Final Major Project - Final Evaluation (500 words)

In these six weeks of final major project, I have been working by sections and following my action plans. Although I did not follow every single thing that I planned as seen on the action plan, I tried to follow it along my way to the end of the project

            In the first two weeks, I have been basing it on research. I started my research by designing a questionnaires to see if others have the same problem with laundry and I think this turns out quite well since I get to know if the future designed product will be useful to others. After that I start to research on contextual things. (e.g. how’s washing machine/tumble dryer works? What temperature is the water in the washing machine is?...etc)  I think this is quite important and it helps me a lot when I reach the design part. Then I turned to research on interesting shapes especially modular shapes, but I think I spent a bit too much time on it. I think I can concentrate more in experiment with materials and investigation of flat-packed models, because I think these two things helped me more when I am designing.

            In the next two weeks, I started my designing. Due to all the preparations I did on the first two weeks, the design part has been going fluently. I have spent around a week in designing rough sketches on my design book, but I think I have spent too much time on it since in the last week of designing, I have been rushing to finalize the best six designs and developed them into one design outcome. I have also used the last weekend of the design part to make the sketched models of my best 6 designs. I think I need to improve my time management later in the summer.

            The last two weeks have been the most intensive two weeks, since I cannot find the original materials that I wanted to make my final product. I have used around a week to search online and visiting materials shops. After this I learned that I needed to make sure that I could find materials before I decide to use it. At last, I have a talk with some of the tutors and we agreed that I make a full-scale prototype instead. After the prototype is made, I sent the photos of it to 10 of my classmates for feedbacks and I think this is important because I get to know if my “target customers” of this project would be interested in buying the product and it let me noticed which areas of it can be improved.

            In conclusion, it is such a relief that the final major project is done. Although it is an intensive six weeks project, I learned a lot through out the project. Since this is the final project that I got to decide every single thing of it, I feel that as if I have become a BA student that can handle everything independently. To be honest I am actually proud of myself. I am impressed that I can design a product that solves a problem that has annoyed me through out the first year of college.

             

Week Six (Making) ( 27st March – 31th March) (269 words)

This week is one of the most intensive week I have experienced, maybe because I am not that good at time management. Luckily I finished everything by the deadline of the FMP.

            At the very beginning of the week, I started to make my final full-scale prototype of my final outcome of FMP. I have used the pasteboard, metal form and glue gun to make the prototype. It takes me around two days to finish it, but I am rushing to finish it since I still have to finish the A1 sheets for the exhibition later, but I am satisfied with the final full-scale prototype.

             After I finished the prototype, I start to make the A1 sheet for the exhibition; I used white tack to stick things on it because changes might be needed after the assessment. This takes me around a few hours to finish it.

            Lastly, I sent photographs of my prototypes to some of my friends and try getting their feedbacks and comments about their impression to the idea of this design. Before I want to make a questionnaire instead, but time limited, so I just sent a set of photos to 10 of my friends and asking them for comments and feedbacks. I am glad that most comments are positive and helpful, which have help me a lot to write my final evaluation.

            I think I have done a lot of things in this last week of FMP, and I am happy that everything has come to the end at last. But these 6 weeks have prepare me for the BA course of product design. 

Final Major Project - Week Five (Making) ( 21st March – 26th March) (259 words)

In this week, I have been undergoing the most difficult part I have experienced in the whole process of Final major project, but luckily with the help of my tutor and some technicians in the workshop, I get to decide on making a full scale prototype of the product instead of the real final product.

            The first two days, I have been spending most of my time going out to search for materials that I need. I go to John Lewis and different kinds of material shop, but I still can’t get the materials that I need. For the next two days, I try to search online. Although I did find some that I can buy, they are either expensive or not retail sell. After that, I have a talk with some of the tutors or technicians, they have helped a lot in helping me, but we all agreed to make a prototype of it instead of the real product.

             In the last 2 days of this week, I have been working out which few materials that I can use to make a full scale prototype of my product, since I have already try my best in searching for the materials that I want.

            I think I have try my best to find the materials that I need, but if I can’t find it, I will need to find another way to substitute the materials missing. Since I didn’t do much in this week, I need to catch up next week to make the full-scale prototype before the deadline. 

Final Major Project: Week four (Design) (14th March – 19th March) (319 words)

In this week, I have been refining my 15 rough ideas and came out with 6 more detailed design on 3 A2 design sheets.  The final outcome is also been designed.

            Most of the designs on the A2 design sheets are flat pack but some of them are not, but all of them fulfill the other requirements that I set myself with. While I was sketching out those 6 final ideas, I have combined a few of my designs on my design book and develop it into a brand new design that can carry out the advantages of those designs I created in the design book.

