Sunday 17 April 2011

Oxygen bar

Well I thought id show some previous design projects that dont nessicarily link to D.E.M.
This was a project to design an oxygen bar that would sit in a small area of land next to a level crossing in the center of lincoln.

The client visual showing the full height of my design and rather early attempts at CAD.


And finally an interior visual to describe the materials and sensation.
Enjoy!

B.

Saturday 16 April 2011

Bad Design

Today I met my neighbor, A well aged and experienced builder who built most of the loft extensions in the surrounding houses. Upon finding out I was a designer and my father being fairly well experienced in DIY he told us a tale of woe where a design sometimes doesnt work.

He was working on a nearby Loft conversion for a client whom had hired an Architect he had previously worked with. The technical drawings where in 1:50 scale Plan and bulding sectional showing the new room, Three section stairs and new shower room the builder had been constructed to build. Well seasoned in the field he followed the plans to the letter including the use of steel beams and the exact number of treads needed, much of which was prepared offsite. However by this point several issue became prominent.
For a start the shower room was too shallow by 500 mil so the client eventually had to loose bedroom space to compensate but the architect blamed the builders in making the mistake.. Uh oh. However the architect when contacted simply claimed 'Follow the plans and it wont go wrong'
Secondly and most importantly, The three section stair way which crossed over the stairs and main bedroom joists was too low, you had to almost crawl to get up the main stairwell. Upon measuring he found that the stair tread should have been 2000 mil. The architect alarmed by this information came down to the site and inspected it before long she raged at my neighbor that the entire build was 400 mil lower than the plans designated. Quickly 'John' for we shall call him John poured over the plans and saw no measurements for the space apart from a line. the architect then decalred they should have scaled the line spacing up. Oh very dear...
Six thousand pounds later and an independant architect whom pointed out the issues and helped fix them later and the original architect still claims she did nothing wrong. the client also didnt get compensation from the architects company for the mistake made.

Now the moral of this story is two fold. A: Its always good practise to pay more money for well experienced, confident builders who know how building works, can control a site, and offer solutions when the design just doesnt work.
B: Is to sometimes accept that we are not always right and that line weights only make sense to designers.
Co-incidently the architect who designed the plans also had poor eyesight but refused to wear glasses....

B.

Friday 15 April 2011

Easter holidays


Just to say that currently I am living in a building site with my family and two dogs and a hullva lotta mess so any blogging may be sparse. I will try and get some work up as I go along. TO BUILDING MY BEDROOM I GO!

B.

Wednesday 13 April 2011

Tokyo ocean Preview

Well For the final project of the year we have to design an exhibition stand for Tokyo:ocean! This exciting project was dreamed up by the Infamous John Stocker and has been running for about eleven years?

Here is a quick peek at what I have so far.

The graphic logo - mm tasty

Pre Vis of how the exhibition could look.

Enjoy!
B.

Crits - How to destroy a mans soul.

Critique, As a designer is a bit of a double edged sword. Sometimes it works to your advantage and other times its downright soul destroying...
Throughout your academic career you find yourself subject to the whims of teachers, tutors and even your peers when you reach higher education ( If indeed they feel brave enough to comment ), I figure that the type of person effects the way a Crit may evolve.
In all the years I have spent in higher education I find certain individuals, Tutors mainly whom seem to delight in pulling apart your work and in some cases your personal belief or dress sense all in the name of 'positive advice'
Of course there will always be an element of personal preference in a critic, No-one is going to like everything under the sun, I for one dislike modern art with its pomposity and lack of clear understanding on what I would consider to be the principals of art.
But this is probably what goes wrong. As a Critic should we not sit back and evaluate something as a designer rather than what we like?

No project is ever finished in the sense that you can always evaluate the idea and improve and this is a good positive thing as it allows a student to discover new ideas and develop a visual and design language that will continue well into the course of their career but as the saying goes, If you cant find anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. I have seen so many promising projects shot down purely because the evaluating tutor decided to riff on about why the Idea didn't work rather than suggest improvements and compliments the good elements.
Arguably the worst offender are those who get personal. We are here to get our Project/Drawing/Creation etc critiqued, not to have comments of how we dress, speak, think, expressed ourselves insulted. It is not an excuse to feel big about yourself, tears should not be involved in the classroom thank you very much.

Equally those being evaluated can have issues that may not necessarily a good thing. A good critique is to positively reinforce strong ideas and show you perhaps where you are going wrong. It certainly should not be or isn't a personal ATTACK on you and you alone, you should be able to walk away with positive feelings or an understanding of where you went wrong, Walking away angry or feeling hurt is not going to help you or encourage good faith in your classmates/clients. Nor is insisting the tutor is wrong and continue you down the design path they have considered weak without good reason. If your going to own a critique then make sure you have reasons to back up every design decision and speak to the person, make them understand what you want to do.

In the end this 'Process' is to prepare you for working with clients in the industry who in some cases will be less forgiving but certainly more likely to focus on the final imagery than the whole project. REMEBER we are to speak to those of us who don't know design language and include them in our little loop, make them feeling involved and understood so they pay you. That's the goal at the end of the day, to get paid.

Clients may be idiots, But they pay the bills.

So if anyone refers to you as a rich tea biscuit, just smile, agree and dream of how your gonna spend the money they are paying you extra for.

B,