'The Fayretrade Market'

On Wednesday 16th March my group carried out the final presentation of our 'Enterprise Project' in lectures. We had created 'The Fayretrade Market' where everyday, ordinary people could come along and trade homegrown produce with one another. The whole idea of this project was to create a business, a service or a product that would appeal to Post-Consumers. So we decided that creating a service where communities can come together and trade excess home grown produce would be ideal - not only would we bringing communities together, we would be encouraging people to 'grown their own' and not have to worry about the excess. 

Every 3 months we would hold one of these events in a local hall where anybody could come along and trade game, fruit and vegetables amongst one other. The entrance fee into each event would £6 but for those who know they will be attending all four events in the year they can purchase a 'Growers Card' and pay a one off fee of £18. 


Alongside this we will sell 'Grower Packs' at a one off cost of £20 which includes everything you need to get you growing. These packs will also be sold by large gardening suppliers and in stores such as B&Q. We have also included a booklet in the pack which contains the laws & regulations of game, where you can grow in urban areas, along with seasonal growing charts and information about our website.

In the first year we hope to get 'The Fayretrade Market' full established and well known in the Dundee area, in year two we plan to expand to Aberdeen and in year three to Edinburgh. Further expansions from year 5 onwards would include the trading of a wider range of products, more events and expansion to larger cities within the UK.

Our logo:

'Grower Pack':

Posters:

Website:

RSA Project - CIRCLE

This was a project brief set by RSA as a student design competition. The brief was to design anything for the elderly that would make life easier at home, prolong their time at home or that could be put in place in existing purpose built housing. I chose 'B: Purpose Built Housing'. When first given the project I started to think about the stereotypical views of the elderly and the type of environment a care home provides them with. So the question that I asked myself was 'Why is it that the elderly will sit for hours and tell you all about the 'Good Old Days' and their past but they never tell you of something fun or exciting that they did yesterday?'. So I have created a pod that encompasses fun, family, being social, reminiscing and creating new memories. It also has a retro theme to take them back in time, to help them feel young again and multiple other aids to keep them and their brain active. A space they can take their family and have a good time and get away from the clinical, horrible environment of the care/retirement home whenever they want. There would be multiples of these within the grounds of the home, each individual would have their own pod. I have also given it the name 'Circle' as I believe not only are circular spaces more social - in a circle everyone is equal. These are my final presentation boards for the project:

Bomb Project!

This week from Monday 1st November to Wednesday 3rd November all years of Interior and Environmental Design were given the 'Bomb Project'. Rightly named so, as the tutors emailed us all on Thursday last week to inform us that on Friday we would be getting a new project brief that would run for three days the following week. So we have all been jumbled up into groups all containing people from each year of my course. Not only was this to get the studio bustling and active for open days, it was to get the years mingling and get the first years more acquainted with everyone.

At first I think everybody felt the same on Friday, dread and wondering what is the point to this? I know that I have quite a lot of project work on at the minute along with my dissertation development, so it felt a bit  of a hindrance.  However, it showers your head for 3 days and would always be another experience and article of work for my portfolio.

So the project brief is pretty complicated but in short, each group were given a specific topic and 2 thought evoking images. Following on from this it was up to us where we wanted to go with it as long as we produced a 2D or 3D outcome that occupied part of the studio area. Then on Wednesday the 3rd we would have a quick informal presentation of the final outcome and get some feedback from the tutors. The images we were given:

I was in Group 10, which consisted of 8 people and we were given the topic 'CARE'. On Friday afternoon we did a quick mind map of our instant thoughts of what this title meant to us. The obvious things where coming up like the elderly, cotton wool, first aid, plasters and so on. We then decided that for Monday (the official starting date for the project) we would gather images over the weekend that encompassed the meaning of 'Care'. These are the images I gathered:

As you can see I gathered a wide variety of images. Meeting up on Monday morning, a few people had not got any images but through a discussion with the images we had, it lead us on to thinking about the other end of the scale. We were thinking very obviously of the things we care for but then we asked ourselves "What about the things that we should take care off and don't? 

We also had been thinking about visual communication and signage that give you warnings and cautions e.g signs helping you take care when driving. So we decided to try to combine the two. Was there a way in which we could gather a collection of items that we should take care with but don't and add a warning symbol to them, to make people pay more attention? 

So Monday night we went home trying to think of these items and add the 'Warning' signage to them in which ever way we wanted. I decided to find some less obvious images, get them into photoshop and incorporate the warning sign in an interesting and realistic way. The images that I chose all have a variety of messages to convey, some more serious than others and some even with a double warning meaning e.g. the bottle of water. My images can be seen below:

After creating these I started to look at creating 'Warning Tags' that could be attached to other everyday objects that wouldn't necessarily be able to have the logo incorporated in or on it. I created a simple tag and attached it to everyday objects that we know we should 'take care' with but don't. For example, we know we should take care when using safety pins but how many times have you been using one and ended up pricking yourself?

