Illustrator and the Laser Cutter: Brainstorming and Ideation

To start the brainstorming process, I began looking through the past student examples. I have always enjoyed camping and hiking and just being in the good ol’ outdoors. Another big area of interest of mine is video games, so I began thinking about how to incorporate either, or both, of these into my project.

One thing that immediately jumped into my mind while looking through different projects was a topographical map. The question now becomes, what area would the map cover?

I found multiple maps online from different Zelda games, which have always been some of my favorites.

The next idea I had, was to make something mechanical. The first idea I found was this sort of telescoping shutter, which immediately piqued my interest.

Another common idea I found in the mechanical vein, was gears. Again I think designing something mechanical like this would be a fun challenge.

I decided to draw out an idea similar to one I found online. Its not extremely detailed, but hopefully the idea is displayed well enough.

The last idea I had was to make a 3D object of some kind. I’ve found a bunch of these sorts of models online, though I can’t say I have much faith in my ability to produce something similar.

Perhaps a box would be a more realistic project for myself.