Sample Works of Fazil Akin by fazilakin

SAMPLE WORKS fazıl akın

https://fazilakin.me https://criticaltoys.info

content projects 4 prototypes 10 theses 12 professional works 14 communities 16 courses 22 teaching stances 28

Weather Cuckoo Clock 2014, group project with Seena Peethambaran, in Certificate of Advanced Studies in Interaction Design Program, Mentors: Massimo Banzi, Giorgio Olivero, Lugano / Switzerland Design Brief: What happens when a mundane everyday object is connected to the internet? Idea Generation: First it was thought what happens when the internet is connected to random objects like: to a picture frame, washing machine, wallclock, table etc. Market Research: For that time succesful Internet of things products and services on the market like LAPKA, Zuvo, Atoomaa etc. were examined.

The Idea: With this project it was intended how would people benefit from the internet who normally wouldn‘t use it. With this aim we focused on elderly people, how can we make those people use internet through mundane objects ? Being in Switzerland we choose a typical Swiss object: the cuckoo clock. Elderly people are very interested in weather forecasts, so we could combine weather forecast with a cuckoo clock. Interface of the connected cuckoo clock.

Ideation Session with ten ideas from each group.

Weather Cuckoo Clock is similar to a normal cuckoo clock but instead of having one kind of bird: the cuckoo, the clock has 8 different birds. Each bird is associated with a weather condition. For example when the weather is cloudy the rave will come out, when the weather is very cold the pinguin will come out. From the clock also the temperature could be read. With the help of the chain the user can adjust the date so they could get also a weather forecast as well. It is also possible to get data for 5 previously selected cities. 8 different birds for several weather conditions: - Pinguin: very cold - Desert Eagle: very hot - Rave: cloudy - Sparrow: rainy - Seagull: windy - Owl: clear night - Cuckoo: fair weather - Snow Owl: snow temperature indicator electronics: Arduino Yun, Arduino UNO, stepper motors and a servo motor

The compoments of the connected cuckoo clock.

Prototyping The weather cuckoo clock is powered by an Arduino YUN and the data necessary for the forcast is obtained through Temboo from Yahoo Weather. To control the two stepper motors and the servo motor a motor shield and an Arduino UNO are used as well.

Birds associated with different weather conditions

video and detailed information: https://maind.supsi.ch/master-interaction-design/ portfolio/2013-14/cas2/weather-cuckoo-clock

Table Talk 2014, graduation project, in MA in Design / Product Design and Management Major, Mentors: Christoph Zellweger, Stijn Ossevourt, Luzern / Switzerland Design Brief: How can we make children be aware of the problems related to global food production and consumption? Idea Generation: First the problem was defined “We don‘t respect food anymore.“ Why: food is cheap, food is easy to obtain, we have lost the connection to nature, we don‘t see the activities behind the food production, we have a general lack of respect to everything.

Research On Similar Projects 25 projects about making children aware of a certain global problem from various fields were examined. Poster, for the project.

Table Talk is an info-kit for families to talk about global food issues. This kit can be obtained freeley as open-source material and can be produced everywhere in the world through digital fabrication methods. It has three parts. In the first part children are thought to understand how much we eat, in the second part children and their families are going to discuss the relation between food and global problems related to its production and consumption, in the third part children are going to think about the future of food with their parents. Part 1: In this part children would understand how much we eat. This part consits of stamps and activity mats. Quantitative data how much an avarage grown-up eats in a year is translated into a game. The children are going to envision this number through stamping on the activity mats. In the first mat they will just see the amount of food we eat in one year. In the second mat which is 5 meters long, they will compare this amount of food to other objects: like a small car or a walrus. The sizes of stamps and mats are proportional to each other. Part 2: In this part children are going to discuss with their families the relation between food and other global problems. A world map with activities on it will serve as an underlay for a meal, and accompanying objects will help children envision the topics. During this meal children are going to do activities on the world map and talk with their parents about food issues: like where does bananas come from or which country eats most of them and similar ones. Part 3: In this part children are going to learn about what could happen when we go on with consuming and producing food like we do now. Through reading the future food drivers they will learn what is waiting for us. And making a future meal will make them to question our current eating habits.

