Engineering & Architecture

Desktop OrganizerArchitecture & Design · Project 1

DESIGN BRIEF
FOAM BOARD MODEL
SCALE 1:1

The challenge

Design a desktop organizer that solves a real problem on a real desk, then build a full-size model of it. You decide what it holds and who it is for — a student's desk, a workbench, a reception counter, your own nightstand. The design is yours. What is not negotiable is that you can communicate it clearly enough on paper that somebody else could build it without asking you a single question.

What you deliver

  1. Case study — four existing organizers, compared against rating criteria you invent, including what real users say about them.
  2. Concept sketches — minimum three genuinely different design ideas, each on its own sketch.
  3. Three elevation views — top, front and side, one per sheet, each dimensioned and carrying its own title block, drawn at 1:1 with a straight edge.
  4. One two-point perspective drawing — no dimensions needed, shading optional.
  5. The model — built from foam board and hot glue, working from your own drawings.
  6. A 2–4 minute presentation showing all of the above.

Requirements

Drawings are at full size, 1:1 — what you draw is what you build, so your organizer has to fit on a sheet of paper. Each elevation gets its own sheet with its own title block, plus dimensions and clean lines made with a T square, triangle or straight edge. The perspective drawing is freehand construction, not a traced photo. The model is foam board and hot glue only, unless you clear something else first. Cut with a hobby knife on a cutting mat, using the technique you were shown. Waste counts: plan your cuts before you make them.

Due

CASE STUDY     
SKETCHES       
DRAWINGS       
MODEL          
PRESENTING     

How to do each part, and how it is scored, is on the project pages. Start with Guidance.

QR code to the project page
Printing this

Ctrl+P or Cmd+P, save as PDF. The navigation, tabs and this box drop out automatically — you get the brief alone, one page, ready to hand out or tape into a notebook.