 2 of them filled out evaluation charts for me, and I did one myself, but we all used different methods to grade it. I think my approach makes the most sense as I knew what I was getting at so I will summarize only my own thoughts here. I will not be ranking them as I don't think the numerical ranking is very helpful for my work.  

Functionality:

- Separated wall mount and hooks/hangers. Not intrinsically tied to one another. 

- Originally I wanted an extendable rod/wall mount, but I realized that system would be clunky and unstable. Instead, the wall mount will be in three pieces. 2 screw-mounted, inset bolts, and a threaded rod connecting them. By replacing the threaded rod with a longer rod, you can effectively increase the mount's carrying capacity. 

-  Highly versatile. Because the wall mount is akin to a cylinder, anything that can loop around it can be hung up. This includes common household objects such as coat hangers and carabiners. I will also be putting together a design for a 3d-printed hook to go along with the wall mount, though due to the fact they are being designed independently of  another, they can both work with out without each other.

- Because the coats are not hung up merely by a hooking motion but are fastened to the rod, they are far less likely to drop or be dropped than a traditional coat hook.  

Aesthetic appeal: 

I'm going to be using lots of found parts and doing post-print assembly work for my design. There will be exposed threads on the rod, and the hooks themselves can be any combination of holes fasteners. The goal is for my design to be cheap and easy to construct at home. For this reason, I don't think the question of aesthetic appeal is applicable to my concept, though I personally find messy combinations of colours and styles to be appealing.

User Experience: 

- The user experience, like with the aesthetic appeal will depend on how exactly the user decides to make their own version of my idea. 

- However, at a bare minimum, to install the wall mount, they will need to screw 8 holes into a desired surface and spin the threaded rod into a bolt 4 times. 

- They will also have put up the pieces of the wall mount in a specific order or risk misaligning the screw points. All of this adds up to something imaginably annoying. 

- Post-assembly however, I think the hook system will be a lot more inviting. 

- Coats can be pushed across the rod freely for people to sort through, making finding your coat in a stack much simpler and they will be secured to the rod using some sort of opening and closing loop (like a carabiner), meaning you are far less likely to disturb another's coat during that search.

Initial 3d model:

2 wall mounts with inset holes for bolts and the threaded rod to connect them