The Festive Period

It has  been a while since I have posted but I have news which is always a reason to write. The last few weeks have been filled with exciting events and probably less work getting done than should be but, well, these things happen. For example, I am writing this sitting looking out the window of the Tate Modern in London.

A new mix has been found for my final honours project which incorporates another recycled material, fly ash into the mix and this gives the small amounts of cement more to bind to. Also, working with circular moulds has shown to be a a lot more stronger due to all the stress points facing inwards. 

As far as my business plan is going, it is nearly there and will be handed in on the 15th as planned. 

What else is going on you may ask since I mentioned I had news. In the last week I have been culturally amazed by the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of Paris with accordion players on the metro, the Louvre, the Basilique du Sacre Coeur lit up in the night sky and countless amazing foods and wines. The trip topped off by seeing British group the XX in le Centre Centquatre, a contemporary arts centre.  I have then moved down to London and visited various exhibitions before meandering through the bustling streets of this great city. Visiting Christmas trees made of Jack Daniels barrels in Covent Garden, the ever joyous Hamley's Toy Shop as well as eating kangaroo and ostrich in Borough Market. So even though work may have taken a minor back seat it was definitely worth it!

Speak soon folks, and have a Merry Christmas!

People Design Technology

Had a hand-in on Friday called People Design Technology. This was to show how my project was going to relate to People, Design Language and Technology (in my case materials) and by materials I mean recycled building materials, mainly concrete.  These are my boards below:

Concrete Teacups and Mortar Saucers

So progress with testing the versatility of concrete is coming along. So far not only have I been testing different mixes of concrete but also different moulds to put the material in. 

The main mix that I have decided on is using GGBS or Granulated Ground Blast Furnace Slag. This is a by product of steel and iron making. The molten iron slag is quenched in water or steam which gives a glassy, granular product. This is then dried and ground down. It is light in colour which allows me to play around with different colours and finishes knowing they will show up more clearly. (This is will become apparent in the following week) I have also tried using cork but this did not work very well, however, I plan to try a different mix which hopefully will.

I have also been using different materials for moulds including silicone, different plastics, wood and I plan to try laminated wood today. 

The set backs so far have been that even though I can get a great smooth finish the material can be very porous and quite brittle. I think this may be from too many air bubbles becoming trapped and possibly too much water in the mix. Today I will test a mix with bigger bits of recycled aggregate which should help bind the materials more. I also plan to try using hay to bind the materials. Below are some images of what I have managed so far! (With loads more to come I might add!)

Progress

So, apart from being very aware that I need to update this blog more often, there has been quite a lot of progress.

As far as my business module is going, I am halfway through writing my first-draft which is extremely stressful but promising.

The final project, which I'm sure people are more interested in, is moving along more slowly than originally anticipated which means the levels are going to have to be cranked up starting Monday morning. I'm using mortar rather than concrete now, which still allows me to use recycled aggregate and cement replacements. I am also looking at using come ink toners to try some crazy colours so will keep you posted on that!

The main question I have to ask is how would you react to a dining set that was made out of cement, sand and recycled concrete? What if that dining set was magenta or cyan? Guess someone lucky will find out soon enough!

Guru Day

Yesterday we had "Guru Day," it was inspiring and really helpful to speak to people in industry and find out what they thought of where my project was heading and taking on board they had to offer. The gurus were Richard Banks and Tim Reegan, who both work with Microsoft Research in Cambridge, as well as Martin Bontoft and Paul Greenhalgh who both work at Team Consulting. Below is my set up for my desk and what I showed the gurus.

All the gurus were extremely helpful and showed great interest in what I had to say about my project and it was very reassuring that people thought the outcome would be exciting. As well as speaking to the gurus individually there was also a panel section in which questions like what are your pet hates? and what skills do you need to be a good designer? Other questions included what do you look for when you are recruiting? and who are are your personal design heroes/heroines?

This brought to light a hero for one of the gurus who I have always been in awe and inspiration of and even though I knew of his inventions never thought of him as a design hero and I am not sure why. I am speaking about Leonardo da Vinci. He was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and a writer. His inventions were mind blowing, especially for his time below is one the I particularly like, the ornihopter; designed in 1493, it is explorative rather than working and this appeals to my own design values:  

Who are your design heroes and why? Who inspires you and gets you motivated?

Going More In Depth

After delving into the materials that are wasted on building sites and derelict sites and then narrowing it down into materials that are more likely to have been left, I have decided to focus my current research on concrete. I am going to look at the different materials that can be used in making concrete and the different finishes that result of these, how I can change the finish by trying different materials and how I can replace the materials to make concrete a more eco-friendly material.

I am also going to look into materials that can bond concrete that have an extremely low environmental impact or none at all what so ever. For a cultural probe I am going to look into making a series of objects out of concrete and see how people react to these items.

In the meantime here are some great items that have been made out of concrete.

Where am I?

