An old friend of mine, Carl Sylvester is now Head of Foundation Studies in Art & Design at Loughborough University. Not for the first time, Carl asked to bring round his 3D design students to show them how product development goes in the real world.
I remember as a Foundation student myself, no-one is thinking beyond getting on a degree course; but we hope to give the students a little taster and maybe a bit of inspiration as to how you can build a career or a business as a product designer. Most of all we think that having some practical skills and experience is fundamental to being a good product designer, and working with your hands, making models, building prototypes is about as much fun as you can have in your day job.
Robin explaining why knowing about wood is first base for furniture designers.
Robin in the noisy room; keeping dust and noise in one area, away from the cabinet makers benches, makes for a tidy, clean and relatively peaceful working environment.
We had Sunday lunch at a friends house; not been there before and it was such a lovely place. Properly country pile lovely with 30 acres and highland cattle type of lovely. From one side of the kitchen there is an expansive view of the grounds and on the other side a view of this amazing courtyard. Dave is a property developer and makes stone fireplaces, but these outbuildings have remained undeveloped. As soon as I saw the variety of rickety old barn doors I knew it was perfect for our next accessories photo shoot. It was a dank day but on a sunny autumn day at about 2pm the light should be perfect.
I like the little bird box and the chicken wire in the window
That's great, any old how slats to keep the foxes out
I love totally haphazard joinery
We've just had some gates made to this design, but there's so much more detail when you look closely at an original
I love this catalogue. It’s the first really cool catalogue I’ve seen for some time that doesn’t use matt card throughout. it has a newspaper supplement feel to it, with thin rippling satin sheen internal pages with a lightweight matt cover and cheap and cheerful staples. What makes it work is the proportions (nearly square) and the colours (a Moroccan feel) and atmosphere (soft dramatic lighting and natural materials).
I really hope to get some of that feel into our new accessories photo shoots. To that end, Robin roughly plastered a brick wall on our mezzanine yesterday, which we are going to paint, wallpaper, strip, repaint until we can create a backdrop to some of our products that has the texture and vibrancy that makes the Anthropology catalogue so memorable. Zingy faded turquoises and terracotta textiles is a great combination.
Anthropologie catalogue
The models pose and the shadow are just right, but the colours and texture of the backdrop make it.
Love this lighting, worn wood and muted colours
Inside back cover, bleached out and tranquil
Here are some photos we’ve taken of our new range of interior household accessories.
Elle Deco have asked us for high res versions to feature in three separate articles they’re running in the new year.
We are hoping to get the accessories page live on our site in a week and add more products as we develop them and take the photo’s.
The Accessories brochure should be ready in the new year.
Posted on November 16, 2011, 10:48 am, by Paul OLeary, under
Miscellaneous.
Posted on November 15, 2011, 12:34 pm, by Paul OLeary, under
Miscellaneous.
