“Where do Coffeebots come from?” If you ever pondered this question and wanted an answer, well you’re in luck… kinda. Our very special character comes from a mysterious, unknown manufacturer, advertised by a gaudyad, located in the back of a never heard of comic book.. Once you let the astonishing origin sink in, I will tell you about how we birthed the look of Coffeebot from this beginning.
When Coffeebot was chosen as our topic for Senior Project, we all had a different idea of what he would look like. I, for one, thought that he would be slightly shorter than the average human with small tank treads on the bottom of his legs, and noodle-esk arms. Though the idea to me sounded very normal for a sentient coffee machine, the rest of the group had something much more fitting. Their general description was it would be the same height of a normal coffee machine, and look like a normal coffee machine, but wasn’t like a normal coffee machine. Coffeebot could function as a robot, but revert back to a coffee machine at will. From this foundation, we could begin to elaborate through rough sketches.
As a group, we came together with dozens of concept sketches. It ranged from drawings emulating everyday coffee machines, to designs in which the coffee pot was the head. After a few hours of critiquing all the sketches, as well as commenting on what we thought were strong. We realized we wanted something that was relatable, and looks like it would function. Despite loving the ideas that were creative and strayed from the norm, we leaned towards the designs that followed the look of conventional coffee machines. After choosing our initial sketch we liked most, it was presented and critiqued further by our professors and other faculty
Then we got knocked down a few pegs from our consultants. It was round two now. We took the criticism from our teachers very seriously, and knew we could improve upon the design/ come up with a better one. Our professors gave us new perspective, and a more detailed way of thinking. Such as do we want Coffeebot to be special in personality, making it seem he was the result a minor malfunction? Or did we want to make it so Coffeebot himself is 100% different, making him look like no other coffee machine in existence.
After some more discussion, and a little more research. Chelsea came across a fairly modern looking coffee machine, and pointed out a handle whose position could be changed to resemble a baseball cap. A couple preliminary sketches were drawn up, and presented to both the group and faculty. What is lovable about the design is out of all the previous designs, this one really captured a childlike quality just from the looks.
The final sketches are still in the works, but they are just to clean up the initial designs and thinking through the functionality. Who knows though, inspiration may hit again and a new design for Coffeebot may appear.
