Aesthetics have always been hard for me. I never particularly cared about my appearance, and, while I have certainly made leaps and bounds in choice of clothing and furniture since my youth, I am still certainly not an aesthetically inclined individual. This likely comes from the influences I had growing up, as well as my tendency to “like what I like”, despite clashes that may arise.
My largest influences upon appearance growing up were my family members, as well as the media I consumed. With a civil engineer for a father, and three uncles in similar engineering or architectural fields, clothing aesthetics were never really a focus. A pair of jeans or sweatpants and a sweatshirt or a flannel was their work uniform most days. As such, I followed suit. Furthermore, my favorite television shows featured characters who were never the best dressed. From Jerry Seinfeld to Joey Tribbiani to Dr. Leonard Hofstadter, my favorite media influences never were particularly picky with their outfits or furnishings.
Above is Dr. Leonard Hofstadter, played by Johnny Galecki, from the television series The Big Bang Theory.
Above is Joey Tribbiani, played by Matt Leblanc, from the television series Friends.
Above is Jerry Seinfeld, from the television series Seinfeld.
Despite all of these influences working against me, I believe that I have fabricated a sort of aesthetic of my own. I have always had a particular fondness for the outdoors and foliage, as well as for coffee shops. Exposed wood, vibrant plants, and a sort of functional comfort within clothing and my environment has proven to be my favorite style. My recent “Miniaturized Coffee Shop” table for our upcyling project is proof of this, as I have long loved the coffee shop style.
I think that my final will be an automated coffee-maker, where the actual pot and internals are hidden from the user, behind a set of automatic doors, making use of an Arduino to create the automatic processes. I have a rough sketch of the idea for the piece, and I will get started right away, making sure to utilize the same coffee house aesthetic that I love to much.
Below is a rough sketch of my final project.
Citations:
Crane , David. Friends , NBC , 1994.
David, Larry, and Jerry Seinfeld . Seinfeld , NBC , 1989.
Lore , Chuck, and Bill Prady . The Big Bang Theory , CBS , 2007.
6 Comments. Leave new
I really like the path of finding your aesthetic as I felt very similar trying to find my own aesthetic. Not necessarily abiding to any simple or preconceived aesthetics and defining your own. I also enjoy the idea of the automated coffee machine, good luck!
Thank you!
Hi Riley, this sounds like such a cool idea. I’m really interested to see where this goes, especially since I don’t think automatic coffee pots are the most aesthetically pleasing. How big do you think it’s going to be?
I’m planning on having a roughly a 1 square foot base with a height of about a foot and a half.
This sounds like a very cool idea. I was wondering if you know what type of mechanism you will build to open the doors as i am planning to incorporate this idea to my project as well
I think I will just use either DC or stepper motors and an Arduino to open the doors.