Part 2, family discussion.

Part 1, stamps of the food items.

Part 1, activity mats.

Part 2, underlay for the family meal on a user testing session.

Part 3, future of food cards and future food probes.

Singing Frog 2011, designig interactions course final project, in MSc in Product Design, Mentors: Owain Pedgley, Gökhan Mura, Ankara / Turkey Design Brief: Design an audio player with a tangible user interface for preschool kids. Idea Generation: Tangible User Interface is essential for preschool children as they hardly know how to write or read. Another important point is that the children should also find the device attractive other than their parents. These two issues were the starting points. After developing several ideas I decided to go on with a toy-like audio player idea, as children’s main activity is playing with toys in those ages. They can play with everything; they explore the world through playing with the objects.

Idea Development: The idea first was about a big flower, in which the volume of the player would be adjusted with the opening size of the leaves of the flower. In order to emphasize the interactivity, the idea turned into a singing frog. An animal can be seen as a better analogy to interactive products when compared to a plant. Idea Sketches, digital and analog.

function on/off volume up/down playlist

The Singing Frog has two parts. The main part is the frog which is an audio player. The second part are the flies which represent songs. When you open the frog‘s mounth and place the flies inside, the songs are played. Each song is represented with a fly. There are 20 flies with 4 different shapes and different colors or symbols. The flies have RFID tags inside. The flies are matched by the parents with some songs. The songs are sent through Bluetooth® to the main device “the frog”. When the flies are operation placed into the frog , the audio device open/close plays the songs which matches the flies‘ the mounth of the frog RFID tags. adjusting the width of the frog‘s mounth putting in/taking out the flies from the frog’s inside

the frog is off

the frog is on, the volume is middle

the frog is on, volume is at maximum

50 cm.

80 cm.

60 cm.

Interactive Prototypes 2009-2014, in several courses and workshops, using Unity3D, Processing, Html, Javascript, Css, Gamestudio Coding is an essential tool for industrial designers to realise and prototype their ideas. Since the second year of my bachelor study I am experimenting with different coding environments. Gamestudio was quite a popular platform when I was doing my Bachelor study, in that time we did an interactive car demo and a virtual museum. (Middle East Technical University - 2009) Prototypes with Gamestudio.

Unity 3D is a powerful platform to develop interactive environments and games as well. In a workshop I did a small game where you try to escape other balls which try to drag down you into a hole. (Zurich University of the Arts - 2014) Processing is an entry-level programing language especially developed for artists and designers. In this workshop with Andreas Gysin, a collaborative and creative approach to coding is used to create a multiplayer game. (University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland - 2013)

Prototype with Unity 3D.

Multiplayer Game with Processing. video: https://vimeo.com/77492352

available on: http://jsbin.com/ixUnehU/11/edit?html,css,js,output

Javascript, Css, Html were used to prototype an App idea. Design brief was to develop an App within the subject of “Quantified Self“. I have chosen to make an App that measures your punctuality, everytime you are on time or you are late for a meeting you enter the data into the App. After a while you will see the percentage of your punctuality.

Idea Sketches of the Punctuality App.

Physical and Wearable Computing Workshop by Massimo Banzi from Arduino and Zoe Romane from Openwear. In this one week workshop acted as a introduction to prototyping for wearable technologies. We dealt with the usage of Lilypad, conductive thread, sensors made of special fabrics and sewing electronic circuits. As a group of three we developed in the last two days of the workshop a biking vest which begins to light when it gets dark. We used 15 LEDs, a Lillypad and a light sensor. Prototyping using conductive thread and LilyPad.

M.Sc. and M.A. Theses 2013, Master of Science in Industrial Design, Thesis Superviser: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Owain Pedgley, Middle East Technical University, Ankara/Turkey Subject Material information needs of industrial design students. Abstract The material of a product is one of the most important elements of product design. It is also a major aspect of product innovation. Unfortunately, most of today’s material selection systems have been built on a technical basis and with an engineering perspective on product design. Current research shows that a physical environment allowing industrial designers to interact with material samples would greatly enhance designers’ material judgements and expertise and, therefore, the quality of subsequent product designs. Such an environment is argued to require different types of material samples and, in addition, to provide access to supplementary sample information that can support industrial designers’ decisionmaking. Through the thesis, existing material sample environments and sample tagging solutions, along with related literature, are explored and different types of information systems are analyzed to arrive at a set of specifications for a material sample information system appropriate to industrial design students. Utilizing a research through design approach, a solution for a material sample information system is proposed and justified against the developed design specifications. Methodology - literature review of around 60 references - evaluation of 7 sample information tags with 38 industrial design students - online survey with 17 material libraries around the world - designing an information system for the Material Experince Library at METU - production of three sample information tag for the material library

