Overview Exploratory Stage

The 6 weeks of the Exploratory stage has whizzed by, and having the time to experiment has been fun, what i have learnt the most is not everything is going to work out as you want it, but that's ok, that's what makes the final outcome even better and more rewarding. Trips such as the V&A were fab starting points as they provide inspiration for many projects to come. The 6 weeks was not just about doing fashion, or 3D or graphics, it was about finding what type of art or design really suits you and what does not etc. In rank order the pathways i enjoyed to not so much. Fashion, 3D, graphics, and then lens- based. With the fashion i was a little fish in a big pond, i had never experienced fashion design before so it was totally new to me, therefore it wasn't intimidating to me. I choose 3D as it leads on nicely to product Design.
What i found great with the 6 weeks is that you were set a small brief but you could push it, and experiment with colour, technique, size, scale, font, etc. The 6 weeks has really opened my eyes to the creative world and has made me more creative in a very short amount of time, as i now love using pastels to do quick sketches. I have loves the exploratory stage there would be nothing i would change about the experience.

sketchbook illustrator

Day 2 3D Design

Aim: For the Tuesday we came in at 9 and were told straight away what materials we were going to be working with - Pasta - spaghetti pasta.

The idea was we had 20 strips of pasta to work with, we had to make a stable structure that held and supported 3 juggling balls. The first thing that went through my mind was oh my gosh, how am I going to achieve this. To help me process it, I did roughly around 20 sketches in my sketchpad. When sketching "medium" is very important, it means the drawings should be done in not only pencil or pen but chalk, and fine-liners.  I used pastels for my 2 page idea spread.

Techniques used to help design roughly

• squiggly lines
• straight lines
• colour pattern
• dot to dot
• draw a number 
• blind drawing
• 5 second sketches
• other hand sketches
• These are all techniques i have acquired and used throughout 3D and some other pathways.

The making of the structure 

The sketches did not initially have to foreshadow what your final structure looked like, for me my sketches only helped me think of the correct frame. I knew a triangle frame would give the support to the piece so i went over got my spaghetti strips and started gluing. For this project we were allowed to use glue guns which made life a lot easier. Instantly my brain told me to use two pieces of pasta per stick to double the strength, the pasta was fairly robust and it was also very flexible. The only problem that did occur occasionally was the hot glue from the gun melt the pasta, and if that happened we were allowed to get more pasta as a result.  

I have added these pictures as they show me making the base and real structure to my product,i created a triangular piece which actually stood up without wobbling. The red ball is one of the juggling balls were were meant to use. 

 The other aim of the day was to get the juggling balls as high off the ground as possible to win a prize. The funny thing was the prize was a pack of spaghetti.
 I really enjoyed this making process, as it was trial and error and sometimes just making is the best way to find out what works and what does not.

 
I kept building to strengthen my product, using two pieces of pasta per frame. These photographs show the final product, we had to shoot them under a light to create shadow as seen on the left. The shadow to me almost recreates a solar system. The earth being green, mars red, and the sun yellow.

To improve on the project i switched the balls for food to see what it can hold and therefore i knew its strength, and this was ideal for the next challenge in store

• This shows me putting my kit-kat into my structure. Other products we could test were
• pencils
• paper
• food etc.

 The next challenge 

Geoff set us a second challenge and that was to make a cover or distraction for our pasta structure, that could be able to hold off a basketball when dropped from a respectable height. Another challenge was added to that one, we were only allowed i A1 sheet of paper and 2 smaller pieces to protect our model. Again for me i just made and went with the outcome.

 I eventually made the protective roof by wrapping the paper over to create this circular light like structure that sat nicely onto my pasta frame. It looks like something Ikea would sell as the oval shape is similar to lamps that they sell.

The light underneath really gives my pasta frame some definition. 

In the picture on the top right you you can just make out a tiny frame of a stick person these we used to add some perspective.

We all put our models in one line and the tutors got a basketball out and one by one bounced the ball upon our work, to see if the pasta structure was strong enough to survive. Mine actually lasted so i was very pleased.

Questions

what worked and why? 

I think my whole idea worked the structure I made actually stood up and was very stable and supported the three juggling balls, and this was because I had made sure in the making process that I layered the pasta in two's to add strength to the layers.

What could i have done differently?

If I had to redo the challenge I would change the shape to make it a tad more complicated but that's all. 

