Refreshed and ready for 2015

So after finishing university for the year (2014). It was time to take a much needed break. It was a massive year for projects, renovations, furniture and lighting. I after a couple weeks in Melbourne went to Perth, Western Australia. With my family for Christmas for 2weeks. This was a great time to see family and just relax. 

After that I had a huge trip planned to go to South America for 2months. This was my escape, my time to just not worry about the little things in life and explore once again a continent that I have fell in love with over the past 4years. The vast contrast between culture, people, language and landscapes drew me back again. This time I was to travel with my girlfriend through Peru, Equador and Colombia. Also had a stop in Los Angeles on the way home for 3days which was great as well.

Cotopaxi, Equador

Inca Ruin, Day 3 of trek to Machu Picchu

This year 2015 is a big one.



I will be studying for the last year. Honours year for my Bachelor of Industrial Design at Monash University. The whole year will based on one project. The first semester is research and design based. And the second semester is based on bringing everything together whilst making a functional or aesthetic model. 


My design partner Matthew Harding and I will also be going to Salone Del Mobile Milan 2015 to exhibit with Melbourne Movement. We will be showing Exo series along with other Australian designers. 


'Melbourne Movement is a talented mix of young Australian designers, determined to build an international reputation for cutting edge Australian design. Melbourne Movement was founded in 1999 by Kjell Grant, an accomplished designer an professor of design at RMIT University.'  -  http://www.melbournemovement.com/


The crew going over is :


Adam Lynch
Dale Hardiman
Hugh Altschwager 
Max Harper
Matthew Harding
Mitch Rose 

Rowan Turnham

So its time to get back into it. My last year at university. This will be my 7th year of study after finishing high school all the way back in 2008. 


Imagine.
Create.
Make.



 Peace out.

ID3 Show 2014 - Monash University

The semester long project for all of us finished on Thursday and we got to show off all the hard work we had done. There was 5 main design briefs to choose from at the start of the semester. The briefs were all very different and offered exciting and challenging problems to solve!

The 5 briefs were as follows:


Client: MiniFAB

Challenge: Design the future of health and
wellness delivery.

Client: Monash Sustainability Institute &
Institute of Transport Studies

Challenge: Design the future of sustainable
urban mobility.

Client: Monash Entrepreneurs Club

Challenge: Work with roboticists and business
entrepreneurs to develop the future
of education interaction.

Client: MADA’s urban futures consortium.

Challenge: Design the future of transport
for Melbourne’s Rowville railway line.

Client: Orora

Challenge: Design the future of food and
beverage enjoyment.


As you can see, such a wide scope of design fields we had to choose from! Personally I was with Minifab to design the future of healthcare either in the home or surgery. We got some photos of students with their products. Unfortunately not everyone in front of their masterpiece! But you can definitely see the standard of work from these guys below!

Taylor Zhou - Alertle

Lewis Piccoli - Don't bin it, refill it

Sarah Roberts -The Chocolate Box

Ben Peng - Mobilitea

Tom Callaghan - Portable Pathology Lab

Also there was awards! Yes we love awards don't we? Always good to hand out some 'gold stickers' to those who stepped up their game! Good on everyone who received recognition for their hard work. Monash represent!

From the left - Vince Moug (ID3 Teacher), Eric Yuen, Nathan Ide , Sarah Roberts, Katie Hou, Luke Valenza & Robbie Napper (ID3 Teacher)

These guys won awards for best work in their respective teams. Well done guys! And the next award was the top dog award, or should I say top penguin award? (Inside joke....) Ben Peng! Top of the class!

Ben Peng - Top Student ID3!

Any whom, it has been a long semester. Time to reboot before a big honors year next year. I'll be hiking and backpacking through South America, no biggie. 

Peace out for now.

Business Cards

I just received my business cards from Print Together. I chose this printing company because I wanted to avoid using synthetic inks and virgin paper stock. 

They were local too, just in North Fitzroy, Melbourne. Didn't like the idea of getting cards printed overseas or even interstate.



 - Vegetable based inks
 - 100% post-consumer recycled raw paper stock
 - Very quick lead time
 - High quality



Overall very happy with the cards! Can't wait to lay them out for 3rd year Industrial Design studio exhibition. 



Check them out at - http://www.printtogether.com.au/

Fringe Furniture 2014

The Melbourne Fringe Festival is coming up and its full of the arts, comedy, music and much more.

But the more important event is the opening of the whole festival, Fringe furniture will be host to this opening. There is over 90 works of furniture & lighting this year. 








When: 6PM, WEDNESDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 2014

What: FRINGE FURNITURE: LIVING TRACES

Where: ABBOTSFORD CONVENT
1 ST HELIERS ST
ABBOTSFORD



Theme: LIVING TRACES

"The story of human life is told by the traces of our journey through it.

Every object we create is a time capsule to be rediscovered, a monument with fascinating stories to tell.

From ancient times to the present, the artefacts we design are used by coming generations to understand us. They act as coded messages, showing how we lived, worked and came together, how we created and what we valued.

They also inform the future, design evolving as we do. The movement of ideas from generation to generation inspires new forms and icons. A chair was once a stone or a branch, and through a process of evolution it became something else. What could it be next?



P.S I'll be releasing a new lighting range with Matt Harding. Called Exo Series. And also exhibiting a table in collaboration with Chris Shaw! Can't wait to see you all there!