Outcomes Guidelines for establishing a information system about materials for industrial design students in form of a thesis.

available on: http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12616367/index.pdf

A sample information tag design to be used at the universitiy‘s Material Experince library.

2014, Master of Arts in Product Design and Management, Thesis Supervisers: Dr. Andrew Polaine and Dr. Axel Vogelsang, Hochschule Luzern Design & Kunst - Switzerland Subject Future Scenarios as an Appropriate Way for Designers to Anticipate the Future. Abstract Designers are the people who build the future through their activities. Imagining and affecting the future is a key responsibility of designers. There are many ways to anticipate the future such as trend forecasting, Delphi studies, science fiction stories and so on. Also, there are techniques which have their roots from the design discipline such as design fiction, or design probes. In this research, the focus is on future scenarios as a way to speculate about the future. This research aims to show the value of how scenario planning methodology will increase the credibility of designers while they develop their ideas and products for the future. Scenarios are a powerful tool for discussing situations and showing the results of our current decisions. Through interviews with three experts, case studies and a review of the methods for anticipating the future, the value of future scenarios for designers has been shown. Outcomes Methodology At the end of the research these three - literature review of around 40 aspects of future scenarios were references. revealed: - interview with 3 designers with Future scenarios act as a bridge professional and academic between future studies and design, experiences who use scenarios the benefits of using future in their work. scenarios for designers and - internet reseach of how the implication of future scenarios in scenarios has been used in the design practise domain of design and other fields. . - three case studies how future scenarios / This study also acted as a gound were used in research for my pratical work at this different contexts within the Master program: design domain. “Table Talk“

Gilika Wood Atelier for Kids 2017-18, industrial designer, Designing and Production Management of Wooden Educational Kits and Workshops, Ankara - Turkey About the Company Gilika is a small company working on education. Since 10 years they are developing practical educational content such as for wood workshops or origami workshops. Responsibilities During my work at Gilika, I was responsible for developing new educational kits, which are partly-manufacutred wooden parts that are going to be finished by children with the help of a special woodworking machine. While the children are going to learn how to process wood, they also learn different subjects for example the molecular model of the DNA or different animals of the cat family. The company was also producing the necessary furniture for the wood workshops, the improvements of the furnitures and designing of the special parts were my resposibility, too. As the company was quite small, the production management and creating CAM files for the CNC-Milling Machine were partly one the activities I needed to do. Taking part in the fairs in order to promote the products was also a key activitiy for me.

Stand for 1000 origami cranes, which was filled exhibition

Wood workshop with speciall furniture and decorations

more information is availble on https://www.gilika.com/

Kirpi Wearables 2016-17, co-founder, A start-up combining jewellery design and smart wearables, Middle East Technical University Technopolis, Ankara - Turkey About the Company Kirpi Wearables was found in order to bring back historical forms and values to highly technological objects in the domain of wearables. With this aim we got founded by the Minister of Science, Industry and Technology in order to develop a wearable for people who suffer from stutter. This kind of a design-historical approach to a wearable would help those people to be able to use such a wearable because it would have a form that won’t show itself as something different than a normal bracelet.

Technological Prototype of the bracelet for people with speech impediments

Project Partners

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Troy Rapid-Prototyping 2013-14, part-time industrial designer, Rapid Prototyping Company working with 3D-Printing, CNCMachining, Silicon Moulding, Investment Casting, Ankara - Turkey Responsibilities Developing product ideas and prototypes for current and current clients.

