a new project!!!

i have now began a new project prior to next semester to get a head start within research. the new project is part of the D&AD competion this year so the brief has been set around this. there were three briefs to pick from, i would tell more about them but its irrelevant. The brief that i finally decided upon is to 'present an idea which promotes HP workstations ability to bring to life anything the creative mind can concieve'
the reason that i had choosen this brief was because it was one where i could enjoy, have fun and be as creative as i want with no restrictions. so basically what i think the brief is suggeting is to restyle HP products so that they appear more creative to creative people. how exciting, i cant wait to go back and let my creative mind run free, but now is a nice time to have a festive break (although there is still plenty of things i could be doing, like reading)

its that time of year again.....and i dont mean christmas

so thats yet another semester over, where have all the years gone. but anyway, the time has come to make some more cultural probes for our next project, the D&AD international competition.

this time I have decided to take a step back from the probes i did the last time as they weren't very successful. so now i'm just focusing on one thing in my probe which is self explanatory and will allow the participant to have fun and be expressive, see the image above.

the disposable camera and all other cleverly designed tasks have been left behind. I personally dont feel that probes work for me as a research method. they have to be just right to work for everyone. whats the point in having all these clever tasks for people to do when they might not do what you intended they would and end up being returned uncompleted. so thats why i jujst focused on one thing whioch hopefully people will understand and enjoy doing.

The Survelo Ring!!!!

so here it is, a prototype of what my Survelo Ring would look like!

This is my idea which i presented to NCR as part of a live project which is also run with Gray's School of Art (Aberdeen). The brief for this project was to design a selfish self service.
I managed to get down to the final sixteen of the competition where I presented my idea through a one minute presentation. These are the boards which I used to sell my concept.
This was my final presentation board which includes all the information about my concept and the theory behind it.
And this is my background board which shows the process I went through to get to my final idea and all the research throughout the project.

So after trying very hard to sell my idea, I made it no further in the competition. i don't think the judges were too keen on it as it was not as selfish as they had expected. I felt it was selfish to me but i think i failed to get this point across.
The winner of the competition was from Aberdeen. What I had noticed about the differences between the two uni's work was that IPD had challanged the brief a bit more and had more fun and playful ideas, whereas Gray's ideas were all safe and fitted into industry well.
This was a great experience to be part of and i'm glad of what i've done for it. I should really thank Jon for giving me the opportunity to present to NCR as i never thought that i was gonna get the chance!!!

3D wall coverings!

http://www.yankodesign.com/2008/11/12/3d-wall-coverings-is-the-cost-worth-the-payout/

a friend saw this posted on a website and thought of me, i think it had to do with my bubble wrap wall paper idea.

what these are, are 3D wall tiles designed by jaime salm which add texture to your wall. but because they are tiles you can create your own pattern/shapes and also paint them in any colour you want.
apparently you can attach them temporarily so that you can change them about when you get bored or attach them permanently.
another great thing about them is they are made from recycled waste paper and when your finished with them they can be recycled. how clever is that.

this is something i would have in my home, its fun, random, quirky and also sustainable.
i want it!!!!!

it got me thinking about my bubble wrap idea and how i've had to dismiss it for my current project. i'm thinking of just leaving it aside and developing it in my own time or revisiting the idea in a later project or in fourth year.
but rather than just thinking of it like that i think i would look into 3D wall coverings.

stick men!!!

are stick men right or wrong???

down to 1 idea!!!

another successful day for me in the ipd studio this week.
after presenting 3 of my ideas to guest lecturers anab jain and bill gaver i have narrowed my 100 ideas down to one which will be used for my NCR project brief. it was quite daunting having to sell my ideas to these people because they've had so much experience within the design industry that i was expecting to be shot down.
gladly i wasn't!!!
2 of my ideas stood out to them but the managed to choose one which was more suited to the NCR brief. what i liked about anab jain was that she managed to put not only my ideas but everyone elses into context. now i'm looking forward to developing my idea to put into context and coming up with a narrative for it.
anab also took pictures of my sketches which must mean i'm doing something right and that filled me with so much motivation for the rest of the project.

dissertation...... soon to be under way!!!

finally, i have a clearer idea of what to do for my dissertation.

after having a workshop today with prof tom inns, in mono! i have got round to picking a subject and a potential question.

the general topic that i will be researching is sustainable consumerism and my potential question is 'how has consumerism changed globally in the last century, where is it going, and how can we consume more sustainably?'

this is just an idea at the moment and will probably change slightly during the initial research stage but i'm fairly confident about starting my dissertation now.

idea babies!

yesterday was another fun and creative day in the IPD studios. we were making idea babies!!!!
as strange as this sounds it was a great way to get strange and new ideas but also a good way of getting to know the fourth years.
what we were doing was a bit of speed dating with the ideas. the main intention of this was to go around the 4th years and share your ideas with them in the space of 8minutes. within this time we came up with new ideas, or idea babies!!
this was useful for me because it helped me rationalize between my ideas for the afternoon session.
in the afternoon, we had to narrow our 100 ideas down to 20 and then cluster them into 4 different groups. this was quite tricky because there were so many ideas but i got there eventually.
for next week we now have to choose 1 idea from each cluster, i.e narrow down to four.
so, to sum up i've went from 130 ideas down to 20 and now down to 4 which will soon become 1. i can't wait!!!

ideas and insights

this is the board which i put together which documents my information recieved back from my porbes. what i have tried to portray with this is how my insights were reached. each line shows the results from a different person.
i'm hoping its self explanatory and thats why i've not included any text, except the title ofcourse.