So getting into discovering where I want to go as a designer and how to show this through my honours project is a lot more challenging than I originally thought but here is where I am at the moment.

After an inspiring talk last week by Colin Burns, who showed us how to find out where we are in our project and ways to figure out where we want to me using a process by Eddie Obeng "Walking in the Fog". It showed us different areas that we could be with our project and finding out which one would help us realise what we need to achieve and how.

Using this process I realised that I was a "movie." I know what materials I want to use and have ideas for what I want to create but I am not sure how to use the materials in an effective way. Back to the research for the time being. I have also decided that I can get valuable information from cultural probes and have some crafty ideas, so will keep you posted on that!

Here is another incredible bit of recycling design to keep you all going. It is a Buddhist temple in Thailand made out of recycled beer bottles and it has a very spiritual  feeling about it in my opinion, what do you think?

Research

So, not much to report at the moment just constant research. Getting in survey responses for my business project which is great, be able to get in touch with some other groups of expats and see what everyone thinks and how I can tweak my idea. Big question at the moment is do I test the feasibility of the idea or do I see how it would work assuming it would work.

The other sidea of things is the honours project. Researching into reclaimed building materials is a lot trickier than I first anticipated so if anyone has seen or heard of anything then let me know!!! In the meantime here is some upcycling which has made an impression on me.

Designer Inghua Ting has made luxury leather floor tiles out of old leather belts. These are really cool and if I had a nice house or office I would definitely consider these. Let me know what you think. 

Life in the Deep End!

So, here I am 2 weeks into my final year of my university career and I can safely say I am bricking it! It's very exciting but shit scary at the same time, 8 months from now and I will be hopefully graduating with a brilliant honours in product design. So, lets look a the two projects that are going to help me there.

First, we have the Business Plan from the design and the market module. This, if anyone does remember, is my proposed business plan to create an social networking site aimed at expats along with an online general store to help people living abroad get a taste from home in their second home. Well this has been changed a bit and I am now looking at an expat site that gives people everyday tips and advice about life and things to do in places where it is difficult to live for an expat. For example, places where very little English is spoken or there is quite a small expat community. The online store, for feasibility reasons, looks like it may also take place as a directory of different websites that would be able to help get the food that people want to them and a percentage would be taken. 

Secondly, I have my final Honours Project. This has been explored through various mapping techniques and I want to focus on upcycling waste materials from derelict building sites. The fork in the road that I have reached at the moment is whether I focus on industrial materials or whether I go with my other idea which is a recyclinig service that offers people a reward system for how much they recycle. This could be implemented in schools and businesses as well as for home users. Got some more mapping to do!!!

Will keep eveyone posted about both projects.

Social Digital Banquet

This is the title of a week long pressure we have been given to bring us back together for fourth (and final) year of Uni. It is looking at whether you can take a more designerly view to a banquet and whether it is an experience that can be designed. Taking inspiration from Heston Blumenthal and the incredible things he can do to food and the experience he creates for people. We have gone with a back to nature theme, creating ways to present food and drink in a more natural state. Will keep everyone posted with pictures soon!

Business Proposal

My business proposal has been completed and submitted and instead of giving a the whole game away I thought I would give a short snippet:

The goal of Expat Map and General Store is to provide expats with an easily accessible platform to socialise with other expats when they move to a new city whom normally they would not know about, as well as being able to enjoy the taste of home in their second home.

My business proposal is to set up a networking service for expats living abroad, allowing them to communicate with one and other, give tips and information, as well as meet up and meet new people. Combined with this I want to set up an online shop that allows people to purchase goods that they can only get from their home country, “A taste from home, in your second home”. This would be a shop where people would select the country they are from and then they would be able to purchase these goods and have the items shipped to whatever country they are currently living in. 

The model

The model is very nearly complete there is one tiny part to complete, however, I felt after a long hard day I would share the photos of what I had done. The desk is assembled with all the components in place and functional. These include the inclining work surface, two shelves, wrist rest and concealed raising power supply.

Veneering/Staining/Varnishing

So the desk is finally coming together, just going to share the processes I have used recently as I find them interesting, especially the veneering. 

This would is the same would that was used in my more extensive prototypes. It has just been veneered using an iron-on veneer from Vale Veneers. It has been no less than fantastic. It is extremely easy to cut, I can lasercut through it causing minimal if little damage, and it is applied using a standard household iron! It takes seconds to apply as the iron only has to be on a low setting. Since they are real wood veneers they are also extremely easy to stain. I stained the power supply and the incline desktop to highlight that they are different. In the final stages at the moment, just varnishing using a soluable varnish before assembling everything together! Will have a final picture and the final concept board up soon!

Espresso Set

 On a totally different note from what has been going on with university work, I came across this awesome espresso set.

Parisian designer Fellina Sok-Cham dreamed up this perfect espresso-serving set, with a bamboo tray that dismantles to become individual saucers for six hip-to-be-square demitasse cups. Tiny notches that act as spoon rests in the cups’ top rim is a clever and functional touch. Will try and get hold of one!

