New High School Room Design Number

I wanted to invent a new room door number design that can change the school concept for the better making it more aesthetic, modern, and reflects the feeling I have for the school as I deeply cherish and love the school I attendant to as the teachers are super nice, the staff are amazing, and the kids are very kind. The current room numbers in our school are very outdated and had a mundane look to it, it didn't have the same warm welcoming vibe it used to have, losing the professional appearance it once used to have, being many years, decades, and generations has passed though without any attention or maintenance to the room numbers. Personally I notice throughout my observational awareness attending the school it does an amazing job promoting school spirts though spirit weeks, events such as battle of the classes, and school branding merch to give away. I wanted to take that same energy and diverge that into the room number design as entering each classroom could have a warm welcoming look to it. Not only will it be very vibrant with beautiful colors it will be very easily to spot each classroom because it would have a bright new shine and colors entering each classroom for new students or already attending students to have a new warm and welcoming vibe to it. The reason on why I started or created this project was because I wanted to crate something that would make students, staff, and visitors have more school pride showing representation of one of the best high schools in New York while also giving our hallways a cleaner and more stylish look. My design is bold, matches the school colors, and includes our school logo to promote pride and identity. It isn't about updating something that just looks old but its about bringing a modern touch to an important everyday detail that often gets overlooked. This invention also solves a functional problem: the older signs where harder to read as it could be dull, discolored, scratched up, broken up a by high school students with new trends arriving, and don't reflect how much the school has grown. With my design, every room will stand out in a way that represents who we are today.

-CAD

-3D printer

-Paper/pen

In this part I was brainstorming ideas I could come up with tinkering with new possibilities that come into my head sketching and drawing them out. I was thinking of different logos or endorsements the school uses to help get me started on the drawing as I could use it to be the new room number design but also keeping in mind that I wanted to build a design that looked nice to put up in front of the whole school. I reflected back on some of the endorsements the school was trying to promote such as the 6 skills that the school vales a lot or using the school mascot to represent us. I sketch out ideas on what that might look like what the final product might be or change them along the way to see how it might look in the future. ex too much color to print, too expensive to print or to much time to print one room number. Overall I went plain and basic using our school letters as our room number design as it was fast quick, effective, and you couldn't go wrong with plain and basic to get the general audience attention to not criticize the new room number.

Initially I went on google to find our school letters to best suit our new design, next I save the image and I realized it was saved as a PNG so I used a SVG converter to make a PNG into a SVG image because the CAD program that I'm using for this project only uses PNG as it is more easier and simplifier to process an image onto CAD so I pasted it onto tinker CAD so I can tinker it more effectively so I can make my life easier to work as it is more efficient to more things around and draw on it as it help aid me in my design journey to make this 2D image into 3D!. (If you go to my page on my "3D printed pendent" I go through step by step process on how to do this more easier but with an different image it will be the same process with any other image as well!)

For this part I needed to look at the layout of the school since it has every room number listed on it so I would have an ideal number on how much room numbers to print out as well as how much of each hundredth number their are so I can be more easily organized and precise on my printing as well as each hundredth of number their are in each row/hallway to help me column out each designated room number and where to put them.

After I have organized on how much numbers are required to fulfill this process I started to edit the number signs themselves. I looked at different signs around the school, such as room 107, and analyze how they were put together like how the numbers are above the braille. Using this as a key reference point, I began to adjust the number layout on my part to match the format needed. This included making sure the font size, colors, and braille all align up together to match the same standards as the previous signs. I used the different tools like the Digital Caliper to help me take correct measurements so I can input these measurements onto the CAD program to be most accurate correct when printing them out to match what was previously used. I used digital tools to recreate these signs, ensuring the new versions were both visually clear and accessible for all students and staffs.

In this part, I learned how to use braille since originally the school room design had braille on it so I needed to bring back what was originally their plus it's mandatory by New York state law and the school too. Initially the start off this project was tough but this step made it a whole lot harder because not only would I have to put braille on each room number I would have to learn and self teach myself to make the room design process more easier. Some people might say why don't you just google each number and paste it onto their? If I had to do that for every room number design it would take me hours upon hours to finish just this one step because you can't simply past the same braille organization onto TinkerCAD since it's a CAD program, to be more efficient I would need to learn how each numbers are formed and why so I can finish this step more quickly as possible to move onto the next step. To start off I google how each numbers are formed but it made me very confused knowing how their is a 3x2 braille cell system on how every dot represents a different letter or alphabet so I had to be very carful during this design process knowing one little mistake could throw off the entirety of what I'm trying to say so next I Youtube a video on how braille numbers are formed and it goes step by step on which every dot means or represents making it more comprisable for me to understand and to start fulfilling this project. Once I learned how braille works I made a reference table that I could look back anytime I wanted to make sure I'm not confused during any part of this project. This also served to help me make the numbers more easily as the first number uses two boxes and the next two number only use the last box in this three digit number. So once I made the reference table I copied and pasted what each number is and put them onto the room number design to make the printing part more easier in the future.

