Digital Palette

A physical tool that seamlessly pairs to a digital experience.

The palette’s touchscreen offers a place to mix and select colors and is paired with a touchscreen device that acts as a canvas. 

The connection demonstrates the possibilies of combining traditional making techniques with digital experiences, urging the creation of more thoughtful technology that is grounded in human nature. In this new making experience, the artist becomes untethered from their device, free to move and form a deeper connection to their art. 

An artist’s tools play a role in the work that is produced with them, they are both a physical and mental extension of the artist. Tools act as frameworks that shift the artists perception of the subject they are seeing, they enable and disable certain approaches, and their very nature aesthetically determines the appearance of a work. An artist holding a pencil will move in a completely different rhythm than an artist working with an ink brush, their minds intertwined with the different languages of each tool. And if they were to attempt to replicate the same image both tools would give the images different appearances. Tools are important to the artist as they provide possibilities. This project set out to explore the possibilities of combining two seemingly separate realms of art through the creation of a new tool.

Toolset

1. Case
2. Digital pallete (palette with embedded touchscreen)
3. Interchangable brushtips
4. Brush handle

 Components 




Brush Tip Interchangeability

Magnets embedded in the brush tip and brushtip connectors allow brush tips to be easily switched.
This way the artist can select a stylus that is suited for the task at hand, while keeping the same handle.

A spiked mechanism in the palette attaches to a slider positioned on the backside of the brush connectors and allows brush tips to easily be removed and reattached, or just held for storage.


User Experience

In order to complete the experience a tablet or similar device must be paired with the palette that acts as a canvas. The device can be held in a space inlaid in the lid of the case. 



Process