Had a chat with Jason on Friday on advice on how to create the 'fig' shaped chair. He gave me a few options to try out:

• ​Free-forming
• Series of revolve cuts
  
• Series of lofts
  

Currently I am working on the lofting method which is showing promising results.

On Friday, Jason gave some initial feedback about my chair concept. Jason said he liked the organic shape and having it two different ways (on floor and hanging) as there could be a possibility of two different buying options depending on what style you wanted for your home.

He asked about material consideration and suggested possibly looking at a skeletal form for the shape of the chair with some sort of stretchy cover on top. He also suggested looking at using just the skeletal frame for the hanging concept.

Finally he suggested keeping the purple colour. It worked nicely with the organic shape. ​​

On Friday, we received the full brief for Advanced Design Skills:

Design Brief 
The Scenario 
You work as a freelance Product Designer / Design Engineer who has a successful career working for a large and prestige’s array of clients. Because of your success you have been asked to produce a signature chair which says something about you and your brand.  
The chair which you design will be sold within retailers of varying types to people who are familiar with your work and would like to own a piece of iconic furniture. 
The chair that you design can be constructed from any material that you feel is appropriate, however it must be manufacturable and at a cost that is not to decadent.

Points to Consider 

• The ergonomics and comfort of the chair – get the scale and proportions correct 
• The material selection – how does it look and feel 
• The construction – how are the parts joined together, what fixing methods will you use 
• The structure – The chair must be able to support a load and operate safely 
• Delivery and storage – How is the chair delivered, is it flat packed, is it part or full assembled, can it stack? You need to consider the environmental story 
• The aesthetic – what is the visual language and how does it reflect you and your brand

Assessment Guide 
You will be required to produce and demonstrate the following items as part of your final design solution: 

• A fully complete CAD model demonstrating your use of Intermediate and advanced Solid Works tools, which should include  some of (if not all) – Lofts, Sweeps, Surfacing, Deform, freeform, advanced assemblies, photorealistic renderings, engineering drawings and BOM’s etc… 
• A scale model of your completed chair to between 1:10 and 1:16 (depending on the size of the original) scale in you preferred choice of RP method 
• A highly visual, fully rendered, photorealistic realisation of your chair 
• Full assembly and part drawings with construction methods stated

​

I have always loved nature and as I have entered the world of design I seem to have taken my love for the natural aesthetics with me. Nature creates the most obscure and unique forms whether it's storms or stones. Last year in my live project for Whitecroft Lighting, I designed a suspended luminaire that was inspired by the intricate shape of bird skulls.

For this project, as we seem to be continuing to focus on Surfacing giving more leverage to create organic forms I thought I would look back at natures little miracles. I took a keen interest in one of my favourite things in the world: plant based foods. As a vegan, my house is constantly full of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, lentils and so on that come in array of shapes, sizes and of course, colours.

I have been doing some rough sketches of seasonal fruits we have around the house such as figs, pears and plums.

I was also reflecting on our Design Skills lectures with Mike Burns where we learned specific trips and tips used in design sketching. Although we were all taught the same basics, each person in the class had their own interpretation of their designs, myself included.

Reflecting on my personal style and the 'child-like-ness' about it reminds me of an artist I looked at for my GSCE coursework: Paul Klee.

'​Paul Klee was a Swiss-German painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism'

His weird, surreal art always reminded me of that of a child's but with some sophistication because of the meaning behind his unusual work. This style could be similar to that I wish to create in my own design.​​

I was on the phone to my Dad a couple of nights back, talking about my university work and the different projects I had on, and he was trying to explain what he felt about my style of drawing or sketching. He was explaining that he had never seen someone with a drawing style like mine and that the best way he could understand it was:

Initially I was almost insulted by this evaluation but the more I considered it the more I agreed. I like messy, quick sketches that look like they've been achieved in under a minute. I like the page to be full of multiple concepts and ideas all different from one another. The more sophisticated aspects of my drawing style seem to emerge in the development stage when I am rendering, adding shade and colour and overall making the images much more crisp. Yet, I can't help but love ideation sketching as it's not expected to be perfect and is often spontaneous as you quickly scribble down and idea you have just come up with on the back of a napkin or scrap of paper. Therefore I can accept my 'messy but sophisticated' style.

Then I thought about sketching quick images of chairs and making my model look like it was a quick sketch. This reminded me of a company I had heard of that turn children's drawings into soft toys called Childs Own. I love this company because unlike all the other toys children must share with thousands of others around the world, this product is completely unique and  bespoke to them as they drew the picture and therefore truly presents their style.​

In researching this company I came across an article called Kids' Drawings Made Into Real Furniture where they asked children between the ages of 7 and 8 to draw a chair. They have successfully recreated two of the drawings into real items of furniture and the child's style is perfectly emitted into the piece.

If these children's crude pictures could be made into functional furniture, who says the same can't be achieved with my initial sketches?

In our Advanced Design Skills class we will be working on our skills in programs such as Solidworks and Photoshop, however we have also be given a project that relates to the main target of ADS: branding ourselves. Creating a brand as a designer is imperative as consumers but a lot of faith and trust in brands and often will purchase multiple items from that brand if they like the personal style or the effectiveness of the products it produces. These days we can look at an apple and no longer see it as simply a piece of fruit as it now holds this alternative history as one of the most successful brands that had a 'worldwide annual revenue in 2014 totaled $182 billion for the fiscal year ending in October 2014'.

A shortened and less long-winded explanation of the brief would be:
​'Create a chair that represents you as a designer.​'

This will be a great way to showcase my personal style as so many famous designers have before to make iconic chairs recognised worldwide and which people are willing to pay thousands for such as the Barcelona or Ghost chair. I to achieve something that matches my current style and emulates my brand.​