Deck Chair

To start off our second year we have been given our project briefs the second part of our briefs are SEED projects, these will be short day projects. The projects that we do on these days we can then expand for our second term of subject.

The first Seed project we have done is to do with Deckchairs. In this day project we were given large pieces of paper to create design sheets and then we had the chance to make small maquetts out of costa stirrers and other materials we could find. The elements that we could look at were the style, shape, size and scale, material, purpose and storage.

I wanted to look at the storage of the deckchair. A general deck chair folds flat, but I know form experience that when those go in the garage they are known to fall over and sometimes if they are made out of wood they can be heavy and still very bulky when they are folded down. I wanted to try to design a chair that folds down to be a lot smaller and easier in a way to fold down. I also wanted to design a chair that would make you sit up straighter. I find deck chairs very had to sit comfortably on them because you lean back so far that you are laying down, and if I’m tired I will fall asleep very easily and probably get burnt in the sun.

To start off I looked at lots of different deck chairs, the elements that fold down on them and if I think they would be comfy to actually sit on.

The first deck chair I looked at was a “average” deck chair, the kind you can borrow from the beach to sit on. The main elements of these chairs are the fixings; these fixings make it easy to fold down and change the angle your sitting at. On this one that I found you can change the angle by moving the back bit up and down to the desired slot, I think that a good design element to include because then the person sitting in the chair can choose how far they want to lay back. The only thing is how high can you have the slots? They generally give you two or three to choose from but if you wanted to sit up straighter like I do could you add more slots in and would it actually be comfy?

The second one I looked at was a little different to the first one in the way it has storage underneath and a hood. The good is handy for if you need a break from being in direct sunlight. The only problem with this deckchair is that the main frame looks very big, so I can imagine that storage would be interesting for this because of the sheer size of it. The added elements make it a very “fancy” kind of deck chair but if those added bits makes the frame bigger in my eyes for the element I want to change makes the design worse. Although it does look very comfy and the shade element on it makes it really good especially for small children it just doesn’t fold up enough for my liking.

The third one I looked at was one I know very well. This one is pretty simple with the crossed legs to allow the two sides to fold down together; it then allows the back and the arms to fold down along side. This design makes the chairs height smaller but makes the width of the folded chair double the size of the original folded deck chair. In a way this design is good that you make the folded down chair smaller in height but it does still have a slight problem with storage, I know that these chairs can be stored standing up on their legs which means that it doesn’t need to be lent up against a wall. This is a good element but I still find it a little bit too bulky still.

After looking at a few different deckchairs I thought I would do a few drawings based on other deck chairs that I saw online and see if I find one I think I could change around with it and make it out of the materials we were given.

To start off my drawings I started with an “average” deckchair in the middle. I then looked at a few different elements that I could change.

Towards the top right I looked at the angle of the chair to see if I could make it sit up straighter. After looking at the elements of the design I thought I would give up with that one because I was thinking in the way of someone sitting in it and if they would actually be comfy. I decided that actually, no someone isnt going to be comfy in it, because actually when you rent one of these chairs from the beach you expect to be relaxing on the beach you don’t really want to be sitting up straight on something like this.

Then I thought a hanging chair would be interesting to make. I then moved on to that it could be like a normal wooden chair that hangs, maybe a recycled one where its an old dining room chair without legs that hangs. Then moved on to it being just material but thought that you might get a little swallowed up by the material when you sit on it. So to change that I thought a wooden frame for the material like a normal deck chair have. After thinking about this one for a while I was thinking actually how are you going to take that anywhere with you it would just be a static chair that if you wanted to go anywhere with this chair you cant unless you get the event to come to your chair.

After that I then did the same thing of a static chair, which is a mistake but I wanted to look at the different materials that I could use. To the bottom right I thought that a static chair would be interesting but didn’t like them again because you cant take them anywhere. The two chairs I drew one was a small one and one where you could lie down like one you find round a pool, where you can change the height you are sitting at or if you want it laying down you could. I kind of decided that that is dead end for being a deck chair because I think deck chairs you should be able to move it around and take it with you because its fold down.

The final designs I did on the bottom left I wanted to play around with the ones I had looked at before. So the first one I drew was very similar to the one with the hooded bit but sitting up a little straighter and having the frame in my head around the same size as the “average” deck chair. I then moved on to it being a children’s chair thinking that they need shelter for when its hot. This design was a normal deck chair but with the bits that would create the hooded bit on the other chair, I thought it would just have slots in the wood that would then house some wire that then could have some material draped over the entire chair so that the child has a kind of tent. Then thought that if you wanted a tent you could go buy a children’s tent that would just be a pop up which is easyier storage anyway. I then moved to the third chair I looked at and wanted to se if I could make it fold up even smaller. I made the legs crossed but also the back crossed thinking that I could fold it up even smaller.

Once I had finished my designs I chose the final one to try to make a maquett out of. Sadly the maquett didn’t work for this one. I added and took lots of different things out of the design and ended up with a chair that would of worked being left up but not a chair that would fold down at all. I then very unprofessionally had a little sulk and made a normal deck chair for my phone to sit on when I’m at my desk. This one worked very well and I even made it so that it folded up flat, this didn’t really help my storage problems though.

This small SEED project was only the first one so I came to a decision that once I finished all of the SEED projects I might choose this one but try not to sulk and make a normal everyday design for a deck chair. I will also do a few more designs to try to find out where I went wrong with my plan to make one that folded really small so its easily sorted and easily traveled.