            When I am figuring out my design outcome for my final product of the project, I take a whole day to look through all the things I have done for the final major project. Firstly I look at all my research stuff from the project proposal to the research sketchbook, then my investigation (flat pack) sketchbook and finally my materials sketchbook. I do that because I think it can helps me to refresh my mind a bit and to confirm that I remember where I am aiming to design and what is the problem that I want to solve. Lastly, I flip over the design book/sheets to see if I have any new inspirations out of it, and I found a few interesting thing that can be included in my design outcome.  At last, I spent around 2 hours to sketch out my design outcome and another hour to make a sketched model of it.

            In conclusion, I think I did work hard in this week to finish all those design sheets and sketch models.  In the coming week, I think I am going to figure out which materials that can substitute the materials that I want it to be made out of to make the full scale prototype of my design outcome. 

Final Major Project: Week three (Design) (7th March – 12th March)(291 words)

This week, I mainly focus on my design sketchbook. I have spent quite a lot of time to refer back to my research sketchbook, materials sketchbook and investigation (flat pack) sketchbook.

             I found it is very important that there is a connection between what I researched and what I designed. Before I start designing the final product, I listed a few rules that I hope my design included and they are: Flat pack, water resistant, wash different kinds of laundry (at least 3 of color clothing, white clothing, delicate clothing, underwear/bras and beddings), light to carry, strong enough to carry at least 2.5 kg of clothing.

            I think all my researching; investigating and experimenting have help me a lot in sketching basic simple sketched designs on my design book. At last I came out with 15 rough designs for my final product on my design book.  But here comes the problems, I am starting to think about the materials that are needed for most of my design cannot be found easily, since most of the materials I need are not retail sold and are mostly used in industrial design instead, I have search online and go to different kinds of material shops but still I can’t find the right materials that I want. Because of this I am thinking of making a full-scale prototype instead of a real final product. I am thinking of using materials that I can find to substitute the materials that I can’t find or too expensive to buy.

            To wrap up this week work, I think I did enough as a week. I need to focus more on detailed drawings/sketches, making sketched models and came out with a design outcome for my final product next week. 

Final Major Project: Week Two (Research) (28th Feb – 5th March) (330 words)

In this week, I have caught a cold on the weekend, so instead of going around the city for inspirations, I planned to work in the indoor.

            While I don’t have a chance to explore the city for interesting shapes and structure, I have loads of photos taken from the past when I am sight seeing London, Shanghai, Seoul and Hong Kong. Most photos are focus on interesting structures. I especially love the photos taken in Shanghai; because I get to visit the Shanghai Expo 2010 where everywhere is interesting architecture buildings and some were built in ways that I have never seen before in my life.

            Other photos are mainly taken in some of the museum visits in London (e.g. Design Museum, Natural Science Museum, V&A and The Skin Museum). I start to draw out some pictures and inspirations I have after looking at those photographs and I decided that my mainly inspirations for the final major project is Modular. To me, modular is my best inspirations, since most modular furniture are simple, elegant and more easy to design it as a flat pack.

Instead of only focus researching on photographs, I have been investigating through making flat pack structure to give myself an idea of what interesting shapes can also be done. I think this can definitely help me out a lot while I am in the design part of the final major project. I have also working on collecting different materials and created a sketchbook that I am both experimenting and collection of materials, mostly plastic and metal. I research on materials, because I want my final product is made out of a new kind of materials and are suitable as a laundry basket in dorm rooms and a mesh/liner bag in the washing machine/tumble dryer.

            To conclude this week, I think I have did enough on researching and I am more satisfied with the effort I put in it compare to what I did last week.  

Final Major Project: Week One (Research) (21st Feb – 26th Feb) (294 words)

In this week, I didn’t really do much since I have an interview for 3D design on the past Wednesday; I think I need to catch up on Week two. 

            Although I didn’t do much, I had made a questionnaire as a starting point for my major project and decided to give it to 16 students who lived in halls. After I got back all the questionnaires, I collected the data and note it down on my research sketchbook. I think the results came out quite good and found students who lived in halls are having problems for laundry. I am surprised that there are problems that I haven’t even experience before that are annoying for them.

            One of the biggest thing that annoys them are they forgot to bring with them their washing powder/detergent to the laundry room. I think this is irritating for some of the students who lived in halls because some of the dorm rooms are located quite far away from the laundry rooms. So I think this is a problem that I can solve while I reached the design part of my final major project.

            The second thing that I did during this week is researching about materials that are always used to make laundry basket/mesh bag, how’s washing machine and tumble dryer works and temperature of water used to wash different kinds of clothing (e.g. color clothing, white clothing, delicate clothing and underwear/bras)

            In conclusion, I had focused more on contextual research this week and next week I am going to research for things that interested me around the city and trying to experiment with flat pack structure and materials.

Movie review - The Long Goodbye

To be honest, after watching the whole movie, I found that kind of boring since I am not born at the period of 1950s to 1970s but I enjoyed how Altman create different atmosphere by using different filming techniques and background music. Although I could not fully comprehend the significance of this movie, I did some secondary research and watched the movie online with English subtitles again and finally I start to understand the hidden metaphors and I especially want to know why he changes the period of time that the story is originally based.

