Furniture Concepts, Colourways and Development
This blog contains all the development and testing of different concept designs for my street furniture assets for my Real Worlds project. Previously, I had created a selection of different thumbnails, experimenting with different ideas for my environment as well as some ideas for possible furniture and features I could include in my environment. I decided on creating a research lab, taking heavy reference from aquariums/sea life too. As my environment relates to my characters, one of which who is inspired by a jellyfish, I felt that making my environment assets also aquatic themed would work well.
Concept Development and Feedback
I started by selecting an idea for my 3 pieces of furniture. I decided I wanted to create things that would fit well in a research lab environment, so I decided on a computer terminal, a containment tube and also a small robot/machine to also contain experiments.
For my containment tubes, I already had a good idea for them in my mind. I started by creating a few concepts, all slightly varying in design while remaining similar enough. I knew I wanted them to be tall and round, with many panels buttons and other accessories surrounding them for added detail. I created 5 concepts and asked my friends for some feedback on my designs.
From the feedback I received, Most people said that they liked design 3 the best which I agreed with! I felt that number 3s design wasa the easiest to read and didn't look too cluttered unlike the others. I decided to develop it a bit further and do 3 moe variants of it. I experimented with smaller details, such as the wires at the top and support poles around the tube. In design 2, i also added something similar to a fish tank pump since i wanted to go with an aquatic theme. I decided to combine aspects i liked from both design 1 and 2, and made 3 - which is the final design I went with.
For my fish robots, I designed 6 concepts, all of relatively simple and similar designs. I wanted them to resemble the containment tubes slightly, just on a smaller scale. I also tried to create a full size robot made to resemble a jellyfishes proportions, but i decided I didn't like that idea.
I decided on a combination of 1 and 4, as i Felt they had the nicest and most interesting silhouettes. I experimented with a few different variants again, and decided i liked 2 the best.
For my computer terminal, I created 4 different concepts. 2 are more simplistic and the other 2 are more cluttered. I personally preferred the more cluttered versions, and when I asked for others opinions 4 was the most popular as people liked the chaotic feel to it. I agreed, as I felt like it fitted my characters personality well too. However, I thought that the fish tanks as clutter around the computers could be a hazard and didn't make much sense from a design perspective. 
Colourways and Testing
After creating my concepts, I started testing a few different colour palettes. I wanted my palettes to use cooler colours and have a similar palette between all my furniture as i wanted the environment to feel coherent.
I created a few concepts for my containment tube, experimenting with different cooler palettes. I created a brighter more green toned one, blue, purple, and also a blue and red version that was inspired by the colours of my jellyfish character.
I also created some more colour palettes for my computer terminal and my fish-bot. I was a bit more experimental with colours here, branching out from just cooler palettes. I experimented with a warmer palette too, as I thought that it would be good to add some variety. I kept my colour palettes 'clean' feeling, as the environment it is set in was a laboratory.
I wanted my furniture colours and designs to look cohesive, so I also wanted to test what they would look like together in sets. I wanted my designs to have similar colours throughout so tie them together nicely.
Feedback
Throughout my designing process, I also asked for feedback consistently. After I made my colourways, I asked for feedback from my peers once again. I got a few mixed responses, but mostly people seemed to lean towards to cooler palettes. I think that this was probably a good idea, as the cooler colours created a much cleaner and eerie feeling in comparison to the warmer ones. The more blue and grey toned palettes created a very clean and sci-fi feeling, which is something I wanted to portray in my environment.
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