Havuzlu Collective & rastminus 2018-22, founding member for the collective atelier, with Students of Pamukkale University, Faculty of Architecture and Design, Denizli - Turkey Havuzlu Collective consists of three parts. The first part is the physical space: the atelier (formarly at Havuzlu Çarsı and rastminus shop), the second part is the social media accouts (@horozticaret and @rastminus) the people of the collective: students from the Faculty of Design and Architecture and me. Havuzlu Çarsı is an arcade from the 80‘s in the center of Denizli, a relatively small town in the Aegean side of Turkey. The shop there was transformed by the members of the collective. For the transformation it was important to adapt the environment of the shop, so materials that are similar to other shops were used. With designerly touches the shop could stand out from the rest of the arcade.

First atelier space of the collective located in Havuzlu Arcade

First set of productions as horozticaret

In order to communicate and categorise things that are made within Havuzlu Collective a brand named horozticaret was established. A website horozticaret.com is also accompanying the works and the space of the collective. There was an open call to the students that are interested in creating things within the space and creating the space. The responding students were added as members, which developed an other collective brand rastminus.

Website of horozticaret

Second set of productions as horozticaret

Second atelier space of the collective located in a neigbourhood next to the university. Some of the Products developed in the second atelier

Coffins for Electronic Devices developed in the third atelier

TEACHING WORKS fazıl akın

https://fazilakin.me https://criticaltoys.info

Tasarım Topluluğu 2018-22, founding advisor of the student club, with Students of Pamukkale University, Denizli - Turkey Creativity is an important aspect of every design school, formal education sometimes cannot afford the necessary environment for a fruitful development. In order to ecourage students for creating things without any hessitation about grades or other formalities of the university the student club Tasarım Topluluğu was formed. It act as an experiment space and an informal education environment.

Several Activities of Tasarım Topluluğu

Different formats and activities are explored for the student club. Informal education on subjects like Corporate Design, Illustration and Graphic Design were intorduced to the members in order to design the club‘s identity. Guest Speakers were invited to widen the network of the students. Workshops were orginized for creating objects and images e.g. on upcycling found objects or logo-design. Weekly readings about design, cities and architecture in English were also another activity the club. The club also organizes small trips for example a day trip to the a Conference about Design and Design History in Izmir: 4T Design and Authority.

Mighty Network Page of Tasarım Topluluğu

Communication channels with the members are important for social organizations like a club. Those channels include a website and a blog, also social networks such as Whatsapp Groups, Google Groups and a Mighty Network Page. Through those channels events could be mediated digitally to a wider audience and the works could be archived.

Workshops and Exhibitions on producing drawing items and performative drawing practices

Online Workshop and Digital Exhibition for designing objects using theories of experience design

Open Stage for members to share their experiences and ideas within the student club‘s audience

Collective Reading with the members of the student club

Materialising Ideas 2020-22, elective course, for Students of Architecture, City and Regional Planning Pamukkale University - Turkey The course was aimed for students of Architecture and City & Regional Planning to introduce them basics of materials and manufacturing techniques with reference to parametric modelling. They had no prior knowledge about materials and manufacturing methods. The course was offered as an elective one semester course. Course Outline The course was diveded into two parts, in the first 6 weeks students were introduced into subjects of geometries and their mathematical representations, modelling parametric lines-surfaces-volumes, material families, manufacturing methods, narratives through visuals and material entites. Each week a different pratices and methods on the subjects were discussed. A field trip to local production areas was made and local craft-activities are examined by the participants. In the remaining weeks groups of students narrated a certain meaning or story through visuals and later on through an object either produced by the group members or by local production facilites. Weekly Schedule - W1: Mathematical Geometries/ Helmut Pottmann - W2: Paper Geometries/ Manfred Pfennich - W3: Modelling Lines-Surfaces-Volumes/ Rhinoceros 3D - W4: Material Families + Manufacturing Techniques / Mike Ashby & Kara Johnson - W5: Field Work: Local Production Facilities & Craftspeople - W6: Narration + Visual Narratives/ Gregor Krisztian & Nesrin Schlempp-Ulker - W7: Idea Generation - W8-14: Idea Development - W15: Presentation Methods: Paperprototyping, Mock-Ups using Found-Objects, Storyboarding, Evaluation Matrices, Technical Drawings for Production

Outcomes Each Group developed a narrative that could be translated into an object. The object was either produced by the members or they could make use of the local production facilites or craftspeople. Doing so they streghten their abilities to work with different materials and production methods. The participants could also experience turning a written narrative into a 3D object and developing specific ways for doing that. Projects Participants for example designed and produced a music instrument, a tree used as toy storage, a vibrating wool to leave marks.

