Drink coasters
The goal for these coasters was to create a functional and visually interesting coaster for me to use on my new coffee table.
Because I get a good amount of natural light falling on the table surface, I wanted to design coasters that would interact with the light in some way. This was why I decided to use clear acrylic as a base to build on.
The silhouette uses a squircle shape, providing a seamless transition point for light to reflect off the sides of the coasters. This was accomplished using G2 tangent curves.
To add another element which would interact with incoming light, I machined cone shapes into one side of the coaster using a chamfer bit. The indentations contribute to the function of the design by allowing a space for condensation to collect without creating a vacuum seal between the coasters and the glass. Lastly, the surfaces were painted with transparent paints to add a pop of color.
