Eleni's Design Canvas

During my project sign off, I discussed different ways in which I could develop my project with my tutor. At first, I thought that I was meant to design 6 different products. However, my tutor informed me that I could design 3 products that could transform and have 2 functions.  With that in mind, I decided to look into some existing multi-functional items to draw inspiration from them. Hopefully, by the end of this blog post I will finalise my 3 items and what they will transform into. I will look at transforming furniture in greater depth in later stages as this is just a start to my research.  Transformative chairs (n.d.)   Sensei Transformable Chairs and Coffee Table (2011) Both of these designs are very similar. They are both chair designs that interlock with each other to form a table. I really like how they use the existing shape of the chairs and then just connect them tto form another object. Even though this is a very creative idea, I would not be able to create...

 I decided to start some research on existing purple products to see how they use the colour in designs. I could draw inspiration from some of these designs for my own products. When I googled 'purple products', the majority of the results were female products. I could either see women's perfumes, hair brushes, make up, shampoos. I googled 'purple furniture' and more accurate results came up. The colour Thesaurus  I will be using this as a colour guide for this blog. Purple modern living room What I really like about this design is that it allows me to visualise how purple products can co-exist within a space. At first, I was very concerned that creating many products with the same colour might not look good together in a space. This is a great example of how products can work together and look very coherent and organised.  This specific shade of purple is one of my favourites as it is very calming to the eye. The lilac and lavender shades of purple are the ones tha...

Before starting to sketch out my ideas, I would like to look at some foldable products and see the reviews of the people purchasing them. This will help me be more cautious when designing my own products and be aware of the things that I have or don't have to include. This was a process I completed in the last term's project and it really helped me develop my ideas and be more cautious of my designs.  I will be looking at more products and reviews at a later stage, however, this is just a warm-up research to emphasize on the function before I start my initial ideas. I will look for more specific items when I fully organise my ideas.  I searched 'foldable furniture' on amazon and chose some to look at that enticed me.  HOMCOM Single Sofa Bed Sleeper Foldable Portable Pillow Lounge Couch Living Room Furniture Minimalist Style I really like the design of this lounge couch and how it transforms into a sofa. It looks very comfortable and has ideal measurements for someone to...

 After looking at some multi-purpose furniture, I realised that it was not very realistic to complete in 6 weeks. However, I started sketching out a few initial ideas that came to mind with the multi-purpose furniture and ended up liking the concept of combining the two.  The first Idea that came to mind was to transform the cupboard into different outcomes. I thought of placing a box of shelves inside the cupboard. If the user wants the shelves to remain in the cupboard he can do so. However, the user is also provided with the option to remove the shelves from inside the cupboard and hung it up on the wall. This way, the storage area is significantly increased. You can also place the shelves on the ground instead of hanging them up. Additionally, I thought about exploring the possibility of the sides of the cupboard to move upwards to form a dining table. The user can store the cutlery and kitchen wear inside the cupboard and then lift the sides to form the table so they can ...

Today, I had a project sign off where we discussed about my project and signed it off. We had a very beneficial discussion with my tutor about my project and how it can be developed through research. As I have now signed off my project, I can finally start researching and sketching out everything in more depth.  In the next blog post, I will start researching about my ideas in more depth as a means of developing my project and enhancing an existing idea to ensure maximum quality in my results.

In my previous posts, I did not specify what products I will be designing for my project. Before the project sign off, it is important to specify what exactly I am creating and why. My main theme will be conservation of space. I will target people that have small apartments or houses (e.g. university students) and aim to provide them with a set of foldable products that are necessities in an apartment.  One of my products will be a cupboard which will also act as a storage area to store the foldable products inside. I need to take into consideration how the products will fold and how much space they need to be stored before I consider the size of the cupboard. In my accommodation, I do not have sufficient space to store all my clothes and art supplies. Therefore, I thought it was necessary to include one cupboard that might be used to store extra supplies or clothes.  Regarding seating products, I am planning on designing one small couch, one chair and one stool. It is necessa...

