61–70 of 123 posts
On the other hand I have a deep hate for things rounded in 3 dimensions for physical objects. They look cheap. Round in 2 but not 3 dimensions. 3 dimensions: https://www.macworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/iphone-s... 2 dimensions: https://4.img-dpreview.com/files/p/articles/2759540226/Apple...
A few months ago, I built matching houseframe beds for my 2 year old grandtwins ( https://www.woodshopdiaries.com/diy-kids-house-bed/ ). The best piece of advice I got from my dad before I started on this (for me) ambitious project was in question form: "Are you going round over all the edges? A 1/2 inch round leaves a bruise on a little one. An unfinished edge leaves a cut." He's been right. They're psycho 2 year ol…
Briefly: boards get wider and narrower as they absorb and release moisture from the air, respectively. The length remains constant. Anywhere you have a wide board (or glued up panel) affixed cross grain to another piece, you need to account for wood movement.
The problematic joint in this case is where the side panels run into the posts that form the corners and support the "roof".
Best case is that your grandkids live in an area with extremely constant humidity and nothing bad happens. In any other case, those wide panels are going to get wider and narrower as the seasons change and you'll either split a panel or the Kreg screws will work loose over time.
Traditionally, there are a couple of ways of dealing with this. If you're doing mortise and tenon construction, you'd have multiple mortise and tenon joints along the width of the panel/length of the post. Only one is fitted tightly and glued. The remainder are left unglued and loose along the length of the post to allow the panel to grow and shrink in width.
Table tops are traditionally joined to table bases using table buttons. Modern figure eight hardware or elongated screw holes are other equally valid options.
On the subject of rounding corners, I try to avoid a super aggressive rounding for most furniture. I agree with your dad that this is a great place to put a heavy round over. Those beds are going to be a fort, jungle gym, and probably space ship over time.
For anything that isn't going to be used quite so hard (bookshelves, for instance), I usually consider whether the client has kids or not when I'm deciding how much to break the edges.
If there aren't kids, I shoot for my old boss's standard of "looks hard, but feels soft", if there are kids, I break them a little more aggressively than that, as much for the preservation of the furniture as the children. Sharp corners wear pretty poorly, and a little extra softening helps keep the finish and wood in better shape over time at the cost of some initial crispness.
Anyhow, I hope the grandkids love the beds, and that everything works out without things loosening up over time. Just the same, maybe give them a little shake next time you visit to make sure :-)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder how much of that is cultural; do people in China, India, Indonesia, Africa, etc. have the same perceptions and associations?
This is super, super tangential, but I know that certain word sounds have very similar associations across almost any culture; “mom”, for example, sounds soft and warm to basically anyone who hears it, while “flak” sounds violent or harsh.
On the other hand I have a deep hate for things rounded in 3 dimensions for physical objects. They look cheap. Round in 2 but not 3 dimensions. 3 dimensions: https://www.macworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/iphone-s... 2 dimensions: https://4.img-dpreview.com/files/p/articles/2759540226/Apple...
You still want fillets or chamfers in 3d. Properly sharp edges in any dimension will still hurt you and catch on things
How can you write an article on rounded corners without mentioning Steve Jobs and Bill Atkinson? https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Round_Rects_Are_...
I don't agree with a lot of what Jobs did, but he was absolutely right about rounded rectangles.
> Bill's technique used the fact the sum of a sequence of odd numbers is always the next perfect square (For example, 1 + 3 = 4, 1 + 3 + 5 = 9, 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 = 16, etc). So he could figure out when to bump the dependent coordinate value by iterating in a loop until a threshold was exceeded. This allowed QuickDraw to draw ovals very quickly.
Still blows my mind. I have a hankering to try to blind-rewrite this algorithm knowing only the above.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is super, super tangential, but I know that certain word sounds have very similar associations across almost any culture; “mom”, for example, sounds soft and warm to basically anyone who hears it, while “flak” sounds violent or harsh.
Relevant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect
do I have some sort of condition? not one point in there made sense to me. "which is easier to look at?" they're both the same, to me. one is pointier, the other rounder, but that doesn't make one easier to interpret than another. UX people are mostly high on fresh MacBook packing material fumes I think.
Easier to "interpret"? Maybe not.
Easier on the eyes though is one aspect of the point they are making, an aspect I can get behind.
I think there is a way of thinking where you step outside yourself, try to see things in a novel way as though seeing them for the first time. I think in those times of reflection/meditation, you do see how maybe a thing like a shape can worm its way into your subconscious — cause a mild sense of unease for example.
Designers, artists, I would argue are more in tune with that — maybe more sensitive to it?
Because Apple did it. Rounded corners is 50s design and was considered kitsch, but once it became associated with the privilege of owning an idevice it became ubiquitous and impossible to quit. I am one of those who has gotten sick of them
Oddly, Jobs' next venture, NeXT, went with a sharp-cornered rectangular UI.
I guess I still prefer the former to the latter.
Rounded corners look more sturdy and robust. Objects with sharp angles are easier to break. External corners are easily damaged. Metal corner guards for cabinets are often rounded, and that makes them not only safer for people but also rugged. Internal corners concentrate stresses, making it easier to start a crack and break the object. Sharp corners are easy to produce, requiring less tooling, and so look cheap.
I think rounded is what sharp corners will look like over time. A woodworker takes a block plane and chamfers the edge of the furniture they are working on so that it isn't instantly dinged up within days of being in the buyer's home.
At the same time then, a sharp-edged piece of furniture shows that either the material itself is extremely strong, resilient, or shows that the owner is fastidious in the care of their furniture. The sharp edge is perhaps a subtle status-symbol.