Prototypes of the music instrument, tree as a toy collector and vibrating wool ball. Digital Exhibition https://criticaltoys2021.tumblr.com/tagged/materialising%20ideas

Spin-Off A group of course participants developed their project further and they applied their experience to use package waste to produce models for their ideas into a social innovation competition. Their idea to turn package waste produced during social events into products in form of workshope series got funded by Imece Foundation and Coca-Cola Turkey.

Project that was developed with the principles of cyclic developemnt

Design for Experience 2019-22, elective course, for Students of Architecture, Pamukkale University - Turkey The course was aimed for students of Architecture to introduce them human-centered design and how to design spaces from a holistic view of designing for experience. They had no prior knowledge about user experience or user research. The course was offered as an elective one semester course. Course Outline The course was diveded into two parts, in the first 6 weeks students were introduced into subjects of interaction design, design for experience, design thinking, service design and human centered design. Each week a different book on the subjects was discussed and a design method related to the subject was carried out during the class or it was intended as a field research for the next week. In the remaining weeks groups of students developed an idea of an experience which either was a completely new one or an improvement of an existing experience. The groups applied the methods they learned during the course to their idea and prepared a slide with 10 pages that could be used for a presentation to a potential investor. Weekly Schedule - W1: Design is Invisible/ Lucius Burckhardt - W2: Design Dictionary/ BIRD - W3: Designing Moments of Meaning and Pleasure/ Hassenzahl et.al. - W4: Wicked Problems/ Richard Buchanan + Business Model Generation/ Osterwalder - W5: Conceptions of Design Thinking/ Hassi&Laakso - W6: This Is Service Design Thinking/ Stickdorn&Schneider - W7: Idea Generation - W8-14: Idea Development - W15: Presentation Methods: Mindmapping, Pleasure Analysis, Generating Personas, User Observation & Interviews, Business Model Canvas, Service Blue Print

Outcomes Each Group developed an experience idea, some of the ideas icluded: a coffee delivery service, a gas station and gas delivery combination, a pop-up vending store for fast fashion, an upcycling community and a casting App for Online-Series Outcomes Groups interpreted several physical experiences related to a certain space and developed a digital experience.

Idea Sketches of the new experiences inspired from a physical space

Spin-Off The principles of experience design was used to design poster series for the University‘s event. The principles were applied to create abstract visuals in order to convey certain space experiences.

Posters designed by the participats who get inspired form a space or experience that they relate with the national anthem. A view from the Exhibition

Online Exhibition on: https://istiklalmarsimekanlari.tumblr.com

Critical Design 2019-22, elective course, for Students of Architecture, City and Regional Planning Pamukkale University - Turkey The course was aimed for students of Architecture and students of City and Regional Planning to introduce them to alternative uses of design mostly outside of capitalist financial system. They had no prior knowledge about critical design. The course was offered as an elective one semester course. Course Outline The course was diveded into two parts, in the first 6 weeks students were introduced into subjects of critical design, design speculation, experimental design and critical theory. Each week a different books and works on the subjects were discussed and a design method related to the subject was carried out either during the class or as a homework for the area students are working on. In the remaining weeks groups of students find a problem that is important to them and developed an idea how to transfrom it from matter of fact into matter of concern in a Latourian sense. The idea was than executed and turned into a material entity that can be exhibited at the end of the semester to a wider audience with an accompanying dossier. Weekly Schedule - W1: Critical Theory and the Frankfurt School - W2: From Dadaism to Dunne&Raby: A chronology of critical pratices in art&design - W4: Not just argument and critique?Philosophers doing other things /M.Nelson - W5: From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern /B.Latour - W6: Transformation Design /BIRD - W7: A/B /Dunne&Raby + In Praise of Nothing /Boris Mitic - W8: Idea Generation - W9-14: Idea Development - W15: Exhibition Methods: Photo-Etnography, Non-Human Observation, Ready-Mades, Sketchnoting

