Rif Shades

Rif Shades are a stylish, sleak and inexpensive way to hide your eyes from the sun. The design combines the lens and frame into a single material (acrylic) meaning less parts, easier manufacturing and a unique aesthetic. It also allows for many personalized combinations of colours and shapes, which can be seen on the promotional poster below. Whether you want bright neon for a music festival or slick all black for streets, Rif Shades has you covered.

Process

Initial Prototypes

The first round of prototypes I created were made from cardboard. An initial CAD version of the glasses were created to have dimensional accuracy. From this model I could print a blueprint on paper and build it. It was important to make physical models at this early state since it is a wearable product. It was great to get a feel for the dimensions and how the hinge mechanism worked.

At this point in the design I wanted to use plastic strip(for cardboard boxes) for the hinge mechanism. It would loop through the laser-cut pieces and be fastened with small rivets.

Laser-cut Prototype 1

Once happy with the dimensions and form I went on to create a first round of laser-cut prototypes. These gave a great feel of the final product weight and aesthetic.

I learned from this prototype that the hinge mechanism did not work as well as originally thought. The plastic strip was a bit too rigid and did not fare well when constantly hinging and wrapping around the glasses. As the image below shows, many times the plastic strip would give out and tear.

Laser-cut Prototype 2

Needing a new hinge mechanism I developed a new set of prototypes. This version uses a laser-cut hinge mechanism which results in the glasses being 95% acrylic. This new hinge requires a pin much like most typical door hinges you see. This resulted in a much sturdier fold for the arms with much less wiggle.

Laser-cut Prototype 3

The third set of prototypes use an alternate lens design, though will not get rid of the previous style. 3d printed parts are used for the hinge and nose piece with slight variations for maximum efficiency.