Design Lab Project 2: Animals

Tide Water Goby

The SF Bay has many natural ecosystems, but with lots of human influence from this urban environment many organisms are being threatened. One of organisms is the Tidewater Goby.

Here are my notes & sketches of the tidewater Goby:

Here are some pictures of the Tidewater Goby:

I first began analyzing the proportions of the Tidewater Goby

guidelines without fins

Some things of note were:

• there seem to be 3 main portions of the Tidewater Goby’s body (excluding the fins): 1) the head, 2) the belly, 3) the tail
• the narrow part of the tail is around the same height as the mouth

3/2

This was my first iteration. I decided to use these iced tea bottles, because their natural shape followed some of the curves of the fish and though the plastic was hard and sturdy it was pretty flexible and could be bent to form different proportions of the fish:

I also used the containers of these ramen bowls to form the fins and head. I mainly chose this because it’s form lended itself well to the form of the fins and especially the head. I didn’t originally think about texture, but I also think that the texture of this plastic mimicked that of the fins as well.

Some forms of attachment I used were brads, tape, staples and rubber bands.

The brads were really good for general straight forward attachments. The tape helped with the fins/attaching thin materials, but looked kind of sloppy. The staple was really strong so it helped hold the shape of the tail well. The rubber band helped shape/bend the plastic and hold things in place.

3/4

Feedback from last class:

Lines that carry through the whole fish

The side fins have more motion than j seashell pasted

Get body proportions

Head shape & sKull (eye placement & downturned jaw) — Sad face

Arch line in body

Fins should be more translucent (you can use milk carton)

Based on the feedback I got from the last class, in the second iteration I focused on getting the proportions of the fish right by looking at its skeleton, and improving the movement of the fins.

I slimmed down the body to fit the proportions of the fish.

I used a low gauge vinyl for the fins because I was told that the fins should be thinner and more delicate to match the tidewater goby’s. Instead of attaching them with a brad which limited their movement before I cut slits that I could put the fins in.

Also as I did a closer examination of the skeleton I found that the head was a bit wider than the body and could be compartmentalized into two pieces.

Also, to create the upturned mouth I added a layer of plastic to emphasize the line of the mouth.

3/8

The main feedback I got from the last class was to continue working on the proportions by making the top of the profile fuller, and make the overall piece more cohesive (with materials & the way the materials are attached)

For the final iteration Instead of using the concave part of the tea bottle to create the middle of the body I used the rounded convex parts to make the silhouette fuller. I also split the pieces up more so that I could get more accurate detailed proportions. Also, Instead of using a different material for the head I cut up and bent part of the tea bottle to mimic the head of the tidewater goby to make the who piece look more cohesive. Lastly for the movement I attatched a zip tie to each brad so that the movement would be more fluid.