Computers submission and design portfolio

The final submission!

I was the first to present and nearly went into heart failure upon seeing how many people I was presenting to!

You could have knocked me over with a leaf! I did not expect so many compliments!

My speech went fine - except that I completely omitted the proposed use of the first floor and my research and applications of adaptive research! 

I have animation video is too large to include in this blog so I will upload it to youtube today, I have included images of the rendered spaces below

.

If anyone would like to see the final portfolio, you can contact me via email:
fischerbydesign@gmail.com and I will send you the pdfs.

Technology submission

This has probably been my favorite submission to work on....I absolutely love technology. There must be something about the transparency of the requirements that makes it so fulfilling. 

Below are a few images, including:
1. Site plan
2. Construction layout
3. Elevations

Theory submission

So, I needed to bring a little sparkle into my theory document and timing wasn't on my side. My aim was to create chapter names using foiling - this costs a little fortune and requires 2 weeks lead time - not happening!

My solution was to have mirror foil vinyl cut and apply them to acetate sheets myself. The cutting and weeding was done by Mark from Compucut - they only took 1 day. And, I did the application overnight....this was quite a relaxing process. I have been feeling slightly sorry for myself as I haven't been able to get to my Christmas decorating, so this was a good substitute....with some jazzy Christmas tunes in the background!

I have included my abstract below so you can get a brief overview of the theory document.

This is the state of my life.

So, I have mentioned previously that I am a 'working' student. I run an interior design practice specializing in retail design, and as of October this year, we extended the business to include a workshop. This means that we can do our own interior fit-outs, the guys at the workshop do steel and woodwork so we can cover just about everything. In saying this, you can well imagine the shitty timing!!!!

At the moment, I have 6 sites running and we have 3 fit-outs happening! Life is a tad daunting! My car is the pit containing the ruins of each day...including 5 empty cups of coffee, 2 mugs and possibly 20 half empty water bottles.

Is the glass half empty or half full?

product design.

So, we have been asked to design and manufacture a product within the interior design of our spaces. 

I have opted to design and manufacture a shelf display unit for the Bridal Fitting Area. This unit will display items specifically selected for the bride, be it: dresses, shoes, jewelry and accessories.

I have followed a formula throughout the interior design process of the study, 2 parts of a whole. This is represented as female and male, ethereal and honest. The designer’s approach is derived from the typeface used in the corporate branding. This allows the designer to introduce the type throughout the interior spaces of The Wedding Collection. 

Using the word ‘style’ the designer has taken the form of the word as inspiration. This is then split into 2 parts:

1. the lettering is cut based on which section will best serve the purpose of being a shelf, while keeping the accents of the lettering

2. an additional piece is added to make the shelf further functional, see the figure below.

These 2 parts capture the essence of ethereal and honest through fixing methods and finishes. The top, ethereal section uses curved lines which expresses a feminine touch. Concealed fixing details which purposefully hides the way the unit is built (illusion), only to reflect the form. And has a reflective high gloss white 2K finish. While, the bottom section honest, uses straight lines which express the sense of predictability. Exposes fixing details portraying communication and the finish is a raw copper hanging rod, honest design at it’s core.

The idea of this unit is to convey a sense of illusion, of subtle communication, where the audience is given a hint of what might be without completing the picture.

Below I have included technical drawings of the style shelf, costing of the manufacture and photos of the manufacture process.

Front elevation (nts)

Plan  (nts)

Section AA (nts)

Fixing detail (nts)

Section BB (nts)

The technical drawings above indicate that the frame of the form is manufactured using 25mm x 25mm mild steel square tubing. This is then cladded using 6mm plywood which had been scored for the board to be more flexible around the curve of the lettering. The board is then glued and left overnight using clamps to manipulate the form. Once the outside has been clad in ply, the unit is sanded and sprayed white 2K. The bottom copper hanging rod is secured using a set of brass straight couples. Circled below in red. And the copper pipe is soldered to the elbows to complete the hanging mechanism.

The shelf unit is then fitted to the wall using 12mm steel RE bars, annotation 7. The bar is then set in position using epoxy.

Credit to Ben Collett and Andries de Ridder from The Works manufactured the unit!

Ideally this would be mounted to the wall using RE bars and epoxy (all concealed) The steel frame used to hold up the top shelf is temporary, only to show how the unit looks as one. Unfortunately we are not allowed to drill into the walls at university. Hence the make shift display. 

This unit will be 'rehomed' (and wall mounted) at Fischer By Design, in their sample library where it will be used to display a variety of samples.

The design part.

So, I have been pretty quiet due to this part of the thesis. This is the final section where I deal with the overall design. 

