Andy's "Sketch-a-few times a week"

002/365. Thinking about hammers with swappable heads and handles for adjusting weight and balance. I’m back from my holiday with some catching up to do.

Breakfast pot and pan scribbles. Note to self: sketching with a sharpie means I need a bigger piece of paper and bigger sketches

I could design bike parts all day every day! Having fun with profile views of a direct mount stem for my fox40 fork, without sharp points that you could bash your knees on during those :open_mouth: moments.

Working out a style of arrow that I like. The top right is winning at the moment

I think the top right is much too complicated. Those center ones are working better. Think of it in context of a concept sketch. It should tell you direction but not take too much attention from the sketch.

Thats a fair call Yo, I got caught up in making them look interesting. I’ll sketch something that I can use them on to see the result.

Perf steel street chair on a polished concrete slab:

nice touch with the perf in the cast shadow!

Thanks! One of the things I really love about perforated metals is the range of shadow patterns that they cast.

Ideas for a better rubbish bin:.

  • A lid that opens away from the handle.

  • A big roller wheel rather than 2 solid plastic ones.

  • A Dyson style roller ball instead of wheels.

  • A sealing lid that keeps the smells in.

  • A lid that pivots sideways, slides and trapdoors.


    A few things I dislike with the one I have right now:

  • The lid opens towards the handle and wheels, so when you have your bin parked against a wall you have to reach over and awkwardly lift the lid enough to get the garbage in. Parking it backwards fixes this but makes it hard to get out when the bin is full and heavy as the handle and wheels are on the wrong side.

  • The lid doesn’t seal so the smell gets out. This weekend here in Adelaide is going to be 42 deg C which makes for some extra smelly rubbish.

  • The solid plastic wheels make it hard to move on uneven ground when full (or over any kind of small lip at all).

The perf shadow - and overall sketching style for that matter - is nice, make sure to make it precise to the form, it will read much better!
I agree the rubbish bin needs a make-over and has been needing it for years. Do some research on use-cases for different demographics. We have the same design in the EU, and definitely the lid, wheels and overall aesthetics can be improved. Look at soapbox wheels for a start. If consumers nowadays are investing in biweekly cleaning by a dedicated company, they will surely be able to afford a more high-end container. If we could all recycle our current ones into a new design with a better lid and more expensive wheels, it will be a success.

I like the notion of recycling all of our existing bins directly into a better product. The massive hurdle on the cost front is that rubbish bins are generally purchased in bulk by local councils, which tends to mean that low cost has more purchasing sway than good design. I’m thinking of turning this one into a mini project and I’ll have some more concepts up over the next few days. Thanks for the feedback!

First sketch putting together some of the ideas for my rubbish bin concept.

Loose bedtime scribbles of whiskey bottles. I woke up this morning thinking about square to round surface transitions :laughing:

I’d love to see you take on something more organic in form language.

Definitely something I need to work on. I think that a bike helmet would be a good and challenging way to push my skillset.

Maybe I should start drawing cars to speed up the process, I would struggle to do it right now!

I think the linework here looks almost like an illustrator vector, too perfectly consistent.
Personally I like sketchy lines where you can see the direction of the stroke. (more energy, more dynamic)

I think your trash can sketches on paper had better linework.
Lately I experimented with analog linework, scan it, and shade/color in photoshop maybe you could try that?

Looking at some of your previous digital sketches here before the “rubbish bin”, I think I like that looseness better!

Thanks for the feedback Tommy, though I also prefer the looser sketches, I like to try something new every so often to see how it looks.

I sketched out a rough helmet over the weekend. It’s a messy blocked up form at the moment, and I think that the angle could be a lot better, but I’m going to refine it over the week.


I also tried to sketch out a car, and after a few tries with not much progress, I decided to trace over one to pick out which lines would make the most difference to communicating the form:

Today’s sketch…what if a smart home device could grow herbs, or could be used to store coffee pods for recycling? Thinking about sustainability for this quick one:

Matte black mtb goggles with fire iridium lens

that is getting there, maybe not the most informed view for goggles, but a little more dynamic.

I’d like to see you get a little more expressive like some of these… and then take it a little tighter like this last one.

NOTE: none of these are mine. I googled “goggle concept sketch” and these were some of the first ones that popped up.
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