Renatha Andrade

Garfield

Slot-Assembled 3D Figure

05
2025

A cartoon flattened into sections and rebuilt in MDF — every part drawn from scratch, held together by nothing but slots.

Context
Product Design course — brief: build a figure using intersecting sections
Area
Product design, technical drawing and prototyping
Techniques
3D modelling, sectional construction and slot assembly
Tool
Blender
Role
Product design, technical drawing, 3D modelling and prototyping.
The figure at a three-quarter angle against a pale background

Product design — 2025

Developed for the Product Design course, with a brief to build a figure using intersecting sections, this project involved transforming Garfield into a three-dimensional figure assembled through an interlocking slot system. After studying the character from different viewpoints, I redesigned its form and developed every individual component from scratch.

The volume was created by intersecting horizontal and vertical sections. The process included proportion studies, cardboard prototypes, technical drawings and a Blender simulation used to test the overall form and the connection between the pieces before final production. The result translates the character’s distinctive silhouette, expression and features into a modular construction system.

The laser-cut panel layout for every section of the figure, sheet by sheet
The figure seen from behind, the head a blank stack of discs
The assembled Garfield figure seen from the front, built from stacked MDF sections
The figure seen from the side, the internal grid of the slot structure visible