Furniture and Product Design
First Year

Level 4. An intense year of learning and doing. We started with a foundation in drawing and modeling in the Measure and Model project followed by an introduction to using tools and machines reproducing a Shaker type table. Then we explored design principles in the In/Out project where we designed and made something in sheet steel to aid the process of entering and leaving the home. We certainly got our hands dirty in the next ceramics, Salt and Pepper, slip casting project, and lastly we learned how to use a software AutoCAD programme and laser and CNC applications to design an object to be made from sheet material into a 3D product for our last project Flat to Fat.

Clever design solutions exist to make our lives easier. Leaving the house, flat, boat... during the day for work, study or leisure can be made easier if there isn’t a bike in the entrance, shoes on the floor, too many jackets on hooks, post on the stairs and an arrangement of keys to select from. The hallway entrance in many homes can be narrow and cluttered. The level 4 students have been asked to design a piece of furniture or product that can be free standing or wall mounted for the hallway environment. All the outcomes have been designed and manufactured from sheet metal and fabricated using the processes available in the metal and finishing workshops.

The Level 4 students were tasked with designing a pair of salt and pepper dispensers to be batch produced in slip cast ceramic. The slip cast mould provides a means of production that is fundamental to three-dimensional design. It allows the repeated reproduction of a predetermined form at an economic cost.

In order to explore potential forms and gain inspiration for their designs students researched other types of three-dimensional form, natural and manmade. In addition, they must consider their target consumer and ask themselves who would buy their design …