Reflective Statement

Overall.

We worked very well together, learnt a good range of technical (Illustrator, Solidworks, InDesign) skills from each other, and delivered a very well thought through product.

In the beginning:

It was difficult to set our constraints. "Distill something from your culture" is a pretty broad starting point. We could perhaps have used some help with how to define constraints. It seems the Irish side focussed much more on existing products, and on re-interpreting those in a contemporary manner.

There were moments when we had trouble translating the idea of DIY into a product opportunity.  It seemed more like a behavior than a product opportunity. To tackle this it seemed that the best route was to tackle DIY and innovation at a philosophical level. It was then pleasing to see, with research, other NZ  designers translating the style at this deeper level.  Our mission with this in mind was to come up with a product that carries as much information or knowlwdge as possible. Perhaps we could suggest "function ever follows knowledge."

In the middle:

We narrowed down to lighting and furniture which lend them selves well to sculptural form. We had some brilliant ideas, but many of them were DIY solutions, and not products. We used a lot of visual research to stimulate ideas. This was very effective. (Go B1 library!)

Toward the end:

We felt that we had to push the three D puzzle solutions further than the Dovetail table, and we departed from this concept completely, but could not come up with anything that hit the nail on the head. We eventually decided to stop this process, and go back to what we had, and develop that further as opposed to try and come up with something new.

IRL 4's comments about the dovetail table helped inspire a new direction and a re-exploration of the concept. (Along with Sophie Ho's toy storage seat poster in the B76 reception).

Ultimately this proved to be the right decision.

Using Cad in the design process was time consuming but useful for a good preliminary presentable visual reference, comparing this with the model making was very interesting. It became clear that the model making had a tendency to be more fluid and change the form on the go. Both seemed to have complimentary restrictions. Having both side by side allowed for a great view of the form.

With another month or so extra time, there are definitely more features and interactivity that we could incorporate into the table.