Critical Self Reflection - 2nd Year

3 SKILLS I HAVE DEVELOPED AND EXAMPLES

I have developed skills within time management, evidence of this is that in the previous year when completing projects I would leave out big portions of the design work until last minute and doing the simple things first which meant I was left with not much time to submit the work to the best of my abilities, leading me to get extensions to be able to finish my work. This year has been different and I have completed my projects on time by prioritising bulk pieces of design work first to make sure all I had to do towards the end was put all of the elements together and add the technical parts to my designs on AutoCAD.

Another skill I have developed into my 2nd year is making sure ergonomics are included in all of the design process and not just in the beginning, as the design moves on and develops it’s important to make sure each element in the finished design project is finished to include people and accurate measurements throughout. Evidence of this from my first project in 1st year I started the development and added ergonomics in the beginning but as the design progressed and changed the measurements for the height of the structure was too large compared to the seating and the table was too high up to reach the seating. I noticed this only when doing the technical drawings at the end of the project which meant my sketchup drawing was out of proportion. Whereas projects completed after that included ergonomics throughout the whole designing stage and developed until the end design.

During my latest projects through 2nd year my own style became relevant in that I enjoy changing the space structurally, creating new ways the space can be used, in 1st year it became prominent that after redesigning the space, other elements would end up being boring and didn't fit the space, an example of this is the BOXPARK project, the brief was to choose a company to design a space that was inside a shipping container, I decided to use two shipping containers but have one slightly elevated to create more journey through the space instead of it being flat, this meant I could include vertical access with a ramp and steps into the space for wheelchair users. After designing the container and changing the structure, the furniture then was just placed in and was not innovative and looked out of place and not to the best standard, as the skills are there to be imaginative and are evidenced with manipulating larger structural elements but with furniture that gets lost.

MOST SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME OF THE YEAR

The most successful outcome from this year would be my latest project as it was challenging and engaging the whole way through and was also for cause which encouraged me to develop innovative ideas. The brief I chose was to create a cafe in Huddersfield for an existing brand, MILK who are located in Glasgow Scotland, they are a safe and engaging space where migrant women can come and learn new valuable skills for working life here in the UK and set them up for a second chance they normally wouldn't have been given. When given the choice of unit to create my design in, I opted for the larger 2 story building to enable me to have a lot of freedom with design, the space also welcomes the general public to keep them involved and to hopefully gain more volunteers to work there. The design included a large structure in the upstairs of the cafe that separated the workshops from the general public, so the women could have privacy but not feel excluded from the rest of the cafe. There was also an all access family toilet with wheelchair accessibility and baby changing features upstairs and down. A key theme of research to take into my final year at university to apply to projects is that I much rather enjoy creating spaces for specific groups of people and charities, it gives the design process at more meaning and engages me more to think exactly what is going into the space that will cater to that group of people.

AREAS OF MY WORK THAT WERE UNSUCCESSFUL

Towards the end of the design process I was pleased with the outcome, but one area that wasn’t successful was filling the space more to create more of journey through MILK Cafe as at the end of the project the downstairs in the cafe itself looked quite empty and a little lifeless. Next project I will make sure to include more elements that link throughout the cafe that make the space more innovative and relate to the brief to make the customer journey more engaging and less flat. Another area in which could improve was with making visuals to make sure the angel in which the camera looks into the space is at eye-level and not somewhere where is isn't possible for a real person to be stood looking into the space, and also add more props as well as people into the space to really bring it to life.