Sjoe, this is toughest because I have resolved my spacial planning but now the interior look must be resolved and this is an evolving process!

How are a few spaces, which I am still tweaking - my secret is to look at the space every few days and crit it and see what I need to eliminate or add....these spaces below still require editting!!

Dress designer

Fitting Area

Here is the proposed couch, from Marcello of Moooi...

Hair Stylist

Florist consult area

The last stretch!

So that was the end of semester one.....pulled an all-nighter and went straight from portfolio to the Homemakers expo. Phew, we had 1 day and night to set up for the show....

4 days of loooots of talking finally led to 3 weeks vacation from NMMU...

And now I'm back for the last half! Only 3 months left and the technology submissions have already started!! Come to think of it, I have a wedding to plan aswell! Eeeeek!

So, for this DPM portfolio I fixed up a few glitches and added the boundary wall to create some more context of the parking lot... Pity about the noise aka speckles but the render took 5 days to complete and time was of the essence! The video file is too large for this blog, so I have uploaded to Youtube, just click this link: https://youtu.be/xsdEk9Qbl6E

The above pic is the old PE Club front facade circa 1950's...absolutely loving the Benny Goodman accompaniment ;)

Aaaaaand DPM is in for portfolio! 2 down, 2 to go!!!

These are the money shot renders rendered using Lumion, shit, what fantastic software! And the video clip only took 5 hours to render!!!

All summed up.

This is an abstract, a little summary of what this year's study is all about...

aaaand action.

So, the last 2 weeks saw many hours spent on 3ds Max...creating my first animation ;)

I absolutely loved this process, once I got the hang of it.....

Here is an image of the planning process. Where I figured out the animation process and idea.

Heather gave me a heads up to use a schedule to keep track of items / frame count and orientation - this saved my life!! The memory of a 32 year old doesn't match that of a 23 year old.....

Phew, after completing the animation, the glorious task of rendering (test rendering!!!) comes next!

Behind the scenes, it took:
8 hours to draw up the 3D model
5 hours to create the animation
79 hours to render (no materials, only white + grey)
5 computers to render

...all to create a clip which is 1 minute and 32 seconds... whoop whoop!

And this is the final render....

....but for my June portfolio submission I will:

- add a boundary wall
- indicate the parking lot
- shorten the lag once the roof drops in
- change the windows from white to glass panes
- bring the windows in from the sides instead of 1 direction
- drop the steps in last
- add a few more frames to the end


....do you have any additional tips?

space planning 2nd attempt

So, we presented our conceptual designs along with a finalized spatial layout...for some reason I believe that this attempt shall not be my last..eek! It's actually my 6th attempt.

But, after conducting interviews with professionals of the trades The Works is offering, I have learnt more than I expected!

Now that the functional side is done! I can finally begin creating a 3D model...

Below is my "bible". This is my main brain process to creating the spaces for each trade

I am including the spatial layout right at the bottom, if you have any crits please feel free to share your thoughts.

In the following blog, I will discuss design ideas for each trade...

Space Planning.

I have spent the last few weeks co-ordinating my space planning.

These are the trades I need to allow for:
- Wedding Co-ordinators
- Dress-makers
- Hair-stylist
- Beautician
- Florist
- Chef
- Baker

I have found that each trade is extremely intricate and requires very specific needs. Which makes it all the more interesting!

The proximities of the trades and the orientation within the plan has been solved - after many tries!

This is the layout I created for the presentation. 

My feedback was eye-opening - I will be removing all the interior walls, except for those bordering the courtyard and the external walls. This will allow me to open up the space and in-turn dissolve the barrier between the trades.

The following presentation will focus on 3D conceptual sketches of design ideas....very excited to start this!

In ABSOLUTE awe!

So, I spent the latter part of the morning scanning in 33 original hand drawings - belonging to The PE Club. The oldest plans I managed to source date back to 1904.

The drawing details are just breath-taking! I have digitally copied all the drawings, so if anyone needs them in the future, give me a shout!

I must say thank you to Total Print + Copy for scanning as many as the machine would allow, before "the ghosts of the architects" effected the machine and Jacqui at Data Centre for scanning the balance.

I wish that I could post all the hand drawn details but I have a feeling that would be considered plagiarism....so you will have to have find them in my treatise ;)

the pace is picking up!

Just to keep you up-to-date, on Friday I presented my findings of the selected site - The PE Club.

It seems that the Heritage listing Grade 3A indicates a building of high significance. This means that very little can be done to the site, so the proposed design must be sympathetic to the historical features of The Club.
Now that the Design section has covered the as-built findings, this musty be captured in my treatise document. So that means looooots of writing!