Final Prototype

The desk design is coming along, got everything cut out the other day, its obviously a smaller scale than the actual desk and has developed and changed alot from the initial submission but is a picture of the legs that were made the other day, slotting nicely together, the top of the desk has also been made, as has the inclined work surface and hinges, these pictures will be up shortly.

Expat Map

Since my last post some work has been done on my business proposal and some interesting facts have been found out.

• In 2010 nearly 400,000 people emigrated from the United Kingdom
• It is estimated that there are over 3 million British Expats - however, in an article by the BBC in 2006 it said that it was estimated that there were roughly 5.5 million Brits living abroad
• There are over 200 milion people that live abroad worldwide.

So after seeing these figures I was extremely glad that I decided on my business idea and if this niche is tapped into successfully it could be a very prosperous one.

I also found out after contacting the Foreign Office that no one keeps a record of the number of British people living abroad, I find this very hard to believe, as surely if people permanently emigrate there are going to be less people paying taxes in the UK? If anyone can shed light on this it would be very helpful.

Business Proposal

All of the NESTA toolktis worksheets have been done and its on with the first draft of the prototype. The extent of research that is going to have to be done is only just becoming apparent, looking forward to a good challenge though. More to come after some of this proposal has been started.

3D Sketch Prototyping

Even though the boards were handed in for the D&AD brief that project was taken further with modelling, development sketches and 3D prototye modelling. A lot of mine was done using the lasercutter to build up some quick desk models.

Doing this allowed me to visualise how the final desk would look and also develop my idea a lot further! Will keep you posted once I have sketched it and done some more modells.

Design and the Market

It has been a while since my last post, been very busy! So here is an update on what is going on with my design and the market module. I have my business idea and without giving too much away its a way to connect people abroad and give them the luxuries of home without actually being there.

I have my idea but now I need to take it somewhere. So, the research begins, starting with existing systems and how they work, hopefully, this can shed some light on where to start. This combined with the NESTA toolkits will hopefully get me going. The NESTA tool kits are great! They break everything down into manageable bite size pieces and allow the user try and fully understand where they want their business to go and how they are going to get it there.

I will post again about this after I feel I have managed to complete all of the worksheets.

Open Journalism

I have tweeted about htis but thought I discussion would probably be better had here. The Guardian have released their new advert for open journalism and how they show all the sides of the story. It follows the story of the three little pigs in both print and online and how people share their reactions and how the Guardian's stories spark debate. These reactions that are shown are those of the public however, that what is originally viewed may not be the case. In the advert it ends up with a totally different ending than what we know in the traditional tale. The pigs turn out to be the bad guys and used the wolf. I won't give away the entire clip as it is very interesting to watch! I felt it was an extremely accurate representation of how society acts today. Take a look, tell me what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDGrfhJH1P4

D and AD Board Submission

Handed in the final boards for D and A D today, take a look let me know what you think.

Inspirational Workspace

Some extremely fun and creative workspaces! Would do anything to work in any of these working environments!

http://www.designjuices.co.uk/2011/03/20-inspirational-office-workspace-designs/

Snook Visual

Here is a visual we made to show our journey to Snook

http://vimeo.com/37422076

Hope you enjoy!

Snook Research/Presentation

Well it feels like the finally cog has been put into place into this exciting innovative machine! The research came together and the presenation looks smart with some in depth visualisations including a very sexy animation, the result of some excellent sketching by Nate and Jamie with filming done by myself. Will post the presentation when its finished, hope you will enjoy it!

Snook Research Wall

D and A D

So, it has been a while since I posted about this project, been busy with everything going on at once but here is an update:


I focused my research on 11-17 year olds as I felt the difference in educational needs of 7 and 17 year olds was to great to create one workspace. My research consisted of lots of sketches, existing products, current learning environments, the psychology of learning, creative learning environments, anthropometric data, exisiting educational bodies and studies that have been done into creative learning as well as questionnaires and interviews with people that are still studying at school at different levels.

Through this I came up with several insights: adjustability, learning envirnments, storage, comfort, implementing technology, workspace, group/individual work.

I then focused on adjustablility as thorugh my research I realised that this was one of the things people didn't like about desks and the way they were designed. They were too rigid in structure and did not allow the user to feel comfortable enough be productive. I also wanted to include something to do with technology as my research also showed that children were using technology at a younger age.

I have come up with a final concept and I am in the stages of refining it; below are some pictures of models:

PSIV Industrial Project

We were sent to St. Andrews Golf Company and given the task of creativing a method/mechanics for interchanging golf club heads and shafts. This had to be relatively cheap and light weight and have minimum impack to the performance and feel of the clubs as one of the company's values is that what they try in store is what they actually play with.

The final idea involved having a shaft with 3 grooves in the last 2 inches fitting into a device which is attached to the heads, this is then screwed into place. An image of this is below: