Pipe Line
2022
Speculative Project
Adobe Illustrator
I remember the first game I played when I bought my first iPhone. I loved computer games and mini-games since when I was in elementary school. Because of my interest in games, the iPhone’s Apple store with so many kinds of games in it was a big treasure house for me. The first game I downloaded was the pipe puzzle game, one of the classic, old games we know. Based on the memory of the game, I designed 4x4 pipe tracks with specific rules. I put the same number of balls in each row and the results of all tracks are different.
People’s life story all depends on how they live their lives, for instance, how they behave and what they experience all make their lives different and precious. This pipe track piece also showed similarities with people’s lives to me. Although I put the same number of balls into them, how they move from one another and what remains in each pipe are different.
“The journey is the reward” – Steve Jobs
The journey is in your hand.
Design Process
01 Idea Sketch
02 Build the System
First, make a 4x4 magic square and fill the space with numbers from 1 to 4. These numbers will be the minimum number for the balls to pass the pipe and proceed to the next one. The number of circles in the middle of the valve tells you the number.
Then, we are going to draw 4x4 valves and apply these numbers to them.
Now we have these valves and a pipe. This is going to be the first line of the set of valves and pipes.
The number of circles on the bottom of the valve tells you how many balls are staying inside the valve. The number of circles in the dotted circle tells you how many balls are moving from one valve to another. The maximum number of balls that a valve can keep is 4.
Based on this system, the final set of the first 4x4 magic square looks like this.
03 Tracks of Pipe Roads
With the set of 4x4 magic squares with 4 numbers, created more sets of valves and pipes. Then I put them togrther and scaled them down.
04 Design Outcome
With the design assets that I made with these, I made 4 different posters. Since I metaphor life with the tracks of pipe rods, I came up with putting the balls that are kept in the pipe into folded papers as if they are in a storybook. Everybody has their own stories of their lives, and the way they treat their lives in each phase would result in different ways. I hope everyone gets the best value of function with their modifications and the way they treat their lives.
