Yanko Design

While trawling through endless products online to include in my final outcome for my conceptual design for a Dundee branch of SEPA offices, I came across Yanko Design, an online magazine dedicated to various aspects of design, including industrial, product and interior design.

A few products fascinated me, as not only do they look seamless and elegant, but many of them also have an environmental aspect, something that is crucial during this project.

This interesting take on the extension lead is energy saving as well as innovative - something that I'm sure would come in handy in an office environment. The "Powerful Branches" designed by Eunsung Kwon also has the useful ability to adapt as required by simply adding in a modular "branch", meaning it can grow to suit any demand.

Another product I came across was "One Litre Limited" by Yonggu Do, Dohyung Kim & Sewon Oh. This is a faucet that is limited to the use of one litre of water, before requiring to be turned off, allowed to fill, and turned on again. It promotes user awareness of how much water they use, as opposed to the 6l used in just 30 seconds of a standard running tap.

It helps that it's a nice design too!

Lastly, the "Eco Shelf", by Seung-Hyun Yoon, Seol-hee Son & Jo Chal-youn is something that is minimal as well as useful. It's essentially your cooling system built into your surroundings, minimising the intrusion of large appliances such as air cons. Oddly, I have already designed a similar bar area for the cantina space, so this would be a perfect product to incorporate, as I have not considered the space for such an appliance yet.

If you would like to follow Yanko Design on Twitter, you can catch them at @yankodesign.

Furniture Design: Implosion!

Welcome to our final outcome - our light installation development video. 

There was a minor disaster early on the morning of the presentation, as when the final arch was moved to make space for the 4th years critique session, the arch collapsed. Fragile, much.


With help from Malcolm the interiors workshop technician however, it was erected again and put on display in the Level 5 Matthew Gallery space for presentation. A series of stills were shown interlaced with short video clips of the processes we went through during out time in the workshop. Among our presentation were our final InDesign presentation sheets, which can be viewed on my Portfolio page.


We got a good reception during presentation, and with all the usual difficulties associated with group work aside - I think we are all pleased with the outcome.  Below is a series of images after the original completion:

Furniture Design: From Pallet To Paper

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Finally I feel as though we have got somewhere. Yay!

I was unable to get into the workshop during much of the bad weather, but alas - my group battled on. By Friday we were in a good position workshop wise, and I am continuing with putting together our InDesign presentation sheets at home. Below is our first few pages to give an idea of the style we are going for. 

We have been given a short extension from Friday 10th December to Monday 13th December, with presentations taking place on the 14th. This is all very well in terms of letting us have the weekend to complete tasks out with the workshop, but it's the crucial workshop time a lot of groups have lost out on, which will not be able to be re-accounted for during the extension. We, however, are going to do our best to be completed for the original target. 

initial research page, including text explaining our findings

further research into what can be done with pallets

early development, including our original communal seating area,
and the possibility of incorporating plants

break down of the pallets, explaining how we altered the original cuts

AutoCad drawings illustrating our design 

I'm currently in the process making the development sheets, including our sketch work, photoshop work, development photos and sketchup images. From there I shall create the plans sheet, and finally; final outcome sheet(s). 

We aim to document the build via a continuous shoot of still images, thus producing a stop motion performance as the final piece, however the preparation is where the hard work is. Amidst trying to clean up the pallets in their final form, and document every process for presenting it feels as though we should be nearly finished. The hard graft may be, but the final piece is far from over.

8 days to go. 

Furniture Design: Someone Said It Was Snowing?

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To update, the snow shows little chance of withdrawing its horrid self from these parts, thus extending the mass hysteria and travel related delays. Oh goody.

To date, we have been unable to continue our workshop project since Monday, and given the final presentation deadline is a week tomorrow (Friday 10 December) I have little faith that we will be able to complete it and present fully in that short window. It has been announced that the workshop is open indefinitely today, however how long that will last, nobody is sure.

Just as I thought we may get somewhere today, another stumbling block appears in the form of all buses within Dundee have been cancelled until further notice. Boo! The last attempt to get into the workshop (and the last time it was open) was on Tuesday, to which I managed to get a bus only to find the workshop was closing on my arrival. Typical.

It's nobody's fault - everyone is working hard, but it doesn't stop the frustrations. I especially have sympathy for bus drivers and the council workers trying to clear roads and paths - but some people are being extremely selfish. I went on the Facebook site for the University to try to get a heads up on wether or not I should attempt travelling in, only to find unbelievable comments from some of the students:

"speak english people,, i dont have ANY clue about whether uni is open or not.. YES or NO are the possible answers,, not that whole thing that even google transator wouldnt help :S " - a students response to other people trying to shed some light on the University opening hours. I really hope this person does not study English. The irony does make me laugh though.