How can i prepare for Thursdays last challenge ?

To prepare all I can do is remember all the tests I have done previously and take that experience and put into my model bridge.

Day 1 final outcome

model and bottle with light 

Activity 2
Our tutor told us to make a bottle opener out of 1 sheet of paper, i initially thought of traditional holders like straps that go round the neck. But i was thinking too deep. My idea was really abstract, as the brief was for the paper to hold the water bottle for around 5 seconds without falling over. I really tried with this activity as i found it challenging and annoying as it had to withstand a certain force, and i was constantly worried about it toppling over. Then i thought again because the whole point id just making not thinking and if it work great, but its not meant to be perfect.

Geoffs bottle on my model

Testing my model with my drink

Second Part of the day

me and my partner 

Aim: to design and manufacture a chair or peace of furniture we can stand, sit on, jump on, wear. We didn't have limits on how much card we could use. For one person 4 pieces, for two people 8. We could work individually or in teams. As i had worked solo for the main proportion i had a partner for this activity.  When i heard the word stand or sit, i initially thought of hexagons joined together with a piece of card on the top to create a seat.  But from this me and my partner used x shapes and interlocked them. By building up the layers the seat becomes more and more stable. Eventually it held out strength. 

When making the chair our design for the bottom
was actually really cool, as the joints interlinked
and it began to overlap. 

All photos were taken my me.

Day 1 3D Design

Aims: the aim of day was to recreate objects from sketches into reality, for example  designing a new phone case, or a piece of furniture. 

The first thing we did when the class started was get a piece of A1 paper, we had to draw a number of squiggly lines on our page, the next challenge was to make those lines into object. My drawing actually ended up looking like the Orbital in the Olympic Park designed by Anish Kapoor. 

This is not in the correct order, but we also had to draw our favorite fruit, the first fruit that popped into my head was a pineapple, then we were asked to transform the fruit into a rabbit hitch, with a run, upstairs and downstairs. 

Other designs included redesigning a mobile phone, again with this food popped into my head, i drew a burger with mobile phone keys. This was actually a challenge as the mobile phones we all have are smart phones IE I phones, Blackberry's and Samsung. 

For the next drawing we had to draw the pattern on the bottom of our shoe, for this one obviously you have to take the shoe off. Luckily the design on mine was fairly decorative and actually looked like jewelry, with was handy because that was the next challenge. 

The next couple of challenges were funny to draw and to manipulate. We were told to draw one line it had to be curved in some way, then we had to transform it into a light. The thing is we have to keep the previous shape and work with it. 

Following on from this the next stage was to draw from using our house no, we could make it up if we wanted to, we had to draw the numbers as big as our hand onto an A1 page, then transform it into a bus shelter, just like the ones we use everyday. But the shelter could have added gadgets, like phone charging centres, phones, tv screens etc. 

Likewise the next drawing was really bad, we were set the challenge of drawing a rough body outline and then somehow make the body into an animal figure. For some reason my brain was saying Octopus, the drawing was really bad, just because i didn't really have a great mental picture of what one looked like in detail.

The later drawings were hard, but it really got me thinking about birds eye view and plan view etc. we were asked to  draw the inside of a shopping centre, thinking about the architecture Bluewater was an obvious inspiration for my design. 

ICT - Adobe Software

ICT day
The aim: was to learn and develop new skills via learning about 3 different types of software from Photoshop to illustrator. The day consisted of learning the skills involved to produce a poster. The first Software was Photoshop. Photoshop allows the individual to create a picture but to edit it significantly, by this i mean to use a background and edit yourself into it. We had to choose a place that in the future we could see ourselves living or working. Instantly i had two thoughts, New York and Wimbledon. I actually chose these because New York it the city that never sleeps, its full of inspiring architecture and design. And Wimbledon because i worked there previously.

This was also testing out the shapes and how to make them. The software is actually fairly straight forward,
the tool bar on the left hand side is your controls. To make the star for example i clicked the star icon and dragged it
out to make the star bigger, i then coloured it, then i made it 3D. 

This was me testing out graphics, i stretched the letters individually to create this effect. 

This is actually the finished product. its me in New York Times Square, sitting on a large ladder, i'm very happy with the final graphic as i think it looks realistic. The text on the left hand side was all about the future and my past, it had to be 200 words long, about where we ended up or want to end up in the future.