 In one of our classes, we were able to look at an artist that created a piece that sparked controversy. We were able to hold a discussion about this painting and see the different views each person had about it. It was evident that some of the people in the class, including myself, were offended by the painting but  some were not bothered. This shows how differently art can be perceived in different eyes.  I support freedom of expression and how each artist can create a piece that will be interpreted differently by many people. However, topics that are of sensitive matter have to be handled delicately as people might be offended by it. Topics such as religion, race, gender and war are no topics to be taken lightly when portrayed in paintings or talked about. The artist should be considerate of his following and ensure that the painting will not offend people.  Many artists have painted art pieces with such topics but they were successfully able to portray the strugg...

 During class, we had the opportunity to present our idea to the rest of the class using a method called 'The fishbowl'.  The fishbowl method allows all the people in the group to participate in an active discussion regarding every individuals project idea. This was a very valuable discussion as we were presented with the opportunity to work on our presentation skills and also suggest some ideas to our fellow classmates. We were also able to look at the different project ideas everyone in the class had and perhaps recommend an something to possibly improve their idea.  As we were 8 people in the class we had 2 seminar discussion. Four of the people got 'inside' the fishbowl where each person took turns to present their idea, and the rest 3 people in the fishbowl asked questions. When those 4 people were done presenting, they got out of the fishbowl and the next 4 stepped in.  I had the opportunity to be a part of the second seminar discussion which was very beneficia...

During this weeks class, we were assigned to create a blog about research. The first thing I decided to write down included the different areas that I wanted to research up until the designing of my final products. I had a lot of ideas for research, therefore I wanted to roughly note down some.  I want to look at and research where purple is mostly used in the market and what part of the target market is my product made for. Analyse how purple can affect consumer purchases and look into other artists that produced purple products. I also want to look at designers that produced similar foldable products and get inspiration from them. Looking at different foldable products will also allow me to look at the consumer reviews and feedback. I need to research different artists and look at the shapes that could be implemented in my design. Additionally, I would also like to look at 2D artists and paintings of various products as I could be inspired by one of those. I have to research...

During our art portfolio lesson, we were assigned to create our SMART objectives for our project sign off.   Smart objectives are a series of questions that are very useful to consider before starting the process of developing your project. This helps you realize if what you are trying to create is achievable and effective. Smart objectives Specific- What do I want to create? I want to design 6 products will the primary purpose of conserving space. The main purpose of this design is to conserve space and ensure that it can be utilised in relatively small apartments or houses in order to save space effectively and efficiently. I need to ensure that the products can be easily folded and stored in the cupboard. My products will be foldable and multi-functional to ensure that they can be used for various purposes.  My main topic area is 'Purple Haze', therefore, I want to research how I can implement the colour purple in my design as a means of enticing people to purchase it....

During our art portfolio class, we were assigned to develop our ideas using one of three methods given. 1. The meditative approach where you close your eyes and imagine your theme and the possible outcomes.  2. The mountain valley where you look at your ideas and rank them from best to worst (top of the mountain to the bottom). 3. The flag where you design symbols/ drawings and words on a flag to represent your project. Over the last 2 weeks I have been generating many different outcomes for my project, therefore I wanted to use the mountain valley option to rank them from best to worst. This helped me understand which of my ideas are more suitable for the project and get my thoughts more organised.  The first and best idea that I have thought of so far is creating 6 different foldable products. I started doing research on foldable products in the last post, but I am planning on looking at this matter in greater depth in future blog posts.  The five out of the 6 products ...

In my 'martials have landed' blog post ( click here to access it ), I started brainstorming some initial ideas that came to mind when I thought of 'Purple Haze'.  My initial ideas included the designing of 6 different products that have a purple finish. In this blog post, I will be further developing my ideas to explore specific outcomes.  Product design revolves around the idea of designing a product that solves a specific problem area. During the last term, I explored the theme 'conservation of space' for my main project. An idea that came to mind was to continue with this theme and create designs that conserve space. The product that sparked this idea was this chair. Foldable Chair The idea of foldable products that conserve space really excite me, therefore, I wanted to look into this concept in a greater depth.  After receiving some feedback from my tutor, I thought that it would be a good idea to also analyse the meaning of purple and how it can be interpr...