Team Monash wins Telstra M2M Challenge 2014

Tuesday the 29th of July. We went to the awards ceremony this day knowing we (Team Monash) were in the top 3 from 16 other teams that participated in the University challenge this year. The day entailed quite a lot of sight seeing of Telstra's facilities. 

We started the day with breakfast catered for. Then we headed to the GOC (Global Operations Centre) which was a 20min bus ride from Telstra's main office on Exhibition street in Melbourne CBD to Clayton.

The centre was very impressive. And showed really how big the network is that services Australia. We watched a video and then the surrounding windows went from a tinted state to a clear state one by one. Next the view was of the main operations room with a huge wall of monitors showing statistics and details of the network. Very cool to see that in motion.

The rest of the day included lunch and then some more talks about Telstra's projects and investments in the industry. It was great to meet the other University team members and reflect on the 10 week project, which most of us did outside our existing work load at University. 

Unusual sight of students in suits? Lunch time!

TOP 3

Team: Queensland University of Technology

 ATOM – A multifaceted M2M delivery platform which combines independent M2M components (e.g. a smart screen, temperature alert and electricity alert) to be implemented in the same environment as a ‘bundle’ to provide SMEs with functionality that enables them to better conduct and understand their business.

Team: RMIT #2

 Ember – A Haystack Temperature Monitoring and Alert System that provides a mechanism to measure and track the temperature inside haystacks and sends warnings when temperatures exceed a certain threshold.

Team: Monash University

 On Track – A mobile application that allows customers to view up-to-date information about their train service, including its location and how full each carriage is.

 

Drum Roll

The award ceremony finally started around 4:30 in the afternoon. The top three team members were present along with Telstra employees, graduates, university coordinators and M2M organisers. Other teams in the top 8 that were outside the top 3 were allowed 2 members to be present at the event. 


To our delight, we were awarded first place for our project. Whilst RMIT came second with their project Ember. And Queensland University of Tech came third with their Atom Project. 

Shark Fin for Dinner!

Teams Monash, RMIT & La Trobe hanging out in Chinatown

 

Melbourne Fringe Furniture 2014 - Registrations Open

The Melbourne Fringe is in its 29th year running! This just shows how strong the performing arts, music, art and design are in Melbourne. 


This year the Fringe Furniture Exhibitions theme is :


The story of human life is told by the traces of our journey through it.
Every object we create is a time capsule to be rediscovered, a monument with fascinating stories to tell.
From ancient times to the present, the artefacts we design are used by coming generations to understand us. They act as coded messages, showing how we lived, worked and came together, how we created and what we valued.

Design also informs the future, evolving as we do. The movement of ideas from generation to generation inspires new forms and icons. A chair was once a stone or a branch, and through a process of evolution it became something else. What could it be next?


In 2014, Fringe Furniture invites artists and designers to respond to these ideas and create ‘living traces’ of our world, constructing artefacts from the now that acknowledge both our history and the future to come.




Where : Sacred Heart Chapel and surrounds at the Abbotsford Convent

When : 17 September and run until 5 October 2014


Calls for entry close 26 June – 21 July 2014.

http://fringefurniture.melbournefringe.com.au/ 

 

The adventures of Wally - Comic

For transport design this semester we had to illustrate a comic book. Yep something like this sort of publication usually has a team of 10 illustrators, artists and team directors. 

Some of the key milestones that we had to hit were

• 8 Greyscale pages
• 2 Colour pages
• Pick an existing comic book character and add a twist to the original story.
• Design the car or transport that the main character uses.
• Show the exterior, interior, perspective shots throughout the book
• Emphasis on hand done, majority of the work was hand sketched on paper then scanned in to be outlined again in Photoshop and then colour/grey-scale blocked in.

Massive project! But well worth the time and effort to get it done. There's always more to add to these sort of publications. But I'm happy with my first illustrated comic book.

This comic book is not intended for commercial use or profit. It is purely a single run illustration for a University project. And does not have any connection to the original 'Where's Wally' Comic.

Telstra 2014 M2M University Challenge - Team Monash

Team Monash over the past 9weeks have been developing a M2M (machine to machine) solution for a particular problem that we have highlighted in the Public transport network of Melbourne. Especially in the train network. 

The product shall document the amount of people via weight sensors on trains and log that data to servers which will relay the information to the consumers (mobile app users). This system of informative data will give the network specific data to improve efficiency and dispersal of trains on particular networks whilst informing the transport user of train details such as arrival time and carriage capacity. 

The issue at hand is that PTV (Public Transport Victoria) spend a substantial amount of money each year to survey the amount of people that use particular train services throughout the train lines of Melbourne. There are many more reasons for this viable system to be implemented. And will be highlighted in video coming soon!

Train model 1:30 scale. Force sensitive resistor squares under body.

Working prototype in progress! Exciting!

The challenge ends on the 13th of June. In a weeks time. We are looking forward to wrapping up this project and hopefully we get into the next round. Only 3 teams out of 18 teams from around Australia are chosen to present in person to a board of judges!



Check out our Facebook page for updates and information on our project.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Telstra-M2M-Challenge-2014-Team-Monash/481171241983493

Toaster Concept

The Brief

Studio FIVE[5] has just won the pitch to work on a completely new range of
kitchen appliances for Cochina, a leading manufacturer in the market. Rather than just developing a single new appliance, the manufacturer requires the generation of a complete