May 3rd, Portfolio and Process - Initial conceptual sketch for site specific design. The portfolio is the focus of the site, placed dead center. Comprehensive contact information and a listing of recent process blog posts act as a permanent footer. Bridging the gap between the "finished" portfolio and "work-in-progress" process becomes an important focus of the site with complete and seamless integration of my online identity developing as the long-term goal.

July 2nd, Philosophy - The permanent footer receives a second blog listing addition, which contains writings pertaining to the philosophy behind my work. The initial essays included were previously written as application essays for my MBA program, which focuses on Sustainable Business Practices.

August 2nd, Augmented Reality - Efforts to more actively integrate my online identity lead to the addition of social media tools directly on the site. Google +1, Facebook Recommend, and Twitter Tweet & Follow buttons are all included. This development point marks the site's layout transition from fixed to dynamically scalable. My sights are set on full-bleed portfolio imagery, not to mention the complete banishment of flash, as the site matures.

The full-screen view below was captured using @GoogleChrome in Max OS X Lion. At this point, the site is cross-browser compliant; however, due to the continued use of flash, dynamic scaling behaves differently depending upon browser and operating system.

August 26th, Business Card - Credit for the minimalist design surrounding the email address on the front of the card goes to @borismus. For this version, I have added my site logo to Boris' original conceptual design.

The back of the card presents a minorly abstracted QR-Code containing basic vCard information as well as my mobile number. I have embedded a more thorough vCard at the end of my résumé. Moving forward, I will include digital pointers such as these within any material work. For example, a QR-Code on a project detail page within a printed portfolio that sends the reader directly to the project's specific page on the site. The opportunity to blur the lines between the physical and digital is quite intriguing. Reversing that thought process, I am also interested in creating each individual QR-Code from physical models and/or original imagery as independent design projects.

Next up... mobile compliance, replacing all remaining flash components with HTML5 & CSS3. The writing of accompanying text for each portfolio piece will also be included during this phase– at this point, the portfolio exists in perpetual tweak mode.

Below are samples of the final photography for the finished piece.

Thank you to Rachel Simrell for completing the photography. Also, thank you to Sara Huston and Sawyer Christianson for their guidance throughout the term. This post concludes my furniture design studio, "Challenging Expectations." Please visit my design website, www.blakecscott.com to view the comprehensive portfolio for this work, which will be posted within the next few days.

Stay tuned for the next project...

It all comes down to a man, a drill, and the product of ten weeks of work-- NO mistakes permitted! The drilling phase of the construction process was both exhilarating and terrifying. Prior to the drilling phase, the highest pressure point occurred while inserting the cabinet into the core. Both pieces were "finished" and the joints were so tight that four heavy-duty clamps, innumerable towels and a glass of wine were all required to bring things together. The glue timer was nerve-wracking – fifteen minutes to get things together or bust. As the clamps were slowly tightened, the wood creaked like the hull of a ship in a storm. Thankfully, everything worked out beautifully.

The pictures above and below were taken during the drilling phase and highlight the jig constructed and used for drilling evenly from corners at a 90º angle without the use of a drill press. The final hardware is also featured within the images. Stainless steel rods were cut to length by Justin at Coyote Steel and the precision custom threading was completed by Ken at Welch's Machine Works. A special thanks to Ken for rushing this job and taking the extra time to make sure the flange/weld nuts and the threaded rods fit together seemlessly. Other than the six screws securing the horizontal and vertical pieces of the MDF core, the exposed hardware is the only hardware used in the entire piece. All flange/weld nuts were pressure fit.

Note the photograph above where 1/32" spacers were added to one side of the jig for drilling the shallow holes on the bottom of the keystone. These were added because the width of the keystone and cabinet differed by 1/16". Also shown below, is the drill bit banded with green tape. The tape indicates the limited depth to drill on the keystone since the holes could not puncture through the wood.

Really starting to feel the pressure as assembly approaches. Here is the collection of "finished" pieces before assembly.

The painted MDF core piece.

The "finished" cabinet. Notice the unfinished end-grain left for glue application.

The "finished" keystone. The natural finish makes the walnut sing.

Throughout the project, I was concerned with hardwood respect. As a beginning woodworker, I was especially concerned with making a mistake or using more of the material than necessary. The project was completed without the use of safety pieces or a reserve stock of wood. This approach racheted up the pressure considerably as "forward progress" and the "potential for catastrophic failure" maintained a direct relationship. Below are images of two cutting boards made from the scraps of the project.

This cutting board took advantage of end piece scrap, both from the initial milling phase as well as after the Making Bigger Boards glue-up.

The striped board above used the long grain scrap pieces shaved from the sides of boards during "final cuts." To bring order to the pattern, a "bookmatch" approach was used here by slicing the longer boards in half after the glue-up, turning one piece around and matching the two together.

The remaining scrap, which will be used for future projects.

The challenge lay in maintaining 90º angles for the base, walls, and each shelf. The requirement for shelf flexibility in the vertical dimension compounded this difficulty as each shelf could only be glued along one edge. This construction detail provides the opportunity for a seemless fit into the MDF base pieces developed concurrent to the cabinet and mentioned in earlier discussion.