Custom Product Aesthetic

Explore the parameters of prefabricated design templates to customize, just-in-time, a product which transposes form and content from the internet.

Reread the short excerpt from Sianne Ngai on the Cute, the Zany, and the Interesting, here. As you read, hone in on a particular sense of one of these aesthetic categories to develop in a custom product design. Pick a product to customize from sites like zazzle or (the wonderfully titled) discount mugs.

For your design, you will use/reuse content you’ve developed in an earlier project this semester. Think of the object as a new (half-digital, half-material) medium for this content. Also, think of the object as a prop for action, not just as a blank canvas to customize.

Because there’s not time left in the semester to actually order and receive the customized product, your “final” will be the virtual rendering the website gives you when you’ve uploaded or selected your design.