Hurling abuse onto the University's page will get them nowhere. It's stupid to expect places to open when staff cannot travel in safely - tutors tend not to live in halls opposite the facilities, love. It's funny how people have excuses not to attend class when it's sunny but when they are bored and want to attend class, it's everybody else's fault. Well, the snow is nobody's fault - even the multiple accident-helpline-lawyers-4-u-get-a-no-win-no-fee-compensation-you-deserve companies would agree.

My personal favourite comment was:

"Pathetic that they were not open today. All my revision material is in a locker in the library, and my exam is next wk! We, as students, pay A LOT of money to attend university, the least they could do is open the buiding. Should be better prepared for events like this! I don't even have the internet in my flat, so I can't even get assess to revision that way! What a joke" - I'll let this person stay anonymous.

I would however like to point out that the person who commented the pointless statement above is from Brechin, so will no doubt get SAAS funding - not costing them A LOT personally. Secondly; they received a mouthful back from a sympathetic student to the University:

"Hang on a minute here chap. It's not exactly the Uni's fault, they can't control the weather. Yes the Uni does get a lot of money for us to attend, but does that mean that the security and maintenance staff have to risk their lives so you can get into a locker. In any case did you leave your revision material over the weekend? Not that worried are you, or if you left it there overnight surely the weather last night was an indication that you should have taken it home with you. Yes we need to be told if the Uni is closed or not in advance but don't be a complete tool." - anon student/legend.

Win!

On a more serious note; I hope I can get on with things soon enough, or at least be allowed some time to make up for what we have lost. Doing the odds and ends in the mean time is all very well, but I'm itching to get on with proper work!

Thats right snow - I'm talking to you! Clear off! 

Furniture Design: DeFrustrate - ReFrustrate

Currently we are in a bit of a state of limbo - and as a result, I'm not sure as to where this project is going anymore. We have had some what of a turning point. I guess every good story has one, so here it is.

A short chat with our tutor has revealed that we are going down a "brutalistic" route, which, given architecturally the building in which we study - seems apt to me. An open brief such as ours, and with subsequent in-depth research, surely means that we are open to interoperate the brief and outcome in any such way we see fit.

Not only this, but we had gained only 4 brand new pallets, with later access to limitless materials, however not in quite such perfect condition. We had been advised to break down the pallets into the blocks we wished to work in, and play with compositions, documenting the process by photograph for development purposes. However, as a result of going through the aforementioned process, it means the pallets that we wished to maintain as our surface material due to their condition have been sawn into blocks - which may (and undoubtably will, given my recent luck in life) render them useless as we move towards a new direction.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to what direction the group are to move in next, as not only do we have a diverse group in terms of opinion - which previously proved difficult when narrowing down design from endless and vast variations, but we also have to go through this process all over again - with only 17 days until presentation.

Crap.

Furniture Design: Deconstruct-Reconstruct

Since the last post about my on going project in the studios with Emma and Hamish, we have decided upon several things. Firstly, the "living" aspect of it - to which we had intended on incorporating living plants within the pieces, has been scrapped. Secondly, we have decided that, given the pallets may only be cut in a set amount of ways to maintain their strength, we thought it best to build these on SketchUp and play around with compositions in blocks, not unlike Tetris.

This modular aspect had several benefits - one of which being that is allows us to create an "interlocking" system using the pre-existing blocks, to perhaps allow users to arrange the piece in ways suited best to them. It meant that it was more sociable, and catered for perhaps two individual smaller groups of people, or a larger group. We also had mutually agreed to keep the light sculpture aspect, as it created a recreational area by day, as well as being an installation come light feature by night. Currently, we are researching into how to tackle the outdoor lighting issue. For the purposes of this project, I think we will provide indoor lighting, with plans for it to be on a grander scale including safe outdoor lights.

Other things that have been discussed include: it's purpose, who would use it? For this we have come to the decision that it could be potentially mass produced, and used in recreational parks. The interlocking feature of it also allows for it to be transported.

Obviously due to the many compositions available we will continually be developing the final outcome. I suspect that by the end of the project, we will have some form of light installation come seating - however what form it shall be in, is yet to be set in stone.

I have included some images below to document our process so far. Two of the delivery pallets have been sawn down in the two basic ways we have agreed on. From here we will arrange, re-arrange, de construct, and arrange once more until we are happy!

Furniture Design: Pallets Pallets Pallets

I haven't updated about the recent goings on in my current furniture project. 

It has been mutually decided that we will use 100% found and recycled objects to build our piece. Initally we had been keen on using a log, however it turned out to be unfeasible - not only would it be difficult to locate, but it is unmanageable in the workshop. So therefore, it was on to plan B. Pallets.

Fortunately we got our hands on a selection of pallets from our Students Union who kindly let us huff and puff them up a set of stairs, up a ramp (on a hill), then across gravel, and into the studios. We kept them there for a few in days in order for them to dry off as they had been somewhat damp due to the beautiful weather we are currently encountering. This also gave us a few days to mull over what to do. 

