The Round Table.

This Monday we had the pleasure of presenting our work to four design professionals from different backgrounds and hear their advice and thoughts about our projects. I was particularly excited to meet Jim Hamilton who works for my favourite design company Graven Images. The night before I was extremely nervous but the day went smoothly and I was pleased with the way I presented my project.

The work I presented was a smaller version of the work I produced for the Christmas show with a few changes, one of which being the project name and logo. Below I'll post the boards I used and the description I gave along with them.

1. My project is based on fish & chips. Fish & chips can save the planet! The main inspiration for my project came from my family my dad owns a fish and chip shop and I've worked there for the past ten years. Over the years I've noticed changes and more recently I've noticed that people are falling out of love with fish and chips.

People's perceptions of fish and chips needs to change, fish and chips is thought to be dull and boring as it's not changed with the times finding new ways to present it and get people interested could help us celebrate fish and chips again. 

Health is a big issue linked to fish and chips. Fish and chips is seen as the unhealthiest take away option and the battered Mars bar has turned it into a bit of a joke. More people are becoming health conscious as 65% of adults in Scotland are overweight. The chip shop can help this problem and peoples' eating habits by offering healthier options such as baked fish. 

Fish and chip babies are babies born in Africa into extreme poverty they are wrapped in newspaper this is where they get their nickname. This is just an example of a global issue that I'd like to inform customers about and get them involved in.

Fishing sustainability is probably the biggest issue linked with fish and chips. Watching Hugh's Fish Fight recently Hugh identified the chip shop as the biggest problem behind British fish culture. As the chip shop only offers two types of fish Cod or Haddock it has made the British public reluctant to try anything new which has resulted in Cod and Haddock being safeguarded. The fish and chip shop could offer a variety of under utilised species to get people eating a variety of fish. 

At the bottom of the page are a few of my regular customer the people at the heart of the business and the people I need to affect.

2. The site chosen is the fish market in Pittenweem; it is one of the few remaining active fish markets in the U.K. Not only is the site picturesque, ideal for eating fish and chips at the sea front but there is also a daily catch of langoustine, lobster and crab landed here which could be used in the shop to diversify the menu. I've identified other sites for potential expansion which are also active fish markets.

3. I've added an extension to the existing fish market for extra space. This will be a gold scaly building that will slightly over lap the existing building. The gold is to represent the ultimate prize, fish and chips. While the overlapping represents the power fish and chips can have.

Along the bottom of the page are a few inspirational images of existing fish and chip shops and sea side cafes. I particularly like the design in 'Kershiber & Malt' is a fresh, modern fun take on the fish and chip shop. 

4. Lastly I want to split the market into five sections; headquarters for staff offices, the fish market for the daily goings on of the fisherman, a fish counter, a restaurant and the takeaway. In the centre of the page is a collage of inspirational images that will influence my design. I want the interior to have an industrial design linking with the fish markets roots, the interior will also incorporate the issues discussed earlier. Hopefully this new take on the fish and chip shop will educate customers, get them involved with issues to save the planet and in turn the chip shop will save itself and preserve a part of British culture.

I found the day valuable and it was great to hear advice from four completely different people. There are a few things now that I may have to reconsider, for example the gold extension was not to everyone’s taste and the reasons for choosing my site might need to be more persuasive. From their suggestions I now want to start looking into the theatre of food/dining, restaurant designs and overall dining experiences. I also feel I need to start moving on with drawing up floor plans and designing, the more I do now the more feedback and advice I can get from my tutor so I better get cracking! 

In Construction. Xmas Show.

Before the Christmas holidays my class put on an exhibition to show our work and progress. Not only was it helpful to get some feedback about our work so far but it was also a good trial for our degree show in May and how we might use the space to display our work.

Within the space which is located on level 5 of the Matthew Building in Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art we had a mix of hanging banners and wall displays to present each students individual work.

I decided to use the banners and hang my sheets. As it is work in progress and still about 4 months until the degree show I have a lot of changes to make.