            Before I started to analyze some of the metaphors of this movie, I would like to briefly list out areas in the movie that I think interesting to be analyzed later. The first metaphor that I have noticed long before I start my secondary research of this movie is Marlowe is smoking non-stop throughout the whole movie.  The second one is the disappearance of Marlowe’s cat.

             The non- stop smoking action of Marlowe in the movie makes a big contrast to the girls who lived next to him. To me, those girls actually represent the 1970s, which being healthy is one of the big issues. (Noticed from how they are always exercising in their balcony). In the other hand, Marlowe represents the 1950s where people still don't have the sense of being healthy (his non-stop smoking and his poor lifestyle e.g. waking up at 3am). From this metaphor, I can see how the director carefully designed every single thing for the audience and finally helps to bring out the hidden meaning of the movie.

            The scene where the cat leaves the house is actually a big hidden metaphor of the movie. The cat leaves because it is not satisfies with that brand of canned cat food that Marlowe bought from the groceries, I think the leaving of the cat consequently made the disappearance of terry later in the movie, since he is also not satisfies with his rich wife, but he choose to kill her and leave. This metaphor is a hit to show how Marlowe will be betrayed by his friend terry, just like an implication of how the cat betrayed him and leave the house.

            I think the purpose of Marlowe discovers only prove that how much the ethical world of the old 1950s Marlowe no longer applies to current 1970s California, and even though his passive helpfulness does not go right with him. Altman's technique of layering characters upon each other while frequently changing the composition, trying to bring out that people are never as they seem and that events are running out of Marlowe's control.

            In the movie, Altman has put his own political views into it, he changed the time of the movie from the 40's to the late 60s of United State, it was the period of time where different “weird” sports start to become more popular (such as yoga that those girls are doing in the balcony), youngsters are always anti- war and young people are having somehow called “revolutionary emotional stage” which to be more detail is teenagers always want to change something and causing some rebellion of something. I think Altman seems to have wanted to keep everything about this period of time in his film.

Final Major Project (Research)

Final Major Project (Project Proposal)

Title: A design to make laundry easier than ever 

Progress and Achievement

            I have improved my skills in researching and finding inspirations through out the foundation course, but the ways to evaluate my own work by myself and other students in the course is what I think the most important thing I have learnt. Since during days in high school, teacher is the only one that evaluates my work.

Context

            To me, laundry is the most irritating one among all housework. It is actually not that annoying until I found others is leaving their clothes in the washing machine/dryer forever when the clothes are perfectly done or dry. I remember one time, I was arguing with another girl in the laundry room because I placed all her clothes to the surface of the washing machine that make her to wash her clothes all over again. (The surfaces of the washing machines are always dusty) All these inconvenient, interested me towards an idea for my final major project. 

B

A

C

D

A – showing how dusty the surface of the washing machine is.

B – perfectly washed/dried clothes are always left in the washing machine/dryer

C – people used to remove all the clothes in the machine to the surface if no washing            machine/ dryer is available.  Sometimes I can even saw underwear on the piles of clothes, which is not that decent, since most halls are co-ed. 

D – rubbish bag are always used to move dirty beddings to the laundry room (not environmentally friendly since students throw the rubbish bag after they put the beddings in the washing machine) 

Project Proposal Aims, Methods and Realization

            The purpose of this project is to design a flat-pack and multifunctional design for laundry. I aimed to design a flat-pack structure that can be a laundry basket for dirty clothes in a room, a mesh bag in the washing machine/dryer and a bag that can avoid the cleansed clothes from getting dirty again.

            To start with this project, I would like to design questionnaires for students who lived in halls because I would like to know more about their experience and difficulties they found in the process of laundry.  Next, research details in how washing machine and dryer works (e.g. temp. and volume of water, speed of spinning..etc) and different kind of materials that are usually used to make laundry basket or bag. Instead of researching only in common materials such as plastic and metal, different kind of textile/fabric can also be research in order to find the best materials for the design. I should research on Anthropometry because the design is used to carry heavy clothes, so I want to know which is the best way for human body to carry weight.

            Before I investigate ideas through making sketch models (simple ones), I would like to get some inspirations around the city since I found different kind of structure and shapes inspires me a lot from the experience of previous project I did in the foundation course. After that, design development take place together with sketch models making (more details sketch models made in workshop).  Then, designed questionnaires will be used to determine which designs are worth to develop further more. Lastly, design outcome will be done and research on machine that might be used before making the final product to prevent any danger cause by lack of understanding of specific machinery.

Evaluation

            In order to evaluate the progress of my Final Major Project, I would like to write a reflective journal daily and summarize the journals weekly on my reflective blog. Questionnaires for peers will be the starting and ending part of my Final Major Project, since students who lived in halls will be the major subjects who used the design.

Mini Portfolio for Kingston Interview (15 pages)

Dispersal and Molecular Project (Final Product)