Reflective Summery - Exploratory stage

Reflective summery - Exploratory stage

Over the past six weeks I had a great time experiencing the different areas of the foundation diploma. Throughout the weeks many of the tasks that we were given we new to me and I really had to keep an open mind in order to complete them especially during the fashion week as it was really out of my comfort zone. 

Probably my most successful parts of the six weeks was in my last week doing the 3D design as I really love making products and enjoy producing models. The spaghetti task and making the bridge were real challenges but great fun to do as individuals and as part of a group.

The most challenging part of the six weeks for me was the drawings. I am not the best drawer in the world so some of the tasks such as the story boards and the A1 picture within Lens Based Media were a real challenge for me personally, however I completed then the best I could and I think it all came together in the end.

I do not believe that there were any tasks that I found instantly easy to do as the whole course has been a very difference experience for me then anything I have ever done before. Having saying that, I believe that having a challenge is good especially within a subject area that you really enjoy as no mater how hard the problem you will always be willing to work at it.

Using the adobe software was also new to me as I had never used any of them before and I actually found this experience a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.

Looking back the six weeks I feel that the most beneficial task was life drawing. I thought that it was going to be really hard to do but I enjoyed the experience and my pictures, after a bad start, turned out fairly good.

Throughout the weeks the work that we had to do on our blogs was not bad and I did not have any problems managing my times as I just gathered all of my work throughout the week and then put it all together at the weekends before Sunday afternoon which worked well for me. However, I would have liked the opportunity to have talked thoroughly about the information that had to be on the blogs at the beginning of the course as it turns out that I only had to do weekly reviews and not daily ones so I have now had to do both.

I think the time tabling of the foundation course work fairly well with the three days a week and two self directed study day which gave me an opportunity to do research and other work. I personally did not like the lens based media time table of coming in for 11till 5 as I found that I did not have time I the evenings to do the things I wanted and the late mornings made it hard for me to get motivated.

My main problem of the whole experience was money. It has been a struggle to find the money for the materials and travel that I need to get to ravensbourne 

Overall looking back at the weeks I have had a Ravensbourne, it has been a great few weeks and I have really settled in better than I thought I would. It has also made me think about the future and I am now more open to looking in to a future at the university. 

I have chosen to do the 3DD pathway as it is the area that I enjoy the most and I an really looking forward to getting started on the next challenges we are given.

Weekly Review - 3DD

Weekly review - 3DD

1) How did you get on with the tasks given?

Over the week we were given a variety of different tasks, all of which I believe went really well and I learnt a lot from them.

2) How do you feel about what you have achieved?

I feel that most of the work I have done went really well like making the support structure and the bridge . Even though some of the pieces could have dome with improving such as the bottle holder, I still learnt from my mistakes.

3)What did you find the most challeneging?

The most challenging part of the week were the two drawing sessions we did on Monday and Tuesday as at first I found it very hard to use my imagination to create strange products. However, I believe that it has really helped me to be able to be more imaginative n the future.

4) What feedback did you get?

From other students and my family, they all thought that my idea for the support structure was really clever and they were impressed that it worked. Although they also agreed that my first attempt at the spaghetti structure was fairly boring and they liked the way I modified it.

5) What have you learnt from this week?

Throughout the week, I have learnt that I definitely need to be more imaginative when designing a product, but I have also learnt that 3DD is an area I really enjoy.

Overall, this week has been a great insight in to what the 3DD pathway is all about. I have also realised that this is an area of design that I think I would like to do in the future.

Weekly Review - Fashion

Weekly review - Fashion

1) How did you get on with the tasks given?

Looking back at the week, I am surprised at how much I enjoyed the tasks that were given from building small paper structures to doing the photo shoot at the end.

2)How do you feel about what you have achieved?

I think that every piece of work that I did over the week was fairly successful. I really enjoyed making products and even though taking the pictures was embarrassing at first, I soon got in to it.

3) What did you find challenging?

The most challenging part of the week was trying to do 50 Designs for the final piece. I am not a great drawer so it was already hard to do but after about 20 I was running out of ideas.

4) What feedback did you get?

I got a very positive reaction to many of the things I did over the week, especially the final product/outfit which everyone thought looked really nice.

5) What have you learnt from the week?

Throughout the week, I have learnt many new things about the fashion industry and how competitive the many jobs are within this section of design.

Overall, this week has been a great experience and I am very glad that I have had this opportunity. Although I doubt I will chose this as my pathway option, I have really enjoyed all the tasks and next time I am given the opportunity, I will not be so worried about it.