     

I found the feedback useful and it really made me think about how to present my information to people who know nothing about my project, this is something I need to improve upon. One of the main points discussed was the name of my project and logo. I have since decided to change it, I've tried a few different styles linking with the golden fish supper and gold bars, I have come up with a new design. Instead of naming my project ‘Chip Inn’ which I felt was bordering on “cheesy” I have decided to name my project after my family business, ‘Murray’s’ which also shows my strong connections with the subject.

Interim Presentation.

A few weeks ago I had my interim presentation where I discussed my research, findings and ideas about my project up to that date. We were to present this to our year group and the tutors of our department so they could then critique us and offer advice.

I put a lot of thought into how I would visually display my work. I wanted to try something different as I have now become used to creating presentation sheets on my computer and printing them off. This time I decided to use the wall beside my desk in the studio to create a physical mind map. In the centre I placed an image of the celebratory gold fish & chips with the issues I was going to discuss stemming from this. I cut out newspaper letters on the laser cutter for the sub headings and displayed images, drawings and other work around this. I wanted it to look playful and make the viewer want to look closely and know more about the subject.

Over all it went well. I was really pleased with the feedback and peoples reaction to my project.

Below are a few images of my presentation. 

‘Design and the Market’ ‘Not Tom’ Presentation.

As a group we got together and went over our interview with ‘Not Tom’, we recorded it and had written 

notes so it was easy to refresh our memories. We sorted through all our information identifying what we thought would be the most relevant for our presentation. I personally found this tricky as I wasn’t exactly sure what type of presentation it should be as the brief is quite open. I think however we have achieved a good mix of background information on the company, business information and information on the work they do so hopefully people will enjoy it and find it interesting. We simply wanted to tell the ‘Not Tom’ story from past, present to future.

As we are in a class that is filled with a mix of disciplines from product designers, to jewellery designers, to students who do animation I have been terrified at the thought of presenting an coming up with a unique creative way to show what we have learnt. We therefore have decided to keep it simple. We have gone with a ‘Not Tom’ style – laid back and fun and have tried to represent their brand in each of our slides keeping them in the mind of the viewer.

I’m nervous for tomorrow but looking forward to completing assignment 1 for ‘Design and the Market’. I hope all our hard work has paid off. I’ll post up the presentation slides tomorrow after it’s all over.

Degree Shows

This summer I was hoping to visit a few different universities degree shows. I didn’t get to as many as I liked due to work commitments and family visiting from Italy. I missed out on seeing the work at Glasgow and Aberdeen. I did however get to see the final work from our fourth year at Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee and I was able to look at the degree show work by the students at Edinburgh College of Art.

I think the work by the Interior and Environmental Design students at DOJ gets better every year. Their work was laid out well, the centre table gave extra room to display their work whilst also creating a path to guide you easily round their exhibition. All the work there was great but I particularly liked ‘Hotel 360’ by Nicolaas Roemer. The way he presented his work was clear and easy to understand at a glance through his use of images. This is something I need to improve in my own work, using images to convey my concept clearly to my audience. He had a mix of digital work; drawings and 3D models which I also liked it looked as though he had put a lot of time and effort into his fourth year work and showed the variety of skills he has acquired over the four years. He used the computer programme ‘podium’ to create his renders; I’d like to experiment with this programme in my upcoming projects as I feel it does produce a realistic style of images. If you want to know more about ‘Hotel 360’ or about Nicky’s other work you can visit his website .

The degree shows offer a great deal of inspiration and help me think about my own work in new ways. At the ECA show Isha Datta’s ‘Circo Di Prada’ was very impressive. Isha printed her CAD drawings onto silk scarves, they were beautiful! I loved the use of the silk scarves as it is a very imaginative way to display work. This will encourage me to stop and think ‘is there an alternative way to present my work?’ Using your subject or concept to influence your presentation can turn something such as CAD drawing into something visually exciting, unique and interesting. Not only did this student have her beautiful scarves to show her plans and elevations she had built an impressive scale model and laid out her work as if it were in a shop. Her perspectives were framed a displayed like works of art on the wall. Her presentation in general gelled perfectly with the subject of Prada. To read a bit more about her work follow this link.

One thing I definitely took away from visiting the degree shows it that you have to be just as imaginative in the way you display your work as you are with the design of the work itself. Hopefully because I’ve realised this now by the time it’s my turn to showcase my work in fourth year I’ll have the skills to do so.