In my absence!!!!!!

Although I am in school today, I will sadly not be in attendance to your lesson. I might not be 'in' but I believe you have plenty of work to carry on with!!! If your thinking "what work have I got to do?", check the posting below..........

Remember I know all, like a Jedi Knight, so be warned if I sense your not working!! Let the force be with you........

As Major Project

So.... a week later and you should have an idea of the project you will be doing!!!! (we hope!)

Deadlines.....

The first deadline is your first Thursday lesson after the Christmas holidays (7th January 2010). For this hand in me and Mr Simmons need to see the following sheets in your e portfolio;

• Hyperlinked Contents Page
• Analysing the situation (This should be your Situation, which is the 'background' information for you product, and your Design Brief)
• Moodboard
• Timeplan
• Research Plan
• Existing Products
• User Data collated and analysed (this might come in the form of an interview with your client, emails which you have sent to your client or surveys you have carried out. The information you collect then needs to analysed)
• Environment Research
• Primary Materials
• Research Analysis

Sorry to say it but you haven't got an awful lot of time to complete it all. Including the 2 week Christmas Holiday you have just over 5 weeks!!!!

Keep strong gang, Mr T

As Major Project

Well gang, your packaging projects should have been handed in and completed. Me and Simo will be marking them over the next week or so.

So onwards and upwards......

Hopefully you will have been giving some serious thoughts to your major project. What you choose to do for your final project is an open choice. However, here are some key pieces of advice when deciding what you are going to do for your final product.

1. Find something that you are interested in!!

2. Find a real client!! If you find a person/company that actually needs something to be made then it will help you when you are carrying out the research for your product. It will also allow you to carry out an end of project interview with the client to get their view point of the product you have made.

3. Remember this A Level, not GCSE!!! It is not advisable to 'make up' a client. Neither is it OK to simply say "I'm going to make a CD rack"!!! And no Boxes!!!!!!

4. Ensure your portfolio pages are compact. Do not use a larger font just so you can fill up a page!!

The most successful products that are made at A Level are those that are simple and solve problems.

There is a lot for you to consider and we will be discussing it further during tomorrows lesson.

Peace.

Willy Wonka

Welcome back to school!!! You should be cracking on with your packaging designs for your chocolate. Remember that you now only have 2 weeks left to design what the packaging looks like and create the piece of packaging. You may want to think about the following issues:

• Are you going to redesign the logo?
• Are you going to reconsider the colour schemes of the brand?
• Are you going to rename the company?
• What needs to go onto a piece of Food Packaging (bar code, ingredients, etc, etc)?
• What is your packaging going to look like?
• Have you found an appropriate net yet?
• If so, have you tested it by making a model?
• Have you drawn the net on Pro Desktop so that you can cut it out on the laser cutter?
• Have you created you packaging design on the computer so that it can be printed out on A3 card?

There is a lot to consider and not much time....... Good luck!!!!

If your struggling for ideas just take inspiration from this fella and I am sure you will be fine.

Research

For the Identitiy Project, see the Packaging Post which I posted on the 25th September 2008. Have a look at it to gain some idea of the importantce of packaging. Also research some famous pieces of packaging and branding that currently exist on the market today.

Product Identity

Assignment 3

You are required to develop an existing piece of packaging and accompanying advertising poster for a product of your choice.

The aim of the assignment is to assist your understanding of the power of advertising and the affect it has on the consumer as well as developing your style to produce a quality graphic product.

Deadline: End of the Second week-term2

Criteria

You must produce an A3 poster for your product that includes the product name and slogan.

You must produce a new style of packaging for your product that includes imagery, appropriate labelling and above all, ease of use.

The final surface development must be produced using the laser cutter in conjunction with a standard laser printer.

You must produce 3 pages of design work that demonstrates your design progress, from initial concepts through to final concept.

You are required to post your design work on your personal blog.

Assessment

10 marks awarded for the quality of design work posted on your Blog.

30 marks awarded for the completed packaging.

10 marks awarded for the quality of the advertising poster.

Design For Life

Evening. Make sure you check out this new series tonight (and every Monday night at 9.00PM) on BBC 2. It is an apprentice type competition with Phillipe Stark but all about Product Design- epic and right up your street!!!! I am sure it will be on the i-player so you can catch up on it if you've got a social life- unlike me!!

Fresh from the BBC website-

"In an effort to find a new generation of British design talent, Philippe Starck, one of the world's best known product designers, invites 12 hopefuls to a school of design he has set up in Paris. Over coming weeks he will whittle them down until one fortunate student wins the opportunity of a lifetime - to work alongside the master for six months at his agency in the French capital.

Ranging from unemployed retail worker Jess to college lecturer Ilsa, the students meet Starck for the first time and discover what a larger than life character he is. And they face their first challenge - to head to a local hypermarket and find examples of good and bad design. When they explain their thinking to Starck he critiques them and selects the weakest five for a further nerve-wracking test. When it's over the group of 12 is now 10 and the school of design can begin in earnest."

Peace

Influential Design

Yes 12e. How is it? Right, the next project is due in on the 29th of September. It is all about how design from the past has an influence on our design today. Check out the details below;

• You are required to work as a pair to design and manufacture a concept model of a ‘scaled down’ child’s chair, influenced by a designer in an era of your choice.
• The only specification is that you must design the chair so that it can be flat packed and be designed for the mass market.
• You are required to produce a mini e-portfolio that demonstrates your understanding of the chosen designers work and the era in which he, she or even a group of designers worked in.
• You must show how your concepts have been derived through the use of the influence.
• You must create a CAD illustration as a virtual prototype.
• You must display how you have used modelling to assist in your development of the design.
• The concept model must be produced using 3mm Acrylic and should slot together with out the need of adhesive.

Assessment

• 10 marks awarded for your design work and the influence used.
• This must be posted on your Blog.
• 10 marks are awarded for the use of modelling.
• 10 marks are awarded for the quality of your CAD illustration.
• 10 marks are awarded for the use of the CAM.
• 10 marks are awarded for the team work and also the completed model.

I would also advise you to look at Will Veritys Blog to look at an example of the portfolio work we want you to produce. That's it for now, enjoy.

Back with a BANG!!

Here we are. Back, fresh and ready to go. Blogs are the future!!

I have found some new sites for you check out. They include; http://www.intute.ac.uk/. This is a top research site and loads of uni researchers have done all the hard work for you, looking at a variety of sites that are useful to the subject you are working on. It looks pretty good and having quickly looked through it, the sites are real good.