Weekly Review - Lens Based Media

Weekly review - Lens based media

1) How did you get on with the given tasks?

All the tasks throughout the week were good and fairly easy to complete and enjoyable including the A1 poster. However, I do feel, given the name of the topic, I would have thought that we would have been given more opportunity to actually use some kind of camera other than our own phones.

2) How did you feel about what you have achieved?

I feel that some of the work i completed went really well such as the six emotion pictures but felt that others were not so good including my final story board.

3) What aspects of the work were you not happy with?

in my opinion, my final story board is not great as my drawing skills are not very good. This is something that I know I need to improve on.

4) What feedback did you get?

Many people said to me that they really liked my six emotion pictures, especially my jump picture which everyone thought was very clever.

5) What tasks did you find easy?

the task that I found very easy and very interesting was the short amount of time we had to do the stop motion animation. I really enjoyed learning the whole process of how it is done and then seeing the finished product was really good. 

Overall, this week went well and many of the tasks given were good to do, like the joint story boards on day 2. However I still wish that we had been given more opportunity to used some new equipment and it also would have been nice to spend more than five minutes on the stop motion animation.

Weekly Review - Graphics

Weekly review - Graphics

1) How did you get on with the tasks given?

Throughout the week we were given a variety of tasks, all of which were enjoyable especially the college of the faces.

2) How did you feel about what you have achieved?

Overall, the pieces I completed such as the fonts alphabet and the college drawing I think went really well, however some pieces were not as good, for example the drawings of peoples faces.

3) What have your learnt from the overall tasks?

Throughout the week I have learnt many things about graphics and also a lot of aspects that I need to improve on such as the drawing of peoples faces. It was also a good week of learning about the college and how life is going to be studying at ravensbourne.

4) What tasks/activities did you find easy and why is this?

The fonts exercise was fairly easy as there is a wide range of things you can try to create your own unique font and text. I also found the final outcome fun to do as it was all about our own past, present and future. Even though I am not 100% sure about what I want to do in the future, it was still good to complete the poster and think about what I may want to be doing in 20 years time.

5) What feedback did you get from others?

From some of the feedback that I got from students, it is clear that they agree with me about having to improve my drawing of peoples faces. they also said that they liked my final piece and my painting of the collage the most.

Overall, I think that the week went really well as i enjoyed the activities that we did and had s good week making new friends and getting to know my tutor and the building. My favourite piece of the week was the painting I did from the collage but I understand that there are many aspects that I need to improve on.

3DD - Bridges

Week 6 - Thursday

We started off the day by using our sketch books so create a series of unusually shaped bridges out of paper that was stuck into our books but we also had the option of using the paper within our sketch books to create a pop up mechanism when the page was turned. I then used a spotlight and scale model people to highlight the designs and show how big they are.

I think my use of the white paper for the structures against the black background of my book goes really well together to make them stand out and look eye catching. the shadowing also offers new ways of looking at the designs with the odd shapes that are produced.

After Lunch we were then given the task of having to get into groups and build a bridge. At first I thought that the task would be quite easy however once we were given the requirements it got a bit more complicated.

The bridge had to span 4 meters between two tables, it had to be high enough for a table to fit underneath, it could only be supported in two laces on the floor and lastly, it had to be strong and big enough to be able to drive a remote controlled car over it!

When the group and I first sat down to try and come up with some ideas we had nothing! However, after going through many ideas we eventually came to one that might actually work.

This was our final design:

After a lot of hard work and a few extra supports in, the car was able to go over the bridge relatively easily. I believe that our design really stood out within the room as we used the triangular shapes on top for decoration but also to stop the car falling off the side and also made use of the bamboo not just for the structure but also for the beginning and end of the bridge to give it some extra features.

Over all this week has gone really well and I have enjoyed it a lot more than the previous rotations. Even though some of the tasks were very different to anything I have done before and the suspense of not knowing what you were doing next was hard, it really pushed me to use my imagination a lot more and I believe I have gathered some valuable skills throughout the week.

3DD - Fruit holder

Week 6 - Tuesday

To start off the day we were given the task of drawing several designs for a fruit holder that were to take in form over function. We also had to use the techniques of yesterdays drawing to inspire our designs:

Once we had done this, we were given 20 pieces of spaghetti and glue guns in order to make one of our designs that could to balance 3 balls and none of the balls could touch.  

The first two pictures below are of my original attempt at completing the task however I decided that the design was fairly boring and very symmetrical so I went on to add more aspects to the product.

