Lovecraftian Desk Organizer (2 Parts) #studentdesignchallenge by gdenzi85

Last crawled date: 3 years, 4 months ago

NOTE: This design comes in 2 parts, and both designs should be viewed as rotated (flat side down).
A Lovecraftian squid beast (slain, thankfully) inspired desktop organizer for the Student Virtual Prototyping Design Challenge. For this design, I wanted both a cool look/style and compact/useful design, without sacrificing printability or intuitiveness. The design is printed in 2 parts, with each part spiraling into one another, for added use of space and versatility.
When coming up with this design, I tried to think of how space could be used efficiently, and still have organic elements. I also wanted students to have multiple storage options on their desk, to avoid losing tiny items like paper clips and thumbtacks. After I settled on an expanding design, I styled the top like a squid monster’s tentacles, as I thought having suction cups be item/pencil storage would make my design much more creative, organic, and compact. This design allows students to store large numbers of tiny objects in a sealing compartment, while bigger, and more often used items go in the open compartments. I also made sticky noteholders and an extremely versatile phone mount, with dual cable management rails, and the outer piece acting as a securing/locking mechanism to hold your phone in place as it charges. As virtual learning is on the rise, students will need technology to be more easily integrated into their workflow, in which the compactness and technical integration of this design seeks to solve through compact organization.
As this was approximately my third revision of this design alone, I tried to make the most of the design I picked. I have adjusted the tentacle curves many times, as a turn too wide would render the final product unprintable. Additionally, I did my best to make this design fully printable without supports, which required multiple attempts and lots of planning.
If given the chance to design this again, I would hollow out the tentacles, and make more holes to give longer pencil storage options. I would also try to freeform 3d model the tentacles, for increased realism and quality, instead of the current “slain/chopped off” model.
Due to the complex geometry of this design, 3D printing would allow me to improve on it, as 3D printing is the only viable production method for this design. It would also allow me to create alternative designs for other uses and prototype them.
Here are the features:
-Multi-Angle phone mount, with securing top
-Cable management routing
-Securely closing compartments
-2 Sticky-Note holders
-4 wider compartments, 5 taller ones
-Tons of small pencil holders/storage
-Optional mounting holes for screws
-NO Support material required, just make sure your X and Y belts are properly tightened, otherwise cylindrical extrusions may come out misaligned.
-Fits within 6x6x6 inch printer area, though some slight downscaling may be needed for some printers (be sure to use the same scaling factor)