Outcomes Each Group defined a problem that is a matter of concern for them, through the medium of their profession (sketching, model making, mapping...) they aimed to turn this finding: matter of fact into a matter of concern for other people to discuss about it. Some of the works done could be categorised as design activism, others as performance, design fiction etc. For example a group was concerned about a pond in a nearby park that was never filled with water. They placed an inflated whale into this pond, an quickly it was shared on Instagram and thousand of people liked it and a discussion has begun about the whale and the empty pond. Projects Concerned with a problem that matters to them, participants designed and produced a matter of concern which is exhibited to a wider audience.

some of the Matters of Concern participants proposed

A view from the Exhibition Digital Exhibition https://criticaltoys2021.tumblr.com

Spin-Off rastminus collective can be seen as a spin-off this course, where participants use methods or outcomes of design to deal with social issues.

more information on https://www.instagram.com/rastminus/

Distance Learning for Design 2020-22, must, elective & design studio courses, with Students of Pamukkale University & Istanbul Bilgi University, Pamukkale University & Istanbul Bilgi University - Turkey During the Covid-19 Pandemic, Education facilities switched to a full digital learning environment. Practical courses needed to be re-designed using several available learning technologies in order to be conducted from distance. The efficiency and possibilites enabled distance learning to be adapted to other occasions. Technologies Used The courses were conducted through video conferencing services like Zoom, Teams or Google Meet. For the communication with the participants Applications such as Discord or Slack are used. The course materials are shared using Miro and Google Docs. The submissions were made by using Dropbox and Google Drive or LMS like Moodle and Blackboard. Translating Courses into Digital Space - Theoretical sessions were easily translated into digital, it was crucial that the participants used their cameras as it enables the interaction between the speakers and the listeners. Looking on the same screen also eases the work on the readings. - As during the lockdowns the stationaries were closed, I asked the participants to collect materials they have around, mostly different kinds of packaging materials. Thouse were used to materialise their ideas. Such kind of an experience made the participants more aware of the things around them in terms of forms and materials. - In order to increase the quality of prototypes/models, techniques and examples of paperprototypes were examined. Also taking studio-like photographs were crucial, examples of photographers‘ work done at home were examined for inspiration. Such kind of knowledge increased the quality of works done at the schools where professional facilites for prototyping and taking studio photographs were missing. - For increasing the interaction among participants Breakout-Rooms and the whiteboard Miro were used. Breakout Rooms enable personal disscussions, MiroBoards eased the process for sharing ideas and thoughts and the design process was more easily revealed and archived.

an example of available materials for model-making

an example Miro-Board of a Course revealing the process, outcomes and materials of the Course

Instagram Accounts that give examples of paper-prototypes and studio-photographs made at home

online exhibitions and archives of the courses in form of tumblr blogs

Discord Groups acting as a medium for communication, exchange and shows weekly structure of the Course

Learning through Design 2016-22, Workshops, with participants from various disciplines, at several Universities & Organisations / online & offline Workshops work as ideal occasions for learning and experimenting. They offer a motivated team, a limited time, a methodical process. Designing is more than producing new things. It also enables new ways of learning. Experimental Calligraphic Typography Workshop: The aim of the workshop was to make participants experience the relation with the process and the outcome. If you design the process (the hand made brushes) the outcome (calligraphic typographies) is also designed.

a set of brushes made during the workshop

Designing Deliriously-Happy Making Objects: The workshop is based on a video serie how applications make us addicted and the set of needs for Experience Design. Participants interpreted those information and they translated what they learned into the re-design of daily objects.

online exhibition of the projects

using spatial experiences for designing new digital services

Experience Design for the Digital Space: In this workshop digital experiences are created using approaches for designing atmospheric spaces and learnings from spatial design. Resistant Design Practices for Cities: The workshop takes learnings from natural entities‘ resistence and interprete their tactics into urban objects and spaces.

inspiration - illustration paperprototype of the idea

Designing a Theoretical Gift: The workshop acts as a learning medium for discussing theories about giftexchange. The theories are experienced best when designed according to them.

skecthes and paperprototypes of the idea

more information on https://teorikhediyeler.tumblr.com