Once I have finalized the design and the layout of the number signs, I moved onto the printing using a 3D printer. I added media and adjustment the settings to print out the number, making sure to change the color of the filament throughout the process. This helped highlight different elements of the design for example, the number itself, braille, and the border making each part stand out more clearly. However, once the print was completed, I realized the color came out duller than expected. The filament didn't pop as much as I hoped, which was a concern because the final product would be displayed all around school. I wanted it to be bold and stand out so when people turn to look at the room numbers it would pop in front of their eyes to stand out and catch peoples attention, not to look bland an stand in the background. So, I decided to get back into some improvements. I looked at different filamentsoptions to compare and contrast between colors to see which one best suited the design, adjusting my printing settings to better empasize clarity and vibrancy. This part of the process helped me understand how even small details like color choice can impact visibility and accessibility- especially in a school setting where signs need to be easy to spot and read from a distance.

After reviewing the first print, I realized the improvement and adjustments I needed to make for a more appealing and atheistic look. initially the original colors were too muted and didn't reflect the vibrant, noticeable signage I had in mind . So, I decided to reprint the whole deign with several key adjustments. First, I chose a new combination of filament colors that had a much newer and stronger look to it, to contrast the more vibrancy. I only selected a bold primary color for the number itself to ensure it would stand out clearly against the wall color of our school. For the braille section, I decided to go plain and simple with white as it also stand out in contrast with the other colors I had selected against the background. I also used textured filament so that it remained tactile and easy to read for those with visual impairments. I also refined the print settings, increasing the layer resolution and adjusting the print speed, to improve the sharpness of the edges and detail. This helped enhance the overall look and legibility of the sign. Once the reprint was finished, the difference was clear. The colors popped, the text was way shaper, and the braille was more defined and easier to feel. This version gave more professional, accessible, and visually appealing, ready to be used throughout the school.

Once I had the physical new room number design in my hand I put it next to the old one to compare and contrast the differences as to look at any details I could do to help improve the design. I also consulted my friends with my new project I'm working on, they give me their opinions saying it was perfect just the way it is but I thought and think to myself, "what else could I improve on", "Do I need to improve on anything else" or "should I keep adding more?" but I kept the final product as it was perfect so i change nothing about it. (I Know it's two different numbers but this was just a reference/sample on the image)

After some time has passed I give my teacher the design and he give it to the superintended of the school but when he got back to me we ran yet into another problem and that was the room number dimensions were to small it didn't fit the legal criteria so it was a easy quick fix as I had to type in the dimensions I needed into TinkerCAD as it was vey quick and simple task to complete. After I had fix it I could now I could print it out with complete confidence that everything was perfect as that was the only flaw the design number had and the rest was perfect he said. So I reprinted the design again and made sure everything was perfect.

I have already printing out the room design number and was ready to put it around the school but as soon as I wanted to do this I realized I needed permission by the school so I talked to my teacher my teacher Mr.Liguori (shout out to him) he emailed the head architect of the school saying we had an idea to make room number design for the whole school and needed your permission to get it pasted around school. As some time has passed he never emailed us back so I brought matters into my own hands. One day the principle had to come into my Spanish class to do an observation on my Spanish class, on how the teacher performance was and how effective it was to the students, later at the end of class I personally went up to speak to the principle one on one to pitch my design idea for the whole school vey shortly roughly 30 seconds or less. I said how my idea could make our school stand out way more with more modernization by starting mass producing everything as simple as room numbers on every door could be very beneficial as every little detail adds up for the school. She was very enthusiastic to hear it and was more than willing to help me with my ideas, luckily she had to speak with the head architect of the school that same day! so I give her a my own prototype that I had carefully prepared in my bag knowing that she would want to see how it how it looks like, how it feels in her hands physically rather than showing her an image of it so i could get my idea more out their to the school. As more personally seeing things in person, feeling it, or holding it is more appealing than seeing it online. She was very delighted to have it in her hand as said "when I go and met him I will definitely bring this up to him and see what he says". A couple days have past and I got an emailed back I was a little nervous to open up the emailed and read it, but while I was reading it I was very ambulant to hear that my design ide have pass and it will now be place around the school.

Knowing that my idea had successfully had potential to better the school I put the room numbers design into action, mass producing all of them running the 3D printing day in and day out, making sure to check up on them every hour or as often as possible to make sure the 3D printer doesn't have a print failure, failed printed, or malfunction so I can efficiently put them up as fast as possible.

Now that I have printed out every single room numbers in the school the only thing to do now is put them up everywhere! I was very exited and optimistic working on this projects, I had experience a lot of challenges and set back but overall I had learn a lot taking on this personal project I had been working on. I had grown and expanded my knowledge exponentially on deigning and engineering, coming up with different plans and solutions on my own findings and possible ways to be persistence even with my own set backs, not giving up as my determination to get this project done was burning with fire as this was my passion to do and love enjoy doing. I had a fun time completing this project experiencing new ideas and learning different skills and hope many more opportunities with come to me.