Reuse Remake Reinvent (15th - 19th Nov, 2010)

this week is the first week for 3D and Spatial Design. During the reading week, i was told to find a second  handed furniture but sadly i can't find a shop that sells second handed furniture....so i found a cheap CDs rack from Ikea...then i drew a few drawings and sketches with it in different angles and photographing it..Here is the photos of my drawings and the CDs rack that i bought from ikea...

 
- when drawing the sketches i used 3 different media and they are pencils, markers and water colors..

After we have a brief by the tutors, I grouped with 5 others student and started placing the furniture that we bought together and photographing it.. then I need to disassemble the furniture i bought from ikea....Although i took Design and Technology during IGCSE, i found difficult to disassemble it because i always work with prepared wood, plastic and metal during that 2 years, i haven't disassemble anything before, so this was a really good experience to try that...and it was good to release pressure!!! =)
After i disassembled the furniture i starts a few sketches of ideas and found one that is suitable to work without studio...

Here is a few photos showing the sketches of my ideas:

After i have a final idea, i started remake a furniture out and i chose to make a book rack.....the following is the final product of this project....

After all the students in our class finish their work we all have a final crit. outside the indoor and it looks interesting compared to the photographs of the furniture that we bought.....

 

Although this project is over, i don't like my final product at all. I think i am being too safe in this project which i didn't try to play with the materials that i had. I think the real reason that i am being too safe in this project is because i don't get to use the studio, since i am not good at working with a junior saw....i am more used to make things with electronic tools.....i think i need to sharpen my skills a bit more..=)
After discussing about the final product with some of the tutors, i think i should redo it during the weekend....so i started by making more sketches and i came out with the final design


This is the final final final product of my magazines/books rack and book stand...

Visit to the Design Museum(10th Nov, 2010)

JOHN PAWSON @ The Design Museum

- During the reading week i went to the design museum for the exhibition called Plain Space by John Pawson. Although i am not in a great interested in both architecture and interior design, his models and sketches are amazing....the followings are some photos that i took in the exhibition.

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 He even won an award on his designed tablewares...which i like the design of it....it is simple, elegant and i like how he combine straight and curvy lines together... i especially love the bowl and glass..i like how it has the top of a cup and the bottom of a glass...which is combining 2 usual things to become a new design...

Written Statement (500-750 words)

I have enrolled late for the Foundation Diploma in Arts and Design, which sadly I can only, experienced two out of the four rotations. Although I cannot try out Fashion & Textile and Fine Arts, I am certainly not interested in these two programs.

I am actually struggling between Visual Communication and 3D & Spatial Design. It is because I am interested in both Graphic and Product Design, so this has been annoying me through out the weekend. These two subjects are very different from each other; Graphic design is in 2D and mainly about passing a message visually with words, animations, posters…etc whereas Product design is in 3D and more likely to be solving problems by designing something.

In the rotation of Visual Communication, I enjoyed how I tried different ways and experiment with loads of media to send out a message. I remember in Project two, I used collage to made a sequence to show how the redevelopment of old villages can end up with both laughter and sadness.

Through out the Crits, both tutors and classmates think the idea behind this sequence has been delivered and are quite nicely done, but they think it will be better to improve one of the compositions of these 4 drawings (the one in the bottom right of the first photo) because it looks lost and is the weakest compared to the 3 other compositions. There is one more thing that I can improve is the use of colors, they suggested I can try to use more colors to make some of the objects in the compositions more pop out of the drawings which can show the idea more clearly.

In Project 3, which is a 5 days project, I experimented with making a 3D object that can make my idea visually. The message that I want to pass to my friends is “Stop smoking in front of me, this will cause me having a asthma attack”

I get the idea by experiencing my friend smoking right in front of me that make me felt very uncomfortable throughout the day. I want her to understand my pain of inhaling medicine while she is smoking, how ironic is that! After I came up with this composition, some of my classmates like it and think it delivered the message, but the tutors think the anti-smoking slogan behind are distractive and say it will be better without the slogans behind. It would be even better to have a real inhaler beside these products, because without a real inhaler, these will make people confused about what they really are.

In the rotations of 3D & Spatial Design, at first I actually get confused with all the 30 seconds, negative spaces, and continuous drawings. After the tutors assigned us the preps, I totally understand the meaning of learning to draw in those ways. In the whole process of 3D & Spatial Design, I found it is interesting that every single step is very important and will affect the final products. It is different from Visual Communication; 3D starts by a design problem, then primary & secondary research, and then design. At last you make the product. In these 2 weeks I came up with 3 final products.

These are with the topics:

A structure that can contain something but not a box, A structure that can walk through but not a building, A structure that can hold the human body but not a chair.

When I presented this product during the Crits, the tutor like the “Building” and “Box” but not the “Chair”, because I totally forgot about making a modular structure which the “Chair” is not a modular structure. The tutors said they like the building the most because of the negative and positive spaces and how it works with the scale of the little people around. After the Crits, I think it will be better to make another one for the “Chair” since the one I made is out of the criteria. In all these 3 structure I made, I think it will be better for me to try to experiment with many others materials than sticking with those who are safe to use like papers, wires and toothpick, so the one that I redo, I tried to experiment with flexible plastic folders and I think it turns out quite good. And I like the fact of how blend-able they are. Overall I am satisfied with the final products. 

Overall, I am still deciding which area to go because l enjoyed both of the areas- Visual Communication and 3D & Spatial Design. I think the main reason that I don't want to take Vis Com. Is because it is not as challenging compare to 3D and I am scared that I will get bored by producing work in 2D only. As for 3D & Spatial Design, the main reason that I will not choose is it might get too challenging in making structure that need to be in scale while solving the design problem.