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// Case study 04 · Physical product · Parametric system

Nine frames. One rule. Photographs first.

SariSari Snaps began as a rough grey print carried up Mt. Pulag. Print failures, fit tests, colour trials, and one shared OpenSCAD model turned it into a magnetic photo-frame system with nine formats.

The first rough grey SariSari Snap held above the landscape at Mt. Pulag
Origin · Mt. PulagThe first object was carried into the mountains before there was a product family around it.
My role
Co-founderObject, parametric model, and manufacture
President / Creative Director
R. GarciaProduct and visual direction
System
Nine formatsOne to twelve photographs
Source of truth
OpenSCAD modelOne rule across nine formats
01 · The first object

The first prototype contained almost everything the system would remove.

It was rough, hollow, centrally branded, and wrapped in a decorative border. Before it could hold a photograph, the frame was already demanding attention.

Close view of the rough grey prototype with a decorative edge and SariSari Snap lettering
Prototype 001Decorative edge, centred lettering, exposed print texture.
A later white nine-photo SariSari Snap filled with photographs from Mt. Pulag
Later systemThe photographs take the field; the frame becomes their boundary.
The joke

The prototype went to Pulag as a toy for the gods. The joke gave the project life; the work that followed gave it rules.

02 · Material answered

The printer turned clean geometry into a physical argument.

Renders concealed the exact point where a design failed. The print bed exposed it: lifted corners, rough first layers, excess filament, and damaged edges—each weakness at full scale.

Early grey frame prototypes surrounded by brims on a 3D printer bed
Failure 01Brims and excess material across the test bed.
Close-up of a lifted and damaged corner on an early grey print
Failure 02A lifted corner deforming the frame.
The bed showedThe footprint and edge behaviour were not abstract finishing details. They determined whether the frame printed cleanly.
The surface showedDecorative geometry amplified roughness instead of disguising it. Every extra gesture gave the material another place to fail.
The iteration changedThe object became quieter and the model more repeatable: fewer ornamental edges, clearer pockets, and dimensions that could propagate without redrawing each frame.
03 · One rule, nine frames

I stopped drawing products and built a rule.

One fixed square pocket became the module. Columns, rows, and orientation could change; spacing, edge conditions, and the lower personalisation zone stayed governed by one OpenSCAD model.

Consistent edge Fixed pocket Personalisation zone Shared gap

What stays fixed

Photo pocketOne fixed square module
SpacingOne shared gap rule
Top + sidesA consistent edge condition
Lower zoneReserved for personalisation
Outer widthDerived from column count
Outer heightDerived from row count
  1. Solo
    1 × 1
  2. Double Take
    2 × 1 · rotates
  3. Triple Treat
    3 × 1 · rotates
  4. Wide Shot
    4 × 1 · horizontal
  5. Classic
    2 × 2 · hero
  6. Six Pack
    3 × 2 · rotates
  7. Eight Tiles
    4 × 2 · horizontal
  8. Gridstagram
    3 × 3
  9. Darling Dozen
    4 × 3 · horizontal

Nine formats hold between one and twelve photographs. Their orientation and scale change; the underlying rule does not.

04 · The photograph changed the brief

The frame was not the subject.

The moment a real photograph entered the prototype, the hierarchy became obvious. The object needed no stronger identity—only a precise pocket, a reliable grip, a quiet boundary, and a small place for meaning beyond the image.

The first photograph fitted into the rough grey prototype on a laptop
First fitThe photograph immediately outranked the ornament.
A later white Solo frame holding a cat photograph during a studio test
Later testA quieter edge, deeper pocket, and dedicated lower skirt.

Hold the photograph precisely.Let everything else recede.

The rule behind every later decision
05 · Colour by elimination

Colour stayed only when the photograph came first.

The early palette was broad, saturated, and often glossy. Real images exposed what swatches could not: yellow dirtied pale areas, saturated edges pulled attention from faces, and gloss threw highlights across the print.

A wide range of early SariSari Snaps prototypes in bright colours and different finishes
Elimination fieldEarly colours and finishes photographed together, before the palette narrowed.
White
Black
Sage
Blush
Dusty Blue

Five matte colours survived: White, Black, Sage, Blush, and Dusty Blue. Garcia chose the final five; what I brought was the condition they had to survive — photograph first, or the colour goes.

06 · Meaning within a boundary

Personalisation earned a boundary.

Text stays on one line below the photograph grid. Its available length follows the frame width and orientation. A small stamp can share the same centre line; neither is allowed to compete with the images.

Several personalised SariSari Snaps frames with text placed in the lower skirt
PersonalisationThe message gets a boundary of its own, below the images.
01 · Position
Outside the grid
No text crosses a photograph pocket.
02 · Length
Width-aware limit
The limit follows the frame width and selected orientation.
03 · Language
“Your text”
Plain language replaced the old technical terminology.
04 · Throughline
Text + stamp
Both share the lower skirt’s centre line.
07 · What held

One rule held across all nine formats.

The final test was consistency at scale: from Solo to Darling Dozen, more photographs, new orientations, and a larger footprint without inventing a new object each time.

A physical family of early SariSari Snaps frames laid out on a white surface
Family proofDifferent capacities; the same module, boundary, lower zone, and physical language.
The module heldEvery format grew by combining the same photograph pocket, not redrawing it.
The hierarchy heldThe lower zone carried personalisation while the photograph grid remained uninterrupted.
The principle heldAt every size, the frame held the memory without becoming its subject.

The object settled. What had to agree with it next was the storefront — part two is the configurator that sells these frames, and it derives its preview from the same millimetres.

The system improved by subtraction: fewer colours, fewer arbitrary dimensions, fewer decorative gestures, clearer limits. The result is a frame present enough to hold the photograph and quiet enough to let the memory arrive first.

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