REYNA MANINGDING
BA Hons Interior Design
As an Interior Designer, I felt I needed to challenge myself and try something new. I was excited to be part of 'Closed Loop' because it was completely different from my own practice. Although I have collaborated with others in the past in the same environment I really learned a lot this year from my peers and tutors. It became a lot more clear to me that collaborating with other disciplinary helps to develop my own perception on design, develop my skills and challenge my creativity.
INITIAL IDEAS
On arrival at the restaurant, I really gravitated towards the overall space. The interior was beautiful, I really loved the open-plan minimalistic look and the big windows let in a lot of light which made the place a lot more inviting. I didn't really consider looking at the entrance but since collaborating with everyone in my group I appreciate the space more.
RESEARCH
Often, when I start a new project I begin with documenting the space using photography. I then researched into WTLGI their farm, the produce and their overall ethos and even consider researching the location and what's in the area. This helps me visualise the space later on when I start to brainstorm ideas and begin to think about possible designs.
MATERIAL TESTING
During the 'Waste Not Want Challenge', I took broken ceramic bowls to research and test their materiality. I broke each bowl into pieces and arranged them in a grid formation. I found that not all bowls share the same material, many had different finishes, glazing and texture.
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After the challenge, we all agreed to use glass because it was the easiest to manipulate and to create ideas from.
POTTERY THROWING
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Learning a new skill was something I really wanted to take away from the unit. I had a chance to throw pottery with my group and learn how to create a plaster mould. I enjoyed myself and I would definitely consider using the skill in the future in my own practice.
WTLGI SIGN
We all agreed on creating a sign for the entrance at WTLGI, I created a visual model using Vectorworks to help communicate our idea. To put the sign in context I created a visual of the entrance with the sign included showing what it could look like.
INSTALLATION
After feedback from the tutors and WTLGI, it was clear that our idea lacked excitement. As a group, we decided to re-think our idea, to help us we set ourselves a light experiment challenge. I used all sorts of materials such as bubble wrap, water, tissue paper, a comb etc. to experiment with using light. Through this challenge, it gave us inspiration and concrete our idea which is an art installation. We hope it would engage and enhance the user experience when entering the restaurant.
RE-THINKING THE DESIGN
As a group, we can no longer meet in person due to current circumstances. We had to find a way to communicate our work digitally, talk about design developments and changes. This meant we would need to experiment and design on our own and feedback to the group.
As a group, we decided to change the sign's design to just one square plate compared to previously five plates and add a pully system. I researched different kinds of pully systems and different rope placements to see which one would best fit our idea. Sketching the plate first and including all the research and group feedback helped when I was creating a development model on Vectorworks.
ANIMATION
As a group, we decided that we need to communicate our idea more effectively. We had to show in real-time what the entrance could potentially look like, so I decided to create an animation. I used Jess's photos from her 'light box' experiment and photoshop to create a moving image.
CREATING A VISUAL
I created this visual after making the animation because I felt the website needed a still image to tie everything together. I suggested this visual to the group and the tutors and got positive feedback from them. After the feedback, Jess developed the image further and it became the final image that we used on our website.