What to do, indeed! Some items had been delivered to the university on clean new pallets to it was decided that we should do a trial run with our first batch, in order to get used to working with this type of material. After our recent "bomb project" we thought a quick, one day installation project using the pallets would be appropriate, so came up with building a pallet tree - by this I mean, crow barring apart the pallets and using the reclaimed planks to build a tree sculpture. It also had the nice aspect of putting the wood through a full cycle of life - once a tree, then it was felled, made into a pallet, used as intended, and then back into a tree. 

It's not entirely finished because as it turns out, crow barring these are not as easy as it was first thought. 

I'd make a rubbish car thief.

Furniture Design: And So It Begins...

Hurrah! Finally, a new project to get my grisly teeth into! 

Out with Jute and in with furniture! Again, this is a group work task, and for this, I shall be working alongside Emma and Hamish. 

recycled planks have been cleaned 

up and used as surface materials

So far, after a matter of hours, we have several ideas buzzing around in our busy little beaver heads. Wood. What woods? Hard woods? Scottish woods? Salvaged woods? Wood at all?

Plastic? Vinyl? Lamination? The list goes on! Melting old vinyl records into shape has also been discussed - another way to recycle (at least we can disguise it as that, but really it would be sweet revenge on the ear bleeders of the 70's).

We seem to collectively have taken to the reuse-recyle aspect of the brief, which is always a plus given the economic climate, with costs of plastics in particular fluctuating more than Amy Winehouse's rehab status.

hide yo stumps, hide yo doors, cause we stealin'
errthing out there!

But, where to start with things like this? Of course we don't want to get in any serious trouble while foraging for salvageable materials, although I'm sure a cheeky rap on the knuckles would be worth it - in the name of art! You must suffer for your art after all, I guess. Stray planks we find by "chance" for example isn't hurting anybody, or a few delivery pallets. We may draw the line at front doors though. 

Throughout this post is a selection of research I have accumulated already, with particular interest focussing on raw bark use and the use of recycled planks. I'd love to get my hands on some of those well known delivery crates, however that may be a tad more tricky. I may need to be a bit of a "Connector" and call upon some of my sources and acquaintances! See what I did there? 

It is of course, only the first day of the brief so lets not run away with ourselves quite yet. Tomorrow we plan to use some of our new found mind mapping skills to gain some kind of order over all the ideas that instantly start buzzing around. The straight forward "chair" piece has been pretty much disregarded as it has been highly dominant throughout several of the previous years, although that is not to say that we will not design a new, highly successful pioneering chair design which will transform us into multi millionaires. Ok, I know it's unlikely, but I can dream, can't I?

I'm not kidding about the goat idea.

In all seriousness though, I think we want to steer away from that, edging towards something different. We're not sure if it's a table, a lamp, or a goat we're going for, but whatever it is, I reckon we will aim to do something entirely different from the previous example outcomes seen from this module. 

Forward Thinking

My mind is buzzing with excitement.

Due to the difficulties encountered during the last project, several of my latest posts have been somewhat negative, to say the least. But not to worry! Said difficulties has only motivated  me all the more for the forthcoming project, which is furniture design. I am rather excited.

Although this will be group work again, the previous issues have not phased me. I have started my research during reading week; as I feel I may as well get ahead in the game. We don't want to run out of time again now, do we? I have come across several interesting materials that I will need to speak with the technician about with regards to availability, however regardless of it being plausible or not, all research is worthwhile. 

It even has English text!
I think this was written
for me!



Further to my researching plans, I recently bought several interesting Interior Design magazines, which I have not quite finished pouring over. I do love a good rummage through when it comes to these. Post-it noting the articles of reference. Taking down company names of interesting materials. There is so much to be gained from them. Sometimes, I feel they offer more than some books in the library. Unfortunately when Borders ceased to exist (apart from their online branch via Amazon, but that's not quite the same is it?) I was unable to get my hands on so many fantastic imported magazines. When I get the opportunity to travel I usually manage to pick up a couple in airports, but alas, I do not have the time nor money to travel half as much as I would like. Humbug.

My parents were in Italy just last week (alright for some!), so I had politely requested if they would be kind enough to look out for a copy of a publication I had picked up in a Greek airport. Happy days for me, as not only did they manage to track it down (at a mere €4.50), but they also picked me up an issue of Ottagono that "looked like your kind of thing". Boy was it. It literally has everything in it.

If ever there was a silly
biscuit, this was it.
Quite fitting really.

There was a time where people considered me the class clown, the fool, the prankster, the joker. I am still all of these things, just with an Italian magazine in one hand, and a biscuit in the other. The sophisticated fool. I'll make the odd joke while peering over the top of said magazine, but don't count on it. I love getting engrossed in these so much you may not hear from me for a few days. Not even a blog post.

Ha, who am I kidding!