My most recent project was a live brief with Orangebox and Novaglaze. This project was my first ever surface design project and I completely fell in love with working with hard surfaces, I found it a lot more interesting and easier to visualise my work in industry rather than seeing just a sample of my work.
Orangebox is a company that specialise in smart working environments such as acoustic pod’s, seating and tables. Novaglaze are a commercial glass company and they also supply the glass for the Orangebox pod’s. Both of these companies were fantastic to work with. They made me feel like a real freelance designer with a lot to give. You know what they say; Fake it until you make it!
The project brief was to create a smart-working environment and was heavily focused on wellbeing in the work place. On the brief there was a lot of keywords such as communication, wellbeing, creative etc.. If you are a creative and you are reading this then you will know what I mean when I say that a big flood of idea’s started circling around in my mind as soon as I read the brief and it did not take me long to start getting very excited. However as this was my first surface design project and at the start I felt like a lost kitten, I did not know which way was up and I certainly did not know what direction to take this project in.
After two workshops in the print room on printmaking, I was really interested and excited by the printmaking technique and I decided that I did not want to go down the screen printing route for this project as I wanted it to be quite textural and abstract as I started to focus on the textures in nature to link in with the well-being vibe I had going on. But I still found my self looking for a direction. Taking some keywords from the brief and also adding my own I decided to create my own trend booklet for this project. The trend I created was more of a lifestyle trend, I focused on well-being, communication, calming design, sustainability etc.. Creating my own trend was just an idea for me to find a direction, It was not something I had created before and nor would I say that I am great at doing them however it really helped me out as I could always look back and refer to it. I would really recommend it to anyone! Once I had created my trend, That was it, there was no stopping me. I had decided I wanted to focus on textures and stick with print-making as I found it fun, interesting, unique and quite therapeutic to do, as each print would be unique. I developed my print work a lot, I changed the colours, I changed the types of paint I was using. I experimented with paper, acetate, perspex and even cork. I really wanted my designs to be perfect. I wanted to create some lovely textural art work which I could scan in and touch up on photoshop so it could then be UV printed onto glass! I had so much fun experimenting with things to print with, I found clingfilm worked best for the textures I was looking to achieve so I developed that as much as I could, improving every time. As well as working on so many samples and even experimenting with engraving into perspex and wood I was also creating a market file with research, inspiration and existing products in.
I created 3 smart working concepts with 3 glass designs to support them, I put my idea’s into a final product book with visualisations of my concepts drawn up on Sketchup!
I don’t think I could even begin to write how much effort and time (and money!) I put into this project, and that’s partly the reason this blog post is a week late as I have re-written it 3 times already as I did not think I could put everything into words. However all the long days,nights and weekends in really helped as I think my project look so good, a project to be proud of. My favourite project yet.
I really enjoyed this project for so many reasons. I enjoyed feeling like part of the surface design industry, I did not feel like a student. Working to this live brief has been such a good opportunity for myself, it has built my confidence in so many way’s. As a designer I feel like I have developed a lot with my skills. I feel much more confident in presenting my work to other’s. I personally think this project has upped my game with professionalism, I think the standard of this project is much much higher than any other project I have done!
If I was to improve this project I would put a bit more research into the colour’s I used and why I used them, I would have also focused much more on my technical file.
When hand in day come I was so relieved to hand in all 8 weeks of hard work and to also look at what everyone else has been working on. Everyone really upped their game this project!! Im so proud of every single person in my class as all the work that was handed in was to an amazing standard.
Then presentation day came around, I had to actually present my work in front of Karen from Orangebox and Gary from Novaglaze! The night before I put together a speech on my iPad and practiced it for hours but I knew I would forget it in the moment so I decided to take my iPad with me! They didn’t seem to mind, I guess I just looked prepared! I was so nervous to present my work but soon as I introduced myself and shook their hand a flood of confidence burst through my body and I was ready to present my work with everything I had.
Once I had presented my work I was so amazed and shocked at the reaction I got, Both Karen and Gary were ‘astonished’ with my work and ‘really amazed by the amount of research’ I have done. Karen even said ‘I would love to take this concept to the design team at orangebox’ and went onto asking me if I could present in front of some wellbeing director at orangebox, I felt so proud of myself.
Hours went by, people presented then we gathered around waiting for Karen and Gary to decide the winners. I was actually quite nervous, I did not for one second think I could have a chance of winning but after the comments they made I was excited and I thought I may have a chance!
I WON! I won a chair, A chair that cost more than my first car, A chair that I could choose the colour and fabric for it!! I was so shocked and proud of myself!
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