Photos from stalking:

People are always balancing their belongings to share with the table

He's happy, huh?

Mmm sharing the space like a true lazy champion

This man actually has two friends, it's hard to tell though. 

Gotta love society...

The stalker.

Throughout the past few weeks I've been a professional stalker in order to research different accessories for technology.

...And I generally despise this topic. I suppose, in my head, a handheld/high-use technology shouldn't need accessories.
Or, they shouldn't need more than what's already around.
As a designer, I know that I should always find a problem in any situation, but I honestly think there is a concept of "too much" when it comes to designing accessories.

Regardless of that sentiment, I also think designing something so common and pointless is a good lesson in business practice. This is a whole lot less of sharing my strengths as a designer, and a lot more "sell it and make it count."

On that note, everything that I've focused on has involved food (no surprise if you know me)
How do people interact with their technology in an open environment?
What comes first? Your sandwich or your boyfriend's text?

The issue is, people in public still consider the phone to be a completely taboo device.
One on one conversations should never be replaced with One on Phone.
Which leads me to my problem:
How are we going to comfortably incorporate the private texter/phonecaller into a public environment...

In my opinion, the solutions for this problem rely more in a system than a product..but a product is what my end result has to be.
Hum. 

On a side note: Here's the silver ring I lost.

Blah.

A few photos from the day

Like I said, I don't want to design just stuff. 

This is increasingly harder to research, since my easiest way of approaching/researching strangers is to take stalker photos.

Need some guts.

But for those people that smile, my interest is held much more:

They cradle their cameras and baby their headphones. They hold on to these objects to keep them safe and get through the day.

I spent the day photographing random citizens of San Francisco

I wanted to research the different ways people used the stuff they carried. 

And then my wallet was stolen.

What started out as a day of photographing random phones and cameras ended in:

1) Me considering what was really important (to me) in that wallet : A little silver ring I had made. The first piece of jewelry I'd ever created.

2) How I wish I had realized my missing wallet sooner.

3) My complete lack of motivation for designing accessories for technology.

This isn't me giving up...it's really a sign that I'm going to put more thought into this project. I have new incentive to make this more than just a product.

I'm interested in what really matters to people, and that's normally not something you can just make for them.

   I don't see myself making the wedding rings you've cherished for 20+ years. But how many artists really know the future of their work? 

There's still an opportunity here to design something that can harbor the same amount of appreciation as that silver ring I miss. 
Here's to hoping this motivation doesn't completely plummet halfway through the semester.

Before college, I never thought that you could sand metal. Silly me.

Belated final photos of my wire rack.

I dipped the copper hand in a patina to give it an aged black appearance.

Normally this holds all of my necklaces easily (the joints in the fingers separate the different chains)...but seeing as I've been moving, all of those trinkets are packed.