Furniture Project

For this project we were asked to work in a group. My group consisted of four people, Siobhan, Katrina, Angela and myself. This was different as normally we are asked to work individually on projects. I enjoyed working in a team and found it a great experience. The brief that we were given stated that were to design a piece of furniture using a set amount of wood. The workshop within the University played a major role in this project. It is where almost all of the building of the furniture took place and it allowed us to give a professional finish to the piece. As a group we began by brainstorming and looking at other pieces of furniture for inspiration . We all sketched ideas and combined them together to arrive at the final design. A large part of our design process was making models. Some of these are shown in the following pictures.

We chose to go along with the design that is shown in the last photograph. It is designed for two people. The idea came from looking at social parameters and how close people can sit without feeling uncomfortable. The seat has been designed to test these social parameters. When sitting in the seat you are facing away from the other person yet when you turn to look at then you are extemely close. The curving pieces cocoon and enclose you into the seat. I found it a great learning curve to work with wood. I have learned a lot about different joins and the grains of wood and also the different machinery that is in the workshop. I really enjoyed this project and working in a team. Overall Ia was pleased with the final outcome. Below are some pictures of the process of making the piece and the final piece itself.

Lighting Project

Within this project we were asked to design and create a light. The brief stated that is was to be for a standard energy saving bulb. I took inspiration from the artichoke light designed by Poul Henningsen. I liked the structure of the light and how each section angled the light. From this I developed my own ideas, played with shape and form using models and finally arrived at the final design. Here are some images of my intial ideas.

Within the University there is a very accomodating workshop which allowed me to use a range of materials and give a professional finish. The final light is made from a thick plastic tube to case the bulb and this also supports the thin wooden frame. The leaf shapes were created individually and are made from a thin frosted plastic. Below are images of the first stages of the final light being made it shows the structure of the light.

Each leaf shape had to be drawn, cut out, sanded and then moulded. The project allowed me to use a range of machinery within the workshop and actually create a final piece to scale. Overall I was pleased with the outcome of my design.