Lauren Hyndman: Final Year of Design Degree

need to write this up from notes from pam

After Pam's tutorial, I had a brief chat with Andy, and he thought I could still continue with the research I had done already on packaging if I were to make the portraits about an observation of attitudes towards packaging in the UK.

And I am considering withdrawing from participating in New Designers 2008. Sadly.

Dissertation Aim:
* How and when does design meet our need for emotional well being?
* An exploration of people and their dens.

Reasons for why I am completing my disseration as a 50% module

It allows me to really focus on the research and analysis side of design, which I love.

The scope of research for the aim of my dissertation was far too much for a 25% module.

I wanted the opportunity to research into a number of subjects  and people first hand, which would take up a lot of time and 50/50 allows me to have a larger time frame to work with from October till April in order to do that.

Reasons for why I am completing my disseration as a not-strictly-essay format 

I can express my ideas and findings in a format more suitable to my initial aim. I found that the topic of dens is very personal to each individual and very visual in research. I considered doing a photographicic essay but felt that a photograph exhibition could communicate my ideas in a much more expressive way. Allowing viewers to see each photograph at the same time, seeing the project as a whole. I enjoy expressing ideas through photography and sketching as well as through text.

I feel I get to be more creative and expressive through a non essay. I felt more enthusiastic and pro-active than I would if it was just text that I was producing.

I am getting to practice my design skills (particularly in graphics) and learn new ones
- e.g. photography, how to control an SLR manual settings aperture and shutter speed,
- photoshop skills,
- indesign,
- people skills, choosing subjects and exploring their personal experiences and interpreting their ideas in a delicate way when discussing their life.

I feel that the viewer is able to see what I saw through this medium and feel what I felt through examples and experiments which they can participate in throughout the dissertation. There will be a good sized amount of text too, so I don't get to escape it by any means. Analysis and conclusions must be worded well.

The multiple mediums of survey results as a photograph exhibition, brochures, participating examples and experiments, and the essay itself suited my chosen subject well.

Reasons for why I am completing my disseration on dens and personal space

I decided not to link my dissertation and my studio work at an early stage. Whilst it is a successful way for the majority of students to work, I felt that I could explore two separate areas of deisng which I was interested in and by keeping them completely separate, I am able to disconnect with one when I am struggling with it, and work on another until I feel ready to try and tackle the issues again. I don't want to feel like I need to escape from both projects when I have a creative mental block. But I can see the benefits of linking the dissertation with studio work, as the research is likely to be in much greater depth.

We all have emotional needs that require meeting in order to survive and develop as individuals. These needs include a safe territory and an environment which allows us to develop, and privacy, giving us an opportunity to reflect and switch off from the world from time to time. 

Although there are many commonalities in the emotional state people wish to reach, there are few commonalities in the space or artifacts that people use in order to reach that state. This clearly makes it difficult for a designer to design for this purpose an outcome which would suit everyone. As a means of making human's lives more comfortable, design has a fundamental role to play in satisfying our needs for emotional comfort, and this dissertation seeks to explore where and how it may do so.

As a component of a previous project, I researched and designed for self reflection. I enjoyed the contrast in this project from the those which I had previously completed involving social interaction. I began to see how important it was to design for people's emotional state when they required 'time out' from their busy and often, hectic lives. I observed many people's 'dens', their 'time out' places. I found it interesting to learn of, through my research, that there are many different ways in which people choose to spend this time, although a recurring feature was that it was always done alone. 

In order to properly address some of these issues, I will first consider how design and emotion relate to each other, and why we need this personal space from time to time. I will look at the products designers have already conceived and some which have even been put in the retail market and investigate whether they truly work or not.

Through the report part of the dissertation I will focus on 'dens' as a means of design for personal space. I will discover what a 'den' means to different people and what they conceive theirs to be.

What I have gained from my critical studies that will be of value in the future

People skills,
Photography skills,
Photoshop,
Indesign,
Importance of personal space and why we seek it,
Working to deadlines

I thought I would mention an interesting blog to look at. Mark Kilgallon is a friend of mine doing a Masters in Design up North in Sunderland.

http://inmarkwetrust.blogspot.com/

Someone I do not know has referenced my blog on their website. I am very proud.

http://www.genelu.com/content/view/65/8/

It's about halfway down the page (number 4)...

