Internships

It has been quite sometime since I posted last, but many aspects have progressed. Part of my BA Design course requires a compulsory 6 week internship comprised of either one or many. I have currently secured two and a teaching stint at a school in North London. The first placement is quite a  interesting and unique opportunity as initially I was keen to work for a relatively large, renowned company to witness the cogs of success. Large planning and architectural firms were my initial channel but was unexpectedly put in contact with a sculptor named John Cierach, who currently owns a series of unique sites in Creekside, Deptford on which he wants to develop for creative purposes. Project management, research and model making are all aspect to be included.

Immediately striking me as exciting, a public centred project, creative, low key whilst remaining at root level in a slowly developing neck of London certainly ticked the boxes, so at present I am working on this, the development of which can be followed on my dedicated blog: 

Creeksidecontainers.blogspot.com

The second placement I am currently is with &made, a past duo from BA Design, Goldsmiths who graduated a few years back and now run their own small furniture studio down on Creekside, Deptford. Now well established they have work featured in Liberties, the MoMa in NYC and are quite the gents. They design with a sustainable and environmentally aware conscience and have some wonderful pieces, from tables, chairs, exhibitions and small products they certainly have a healthy repertoire, with many more in the pipeline. There is no specific blog to document my placement here so I shall be keeping tabs on it here. My main duties here are product development, model making, material, production research and other odds and sods, the work has been great so far.

Anti-social project

Live project: Nokia Friend View

Nokia: Friend View

For this live brief myself, Lizzy and Vilma had to design a stand at a mobile exhibition for Nokia's latest software release: 'Friend-View', a status-update focused piece available on its new handsets that allows registered friends/associates to identify the locations of other members.

Intensive research into the brand and the users shaped the final design outcome which revolved around the concept of the spectacle. We designed a stand based around the notions of a cuckoo clock, hundreds of individual boxes form the fabric of the stand, each connected to an arduino which is activated through the Nokia website enabling users to enter their status both online and at the exhibition where details are displayed following the cuckoo's ejection from its box simultaneously alongside hundreds of others.

The concept arose from the seeming 'human' connotations the Nokia brand conveys, we decided to draw out human parallels thus creating a stark contrast to the technology heavy based competitors at the exhibition arousing a natural curiosity.

http://vilmajar.com/Nokia/

Alas the CV is good to go!

Here it is, after much tweaking the curriculum vitae is finally ready for the road. After all that trouble and toil it is quite frustrating that the preferred format is pdf! It consists of a laser cut net of thin corrugated card which houses 3 laser cut initials alongside the A3 poster. 

I'd rather not talk about it.

The letters were shipped and finally reached Mr Sykes at Teacake just in time for his spring exhibition on Sunday.  

Teacake continued:

The exhibition letters continued: The absolutely impossible concretesque coating nearly destroyed all spirits so I proceeded forth on the laser cutter, an excruciating 5 hours were endured with its deafening high pitched screeching, almost there though, almost there! Oh and I must not forget that there exists such a think called 'spray foam-coat', if I'd of know this my sanity may have been spared, sorry Gra!

Paice award

£1500 for a design project of our choice, yes please sir! The Paice award, offered up for us Goldsmiths 2nd year design students as a way of realising a potential project of our choice, me and Livia had a few things on the cards but decided to propose to use the funds to initiate a project with children in disadvantaged circumstances being a subject close to our hearts. Through the KidsCompany charity who deal with such children we were channeled down to the underfunded St. Marys primary school in Stoke Newington to investigate the type of project the children would like to engage with. 

Our initial thoughts were to engage them throughout the creative process, from ideation, development, and execution positioning them essentially in the driving seat to foster an air of ownership which we felt would be beneficial all round to them and the project.

We arrived at the school with open minds, cameras and an array of materials for the kids to express themselves with. The school itself had preconceived ideas about the type of project them deemed would be beneficial to the children, a garden, playground improvements etc... but we the source of material had to flourish from the children themselves so we took them on a tour of the grounds, and encouraged them to document the factors they preferred and those they did not to eventually form the premise of the proposal.

It transpired that the playground was chronically devoid of visual and physical stimulus which was collectively confirmed, inciting a modeling session in the playground to conjure up scenarios of what the children would like having the power to do so. Some fantastic models and concepts were devised.

The workshop as a whole was successful, I was amazed by the unbridled enthusiasm of the children and fantastic ideas they struck up so we shall have to see what happens. What a fantastic bunch of kids, a little provocation goes a long way in formulated unprecedented responses.

Teacakes all round sir!

A little signage for MR G.A Sykes's Teacake exhibtion at the end of the month. I will not be using foam coat ever again: 3 layers on 7 letters, sanding inbetween, its a bloody joke I tell you, if the letters can't be rendered beautifully blemish free then I shall be starting again on Monday, with the lasar cutter.