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AC CHALLENGE 33: Valentine Robotics Inc. "Sexy but Functional"
desperaterobots
perth, ausRegistered User regular
perth, ausRegistered User regular
As the legendary champion of the previous challenge thread, the task for this challenge thread falls upon me. It is an important quest that I do not take lightly.
Therefore, let us conceive of, then illustrate, the intriguing robotic products created by the fine, faceless folk over at Valentine Robotics Inc.
SOME HISTORY: Valentine Robotics Inc. have been in business since 1946, when they went to market with the world's first singing valentines day card. The public was disturbed by the sight of the greasy, human-like mechanized voice box that was glued in to each of the cards, and aside from complaints about the bulk and weight (up to 7 pounds, depending on the selected greeting) the public was scandalized when the story broke that famed Hollywood actress Penny Roxenberg had supplied her voice for what the media had dubbed an "inhuman contraption".
It was the following year in 1947 when the "Valentine's Day Dinner Date and Dust Reducer" was released. It was a humanoid robot that generated amusing repartee when in the vicinity of wine and roses and could fill balloons with airborne particulates. The product's design was crude and tended to spread dust rather than reduce it due to faulty sensors over-inflating the balloons. However, it was a breakthrough hit that had made awkward dinners alone a thing of the past. Thanks to an increased advertising budget, this time the media dubbed the device a "godless curiosity" - considered high praise at the time. The robot dog pictured above was just a fake.
Since then, there has been a Valentine Robotics Inc. product released each and every Valentines Day. Dr Esperato Robotos, the current CEO, sums up the guiding design principle of the company as being "Sexy but Functional" adding, "We don't make products, we make interactive experiences that are good for one day of the year - Valentines Day. Then after that, they mop your floors or whatever. It's really a very good system, especially if you like accumulating many, many single-function robots. Which I do."
THE CHALLENGE:
Choose a year between 1946 and 2050 and design Valentine Robotics Incorporated's product release for that year. Take as many design cues from the era as you like. Just make sure the machine performs two functions - A fantastic companion for the lonely on Valentines Day AND a handy domestic tool that will be useful throughout the rest of the year. Who wouldn't want to take their ironing board out to dinner?
The deadline is: February 14th, 2013. Valentines Day.
Therefore, let us conceive of, then illustrate, the intriguing robotic products created by the fine, faceless folk over at Valentine Robotics Inc.
SOME HISTORY: Valentine Robotics Inc. have been in business since 1946, when they went to market with the world's first singing valentines day card. The public was disturbed by the sight of the greasy, human-like mechanized voice box that was glued in to each of the cards, and aside from complaints about the bulk and weight (up to 7 pounds, depending on the selected greeting) the public was scandalized when the story broke that famed Hollywood actress Penny Roxenberg had supplied her voice for what the media had dubbed an "inhuman contraption".
It was the following year in 1947 when the "Valentine's Day Dinner Date and Dust Reducer" was released. It was a humanoid robot that generated amusing repartee when in the vicinity of wine and roses and could fill balloons with airborne particulates. The product's design was crude and tended to spread dust rather than reduce it due to faulty sensors over-inflating the balloons. However, it was a breakthrough hit that had made awkward dinners alone a thing of the past. Thanks to an increased advertising budget, this time the media dubbed the device a "godless curiosity" - considered high praise at the time. The robot dog pictured above was just a fake.
Since then, there has been a Valentine Robotics Inc. product released each and every Valentines Day. Dr Esperato Robotos, the current CEO, sums up the guiding design principle of the company as being "Sexy but Functional" adding, "We don't make products, we make interactive experiences that are good for one day of the year - Valentines Day. Then after that, they mop your floors or whatever. It's really a very good system, especially if you like accumulating many, many single-function robots. Which I do."
THE CHALLENGE:
Choose a year between 1946 and 2050 and design Valentine Robotics Incorporated's product release for that year. Take as many design cues from the era as you like. Just make sure the machine performs two functions - A fantastic companion for the lonely on Valentines Day AND a handy domestic tool that will be useful throughout the rest of the year. Who wouldn't want to take their ironing board out to dinner?
The deadline is: February 14th, 2013. Valentines Day.
