Abyss

Abyss is a 3D printed hobby RC car inspired by black holes, designed to evoke a sense of “mystery”.

Client

Personal

Date

2014

Duration

10 Weeks

Designers

Matt Ravenelle

Challenge

Our assignment was to take apart an existing RC car, individually measure and model over 55 parts, then redesign our own.

Not visually pleasing or intuitive.

I wanted to redesign the current frustrations I had with existing RC cars. Current hobby RC cars are not visually interesting, and hard to use straight out of the box. They were pretty much just plastic on wheels.

1. Not pleasant charging experience

2. Inaccessible Switch

3. Not Visually Pleasing

Inspired by Black Holes

I always thought black holes were very mysterious in nature. I wanted to capture this same feeling of “mystery” by mimicking their visual form in order to draw the viewer in, creating visual interest - causing the eye to be curious as to what was underneath.

I imagined the exterior would be fabric-like panels wrapping around it’s interior parts, splitting apart in the center to evoke a graceful form while also drawing the eye in.

To avoid the traditional “heavy” nature that RC bodies convey, I created “breathable” panels that evoked a visual lightness.

By juxtaposing the heavy form language of the front, as it transforms into petite arms, I was able to maintain a feeling of elegance.

Over the course of three iterations the car was prototyped and tested until it worked. Parts were 3D printed in FDM using real world tolerances.