This week
was the launch of Unit X. For my Unit X project this year I have chosen to do a
project called Whitworth Limited Editions. For this project we have been
invited to develop proposals, samples and prototypes for products to be sold in
the Whitworth’s retail outlet. Within the timeframe of the project I will not
necessarily be able to produce a finished product; therefore it is important to
consider throughout how my ideas are communicated to an audience. After the
project launch presentation we were asked to bring a wide range of creative
materials and sets of multiples. From these multiples and materials we created
new design ideas to create innovative products. Here are some images from the
making session.
Also we had
to do a task called 'speed dating' for this we were asked to prepare a small 2-minute
speech and bring an example of our work. Then we worked our way round the room
talking to as many people as we could to describe our work in 2 minuets. I
found this task very useful to see other peoples work and find people who I
would be interested in collaborating with. I also found the task quite
enjoyable and fast pace. I was lucky enough to be asked by 3 girls if I would
like to collaborate with them on this project, not creating 1 outcome but just
to meet up and share our ideas, as we all have similar thoughts about this
project. The girls I am working with are all from 3D design, which is a subject
I am very interested in. I am especially keen to learn about the way they work
and how they interpret this project from another discipline's point of
view.
Today we
went on an organized visit to the Whitworth art gallery. Although I have
already visited the gallery independently a few times in the past, it was much
more helpful and interesting getting a tour. I started the day by being shown
textile examples from the Whitworth archive here are some photographs of the
ones I found most interesting as they
I found all
the parts of the Whitworth interesting but I found the gift shop talk from the commercial team was the most
engaging and informative to me. Looking at the products and being given information
about the products it was very clear to see the key concepts of the Whitworth being; Playful, Personal and intelligent within the products that they already sell. I was able to get a clear feeling and understanding of the audiences that i could design for. This understanding was vital in helping me think of my own
ideas to be sold in the shop as i realise how important it is that my product would fit within the shop. Here are some of the image I took which I found
most inspirational. I found them inspirational because of the wide variety of objects the shop sold. I was inspired that i could let my imagination go of and think about all the possibilities i could think of whilst designing. The colours of the images in the gift shop were particularly inspirational as they were all quite different but at the same time they all sat very well together to create a very consistent look and feel throughout the store.
After the
tour of the park I am thinking about using the idea of reclaimed wood from
Whitworth Park itself as a key concept in my design ideas. I think that this
would fit in well with the words that characterise the Whitworth’s approach;
Playful, Intelligent and Personal. I am thinking that my proposal could use any
one of these words at this point to describe itself. Also by using reclaimed
wood that has already fallen from the trees in the park, that this will be made
with an ethical consideration. If I do not use the idea of reclaimed wood in
some way or another, then I think the best thing to do would be to design for interiors as this is what i am most interested in. I intend to explore working with reclaimed wood as this is something i have never done before, however as it is not my area of practice working with these materials i am unsure as to how successful it will be. Therefor the idea i will choose to take forward will probably explore an area more close to my own practice and focus on interiors aimed at children.
I attended
the Alex Russell workshop because I am interested in trend forecasting and I thought
this would be the most relevant to my work. I have always been interested in
trend forecasting and I think it is a vital part when trying to design
products, as no one is going to want to buy a product that is outdated,
especially as the production time for some products can take years. I really
enjoyed the lecture and I felt that I learned quite a lot about the subject,
although I wasn’t expecting to learn as much as I did by completing the tasks
in the workshop. In the workshop session I collaborated with Rachel Convery,
and together we chose to look at environmental issues as our topic. We used
post it notes to list a plethora of environmental issues and then chose 2
issues to focus on.
After
gathering images to illustrate our 2 issues we then created 2 boards from
these. We then presented these boards to the rest of the class.
This week i met up
with my group and discuss my 3 ideas. This helped me a lot to see other people’s
opinions. I found it very helpful as we are all looking at the same theme of
nature and bringing the outside inside. We have all been very interested in the
park and the idea of reusing wood. I initially wanted to use reclaimed wood as the main focus of my project but i have changed my idea after discussing with my group. I am going to use reclaimed wood and sticks as drawing tools to create the drawings and images for my designs. Here are my 3 ideas. The idea that i will be taking forward will be idea number 2. I have chosen to design for an interior setting and i feel that this project will work particularly well for children's interiors.