Just to anyone checking my blog... there are invisible posts being made by me at the moment as they are regarding my dissertation and some of it needs to be kept under wraps for the time being... so if you are wondering where I have gone, I am still posting but I am not making it viewable by the entire internetting world at present.

Points that were made in my tutorial with Wendy today;

1. Commit to meet at least every other week with Wendy from now on. <done>

2. I have currently written the introduction and a chunk of the 'design and emotion' section about the reason we need these spaces, or 'dens'.  At this point, this section is still being worked on, but I have given a copy of what has been written to Wendy to have a look at over the next week. And my aim is to complete the 'design and emotion' section by 30/01/2008.

3. I have asked Peter Reed whether I could email him a short list of questions regarding how he finds finds his time to relax and where, as I am in need for a few more people for my photograph exhibition analysis. <done>

I have to give Wendy 3 or 4 filter questions and she will circulate these to older males. <done>

I also need more ethnically diverse subjects, as all my current subjects are caucasian.

4. I need to begin collecting evidence of children's play and 'den' building. There are ethical considerations involving children, obviously, so I will need to be looking into completing ethics forms with Wendy.

I also need to contact Steve Rennie regarding adventure play areas for access and ethical consent issues. <done>

5. I discussed how I was pondering over how to create a sense of 'den-ness' with my dissertation. There are contradictions and tensions between completing it as a bound volume with longetivity and the more temporal exhibitions. Perhaps I should use the words that people use in order to describe how they feel in their dens and use visual semantics. The dens are so diverse in range that this might be an issue. Perhaps something to do with defined boundaries, barriers, and inward focus/ introspection, and perhaps control over a space. Wendy reccommended talkin to Kay on the fourth floor of the library about producing non-standard papers, sheet sizes, double sided printing and the possibility of book binding and making.

6. Wendy thinks that if imagery and exhibition = approximately 40% of the final submission, she expects the report section of the dissertation to be approximately 5 to 8 thousand words. Oh, and I should also produce a new project schedule for myself, whether its in the form of a gantt chard or whatever works for me.

I had a tutorial with Andy today.

I noticed this new product from Chupa Chups beside the till when I was shopping in Superdrug last week.

I found it interesting how Chupa Chups were recommending this product to people who are trying to give up smoking. They have packaged 6 low in calories, mini lollipops in a cigarette style box.

They have a 'relaxing' element to them, containing extracts of Lemon Balm & Lime Blossom. They are recommeded by the NHS, as they are able to aid the tough giving up of smoking, and they also help to replace the 'hand to mouth' action that occurs during smoking.

A San Francisco- based eco-design company called Knoend have developed a lamp which eliminates packaging. I discovered this product in New Design magazine.

"...reduce manufacturing and shipping waste and provide a eco-friendly solutions that extend the traditional dead-end product lifecycle... The packaging itself becomes the shade." - New Design magazine, issue48.

I came across Diva Vodka in an old copy of New Design magazine. I thought it was an interesting way of packaging the premium brand drink by having gemstones and crystals in a wand running down the centre of the bottle. Obviously this knocks up the value of the vodka and costs between £35 and £540,000.

"The closure system, including this PET G tube, is a complex and interesting piece of packaging design and has been conceived, created and certain portions moulded by Wales- based Dragon Plastics, to a very stringent brief from Blackwood Distillers, the creators of DIVA. It consists of a metallisedcap moulded in ABS containing an expanded polyethylene wad gripped by a retention bead. This avoids the use of adhesives, which could taint the vodka. The cap also includes a tamper evident drop band and uniquely incorporates a speed pour. The total assembly has been injection moulded by Dragon Plastics." - New Design magazine, issue51. 

And I have mocked up a couple more of these designs.....

Over the busy Christmas period, I have been updating my new website which currently can be viewed at...

www.josephmcguire.co.uk/lauren/

...temporarily before I transfer it over to...

www.laurenhyndman.co.uk

...which is where my old website currently stands.

I have also been reading towards my dissertation, and sketching ideas for designs for my aerosol brief.