Tuesday morning came and we collaborated chosen images from each person to create an evoking visual presentation. We also printed out the 'Warning' logo we had been using and created some stickers and tags. These were then attached to items around our studio area that we should all take care with but don't. This reinforcing our concept and adding a 3D level to our presentation.

RSA - Modern Age Project

My very first project of the year was a brief produced by the RSA as a competition entitled 'Modern Age'. The brief was as follows:

"Design a domestic product or living environment for older people that surpasses conventional expectations. Either design something to help a person growing older in the home they made and know (A), or design something for a purpose-built home for the elderly that evokes the qualities of a lived-in home (B)."

Although the brief was explained further for another 3 pages, these where to the only two options I had to choose from. I started to think about the stereotypical values that are giving to the elderly and the way in which they are perceived by everyone else. The usual thoughts cropped up; slow, decrepit, boring, useless, frail and so on. But why are the elderly all tarred with this same brush? Why do we not see them the same as the rest of us? After all they have been around longer than us, know more than us, have seen many things that only we can pray we never have to see (war) and we were once as young as us. Why do we not see them as young, trendy, sexy, smart and fun?

Many sketches and mind maps later, my initial research led me to a major thought/question. Why is it that when you are sitting talking to someone elderly e.g. your granny, why do they always speak about their childhood, all the fun they used to have, everything they got up to when they were young and reminisce on all those old memories? Why do they never speak of something fun and exciting they did last week? 

Therefore, MEMORIES, would be the basis of my design. Creating a space that the elderly can call their own, where they can create new memories with family members or friends but where they can also reminisce and relish on the past memories they love so much. 

Ideally this 'memory pod' would be created and designed to be positioned within the land of nursing homes. I have chosen to do this because of a visit to a local Dundee care home - Tullideph Nursing Home. Although this home was for those with severe dementia, the interior is as clinical and horrible as the rest. The areas that were private and supposedly personal for each individual where no more homely than the rest of the place. I came home feeling so sad and upset. it made me think all sorts and you truly don't know what is in front of you. How can being old could be this horrible? You have images and thoughts of how these places will look and smell but nothing prepares you for everything you are about to experience as you walk through those doors. This had a great effect on me and I decided I wanted to create a space that people living in a home could go to, make their own and get away from the horrible environment in which they have to live. A place that they are proud of, that feels like home and that give them some responsibility. I have decided that my design would be best suited for homes containing more able elderly rather than those with a specific disability. Therefore the option I have choose is (B).

Sustainable Renovation Project

After completing the sustainable book project it was time to get my new project brief. My current project is to renovate and refurbish an old, ruined house. It is situated in Dundee on Seafield Road, currently surrounded by rows of old Victorian buildings. The house front is extremely old fashioned but has an attractive quality to it, however, the rest of the building is very uninspiring.

39 Seafield Road (The Building to Renovate)

We have also been given a client to aim this build in a certain direction. Our client Emma, is currently a book conservator working for the University of Dundee but is also part of a private practise. She has a nine to five job working with books, her weekends are free and she enjoys quite a lot of hobbies including snowboarding, yoga and Thai Chi. She had also told us that she spends a lot of her time outside of work entertaining friends and family including cooking dinner for everyone and having dinner parties.

This is only her social aspect of things, the studio also has quite a lot of items that need to be incorporated and a number of problems that need to be resolved. Certain areas will need to be created to make this environment practical and the large equipment that Emma works with also needs to be integrated within the design.

All in all, it is needless to say that she has a very long list of requirements for her building come studio. However, not only do I want to meet all her studio and personal needs; I want to create an exciting and inspiring design. I don’t want it to be plain old straight walls everywhere and ordinary. The other thing that needs to be thought carefully about near the end of the design process is Sustainability. Our final design has to not only be sustainable and as energy efficient as possible.

I currently feel quite bogged down with a lot of information, research and ideas and as this is our first major interiors project, it is daunting but I am also excited by this. In some aspects I am quite nervous as this is something I would love to pursue when I finish my years at university and this is kind of a sink or swim situation. But here’s hoping I’ll be swimming by the end of it!

'101 Stool' (My Work)

I previously blogged in December about my furniture project and the '101 Theory' to do with the way in which people sit in public. The '101 Stool' is a stool that we have designed around this theory, principally for the general public. Each stool moves on 4 ball transfers, has the ability to connect to other alike stools and is made from Oak and Beech Plywood. Therefore with this ability to connect stools, if you want to sit by yourself you can but if you are with a group of people you can join your stools enabling you to sit collectively together.

The two white boxes that can be seen on the presentation boards are representations of the stool as we didn't have enough time or materials to make more. However, in theory there would be multiples of identical '101 Stool's.

We also had the thought of creating a track in which you could move along on your stool e.g. the track and stools could be positioned in a certain way in a museum, so that the general public would be able to sit and move around and be directed to the best viewing points and so on.

Public Seating Research

Connection

Inspiration

Concepts

Perspectives

Final Design