100 ideas! done!

the lecturers were right, it's not that difficult once you get started.
after having the task of coming up with 100 ideas for a couple of weeks i finally got there. as stressful and time consuming it was i actually quite enjoyed it.
it was fun just letting your mind loose and coming up with crazy insane ideas, even if they aren't possible. maybe thats why i'm still coming up with more. i have 103 at the moment and hopefully will have more to add.

final inspiration image!

this is the final inspirational image i chose for my hand in this week.

100 ideas!!!

so 100 ideas for next week. this shouldn't be too hard.
for our next stage in our design research module i need to come up with 100 ideas based on my insights that i got back from my probes.
when you think about it, it does seem like a lot but when you break it down into 10 ideas for 10 different insights then it seems just that little bit easier.
currently i'm sitting at the 40 ideas stage which is not bad, almost at the half way stage.

ants and worms!

my one and only completeted probe to date has been looked at but i have still to get the pictures developed. this has been my first attempt at a cultural probe so there were many mistakes and complications with it, which i have been informed of by the applicant.
the probe was given to an older lady who works at the tayside recycling centre. she is a true eco warrier by the sounds of her comments.
the main issue with my probe is that it was very time consuming which was obviously a huge problem since not all the tasks were completed. but on the other hand she provided some very useful information.
one of the main things that she said was that there is no waste in nature. having not thought about this before i thought this was very interesting. so i began to follow this up and ended up looking at ants. what i found out was that everything in an ants eco system is truely recycable.
this inspired me to go out and buy an antquarium so i can watch the ants for some inspiration. i also got a worm one aswell because their eco system is very familiar.
look out for posts on what they all get up to in the next couple of weeks!

paper guilt!

here i am setting up e-billing accounts for my internet and bank bills, trying to be a bit more eco friendly, saving paper and all that.
but, when i go to print out some lecture notes some girl made me feel really guilty. i'm printing on one side of the paper while she's printing on both. this made me feel really bad considering i'm focusing on sustainability.
but more to the point i dont know how to print on both sides! maybe i should have a look next time i need to print something.

cultural probes return!

so after sending out my probes, and giving the deadline of tuesday (14th) i have recieved 2 out of 4 back. and only one of these 2 have been done!

it's really quite dissapointing and disheartening after all the work i have put into making the packs and the money i have spent on them for people to say they haven't done them. why say you will be more than happy to do them and then don't bother!

i still have the other two to collect on monday so hopefully they will be completed by then.

but this is all part of the process. one of my lecturers did say they were allowing us to make more mistakes than the 4th years so i'm not too disappointed.

it's only my first attempt at them so i shouldn't worry too much.

what is the best moment of the day?

i was looking through some design websites when i came across one where the company had asked various different people 'what is the best moment of the day?' http://www.designboom.com/interviews.html
this got me thinking about the best moment of my day. it various from day to day but i would say it has to be when i get home after a busy day and just sit down for ten minutes with a cup of tea and not have to worry about anything.

inspiration/motivation picture

for class tomorrow we have been asked to bring along a picture or object that motivates or inspires us. this took some time for me to come up with something but i finally got there. what i decided upon was waste and rubbish, yet again. i feel that things do need to change towards waste rather than just recycling. the picture also acts as a form of inspiration towards me because theres so many different materials that i just want to make something with them.

one little part of my probe pack

as part of my research for uni i made a cultural probe, or stimuli as some people prefer. one task that i have asked people is 'how they would package their most precious object?'

so, if anyone else wants to have a go at that task then feel free and let me know. it'd be great to get a wide variety of responses.

my first post!!!!

A noted entry in Designboom's recent competition Dining in 2015, this eco-friendly takeaway or takeout food packaging is by Israeli designer Tal Marco. The idea is twofold: to keep your food naturally fresh by using a natural food-related item - the banana leaf whose waxy, durable and flexible traits make it perfect for wrapping; and to create a biodegradable package that doesn't contribute to our increasing piles of waste and garbage.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/designistdream/2308301436/

so i finally thought i would do my first ever post on my blog, only because i thought of something i could write about.

so, what i've currently been doing at uni since i've been back is design research. how exciting. what i have decided to research into is sustainable packaging and waste. i'm still not sure what road i'm gonna go down yet but i'm sure it will go somewhere.

i found this and thought it was amazing and just so different and made me think how packaging will look in the future.