Telling Tales Exhibition

Over the summer I went to an exhibition at the V&A museum which was called 'Telling Tales'. I thought the first section 'Forest Glade' was amazing. Looking at products inspired by a forest, it was inspirational. My particular favourite was the rowing boat bath, but I was extremely impressed with all the fairy tale products. Each item was inspired by the designers own idea of the forest, with some focussing upon things found within a forest such as trees, grass, leaves and logs, whereas others were looking at the fairy tales that often are based within luscious green forests.

Each piece was carefully thought out and created and each represented the designer, they were all quite fun, quirky and all very different to anything I had ever come across before.

Finding a Placement

I have had to start investigating placement opportunities for next year as many companies have their deadlines very soon. I have already sent out feelers to a few smaller designers and have fully applied to  PSA Peugeot Citroen. It took me a very long time to do too. I am determined to get a good placement though.

Although my course sets me up as a designer, I am much more interested in the marketing, management side of a company. I half wish I had taken a course in one of these areas rather than product design, however, design is a passion of mine and I do want to maintain design and the techniques within my career.

I am unsure if this will ever become a reality but I am determined to try and believe that I will be incredibly good at it.

Yesterday I saw the saying;

'She can turn her can'ts into cans and her dreams into plans'

Lignia

'one of the most environmentally friendly timbers on the planet' - HEALS

Lignia has the performance and appearance of traditional hardwood and is created from sustainable plantation timber.

A simple Compound is impregnated through Lignia and locked in to add permanent strength and colour.

It can be recycled like any other solid wood but the locking of the compounds is irreversible.

Lignia is eco-friendly. It does not use up slow growing and limited unsustainable hardwoods.

Push and Spin

I have just completed my sharpener project, display board. I required an extension to the deadline due to swine flu. However, I am now fully recovered and although off for 3 weeks I have only fallen 1 week hand-in behind and shall be up-to-date after tomorrow. Anyway, the sharpener project was a good start of the year project, with a basic thought process and mostly sketch work. We were not allowed to use CAD within this project and just had to produce a final design. Mine is fairly basic, called push and spin, due to the action required whilst using it. You need to push in the 'wings' which pushes the blades onto the pencil and then you spin the pencil to sharpen. This is ideal for preventing lead ends getting trapped as well as being very child friendly as they are less likely to slit their fingers if they push them into the hole.

I have enjoyed the project a lot, but am looking forward to starting a more adventurous design idea. The next project is future transportation, which is a small group project. I cannot wait for this to start and really want to get a hard working group which will push me to do better, as well as letting me motivate them. A lot of my best work is produced whilst in a group as I am a good team leader and enjoy taking a leading role, however, I can sit back if I am needed to and take a very hard working team professional attitude. I want my group to be able to communicate effectively, work well together and produce an exciting, conceptual new idea.

Patrick Blanc

Someone that has caught my eye in the world of design is Patrick Blanc. His Vertical Garden is a sensational monument to society and eco-friendly design. A way of introducing plants into a city of concrete and bricks, it is a beautiful structure that is created without soil. It is light-weight and can be implemented both inside or outside and is watered to perfection with a self watering system.

I believe that this type of creation is essential for helping towards our planets eco-friendly future. Whether or not you believe in global warning and possible disaster, it is a designers responsibility to try and help preserve the worlds resources if possible. I love this design purely for it's beauty however, I also believe that it's eco-friendly nature and green footprint creates a whole new and wonderful level for such a creation. Although the work is copy-write to Patrick Blanc I am interested in using such a design ethic in my work.

Paul Smith

Today I have had to do a presentation upon Paul Smith's Company, There is very little information about the company as it seems that he is quite protective about figures and information. I was surprised to find that he owns 250 stores in Japan whereas only another 100 elsewhere internationally. They range from Australia, Saudi Arabia and UK, with an online shopping experience which can rival most high street designer companies and can be transported to almost every country globally. Paul Smith is an international company that is well known specifically for people around middle-aged, with his men's shirts bringing in most of the revenue. 

Phillipe Starck

Phillipe Starck's work is both innovative and modern, however as an example, his Juicy Salif is not a great design. With the juice flowing over the sides and down the legs this produces a wide spread sticky mess that is not appreciated by any user. Although it is a useless lemon squeezer the product is smooth and beautiful, with it's eye-catching and provocative curves producing an organic ornament. The object has often been described as spider like and often being referenced as being inspired by 'The War of the Worlds' alien invasion.

His work is often referred to as 'over-designed' however, many of his more recent works seem to have seen this change. His ethos however, remains the same throughout all his life's work, looking at honesty, integrity and ensuring that a product is not 'a throw-away object'.

I am not particularly a fan of Starck's work. I believe that although his objects are beautiful and creative that without being functional objects they should not be sold with such a name. As an ornament the objects within question would be perfectly adequate, however as functional working objects they are useless designs. Function should not be completely forgotten about to enable form to be experienced. As a designer I work to be influenced by both form and function, as without either a product does not signify anything or work towards anything of any value.

Design and Me

I am a young designer, currently taking a degree in Product Design at Nottingham Trent University. As a creative and innovative designer I am looking into taking a placement year within design and should hopefully be working between July 2010 and September 2011. Although this is dependent upon finding an opportunity within industry.

I am still unsure about what I intend upon doing with this blog, however, I am hoping that perhaps I can create a space in which I can start to figure out myself as a designer and hopefully encourage others to interact and think about design and the world around them.