 Once I had completed my final design I took picture of it using a spot light in order to highlight the product and show shading. I also used some scale people to show how big the ball holder was.

 

After lunch we were then giver the even harder task of using paper to protect our structure from a downwards force! To to this we were given 3 pieces of paper and glue. At first I really struggled with how to protect my product and I couldn't think of any ways in which I could use the paper! However after a few failed ideas i tried spiraling the paper which seemed to be very strong so i made a few more and placed them inside my design. I then used the spotlight and scale people again to highlight the model.

Once everyone had finished modifying there models we were then told the a basketball would be dropped on top of our product to see if our strengthening technique had work.

To my surprise my structure actually stayed complete and even though after the ball being dropped on it twice, it didn't stand up anymore, it was still one of the more successful designs in the group.

 Overall today has been a good insight as to what maybe on the 3DD pathway. It was good fun to be making models as that is was what I really enjoy doing. I believe that this is the pathway that is going to be best suited to me and I hope my last day of this week will be just as good.

3DD - Pictures, Bottle and Chair

Week 6 - Monday

To get us used to using our imagination and show us how we can create objects and structures out of the most unusual things, we started off the day be drawing.

Our tutor gave us several starting points from which we would draw something different:

1) we had to draw the item of clothing that we most like and turning it in to a light. My item was a hat which I turned in the a side lamp and then added some context to the picture by drawing the photo frames and the telephone.

2) we had to draw a series of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines which we then has to make in to the shopping center with car park and public transport. I would have liked longer to complete this drawing but for the time we were given I think the basic layout went okay.

3) We first had to draw a random squiggle on the page and then turn it into a piece of furniture that two people and a cat could sit on! Apart from my bad drawings of people, the design went well.

 

4) On the piece of paper we had to draw two shapes that were roughly the same as each other in shape and size. after we had to turn them into a pair of shoes. Mine were not very imaginative but did take into account function over form.

5) we had to draw ten random dots around the page which then had to be turned into a floor plan of a one story house that contained two bedrooms, one bathroom, kitchen, dining room and living room. This was my favourite tasks of this exercise as i enjoy designing floor plans and hope to design my own house one day.

6) Firstly we had to draw our favorite fruit on the page so I drew a melon slice. We then had to turn this in to a rabbit hutch, taking in to consideration the space and how many rabbits it would hold.

7) We first had to draw our house number and then turn it in to a bus shelter. I think my idea was good but the angles of some of the lines are not right.

8) For this picture we had to copy the pattern that was on the bottom of our shoes and turn them into a piece of jewellery. Mine turned out as a bracelet and u draw a rough hand to put it in to context. 

9) For this drawing we had to draw a square, circle and triangle and change them into a vehicle. I do not think that this car would ever exists but I think it used the shapes well.

10) The task was to create a mobile phone like no other. I decided to create a utilities phone so within it there would be a pop out umbrella, headphone, camera, lipstick, mirror and a knife and fork.

 11) Lastly we had to draw a rough outline of a human (I cant draw people), and then had to turn it into an animal. Mine was supposed to be a cow, however I didn't know hoe to draw the cows face so it turned out to be half cow half pig! Not my best design ever!

Over all, the experience of doing this drawing task really opened my mind into how such a simple object can become something very different if you put your mind to it!

For the second task of the day we had to produce a structure that would hold Geoff's water bottle 20cm of of the table using only paper and a small amount of masking tape. The design that i came up with could have been very strong but with the limited amount of paper we could have it did not work very well!

Before we tested the structure with the bottle I took some pictures using a spotlight as some scale model people:

My structure had crossed beams with a central column to try and support the weight, however the pictures below show that my design was not solid enough for the weight that was applied to it.

Even though I am dissapointed that my design failed, I now know that this type of structure doesn't work and I can avoid it in the future.

The last task of the day was to use what we had learnt earlier in the day about structures to make an object that could take the weight of our body. To do this we were each given 4 pieces of corrugated cardboard and masking take. However the difficult part of the task was that is had to be flat packed!

My friend and I decided to team up and make one together meaning we had double the equipment but it also meant that we both had to be able to sit on the product!
We decided to use a slotting mechanism in order to make the pieces strong but also removable.

  
Although from the outside the design did not look very interesting it did manage to take both of our weights and our design worked.

Today was a really good first day to the 3DD rotation and I really enjoyed all of the challenging tasks that we were given to do. It was nice to be back in my comfort zone of designing and using drawing and cutting equipment after doing the other rotations especially fashion week