+8
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For those of you who frequent the conceptart.org forums this should be pretty familiar; tens of artistic combatants thrown together in to an artistic arena, each struggling for the honor of being dubbed a master of the visual arts. Those of you who succeed will be bathed in glory and the blood of their competitors, those of you who fail will be exiled to a life of shame and isolation.
The aim of this thread is to try and spice things up a bit here in the ol' Artist's Corner. This thread is for entries in to the challenge or the discussion thereof. If you'd like to suggest a topic for the weekly challenge, go right ahead, but understand that the last winner of the challenge has total control over the task (unless they have won more than two challenges in a row, see rules).
The rules are simple;
RULES:
* One entry per person, per challenge.
* A contestant cannot win more than two challenges in a row.
* Winner gets the privilege of choosing the next challenge.
* Winner also gets the honor of picking the winner of the next challenge.
* At the end of a challenge, the thread is locked and a new one is begun.
* Stick to the challenge topic; no going off on a tangent.
* All formats welcome, whether they be traditional or digital; 2D or 3D; still or animated.
If you're looking for inspiration, check out the aforementioned conceptart.org forums (specifically the creature/environment/character of the week sections).
Previous Challenges:
CHALLENGE 1: Hidden World
CHALLENGE 2: Red Vs Blue
CHALLENGE 3: Satan Teapot
CHALLENGE 4: Crime Fighting Hobo
CHALLENGE 5: Universal Monsters
CHALLENGE 6: Lyric Interpretation
CHALLENGE 7: Santa vs Dinos
CHALLENGE 8: Retro Poster
CHALLENGE 9: Literal Literature
CHALLENGE 10: Choose! Choose the form of the destructor!
CHALLENGE 11: Heroes In a Half Shell
CHALLENGE 12: Fancy Hats
CHALLENGE 13: God Splicing
CHALLENGE 14: Copycats
CHALLENGE 15: Pinups
CHALLENGE 16: Trick or Treat
CHALLENGE 17: How Far We Have Come
CHALLENGE 18: Back to the Retrofuture
CHALLENGE 19: Crime Noir
CHALLENGE 20: Make a Video Game
CHALLENGE 21: You Just Got Served!
CHALLENGE 22: HERE THERE BE DRAGONS
CHALLENGE 23: I WANT TO BELIEVE
CHALLENGE 24: FIRST!!!!
CHALLENGE 25: YOUR NAME AS A LABEL
CHALLENGE 26: SEVEN DEADLY HELMS
CHALLENGE 27: Jurassic Park 4 Concept & Design
CHALLENGE 28: Pirate vs Ninja vs Cowboy
CHALLENGE 29: They're just like us!
CHALLENGE 30: Drivers and their rides!
CHALLENGE 31: The Discomfort Zone
Can I just build a robot and enter it instead.
This is like scissor hands though, cause I really want to make a cute and nice Vday gift, but now it's got to be scify and useful? I'm going to find a way to make it work.
Your design can be whatever you want. The challenge is really to apply a modicum of design research into a valentines-related design, and adding some pointless functionality for the lols. Although 'robots' are inherently sci-fi, it doesn't necessarily need to read that way in your design, and picking two years between 1946 and 2050 should give you a pretty broad palette of styles to pick from. It needn't be a humanoid robot either. Go nuts!
This is highly encouraged!
Build enough for everybody.
The dead pan expression is what slays me, it's everything a mysoginist pig would want in a wife.
MY WILDEST IMAGINING COULD NOT HAVE CONCEIVED...!
My Portfolio Site
No one else?
A default win is still a win right?
I'm still holding out for something special by someone... Anyone... But if nothing happens, I'll post up at the end of the month.
Thanks for all the love though guys!
But not really drawn out into a sophisticated sketch, and unlikely to get to it by the end of the month
Uncanny Magazine!
The Mad Writers Union
I for one didn't quite get the premise until CMT3k uploaded his submission. Though I have to say it was probably one of the most creative challenge submissions I've ever seen.
And no, I was going to do this challenge once I found the time. So, yeah, Cyber ruined your contest Drobe (BOOOOO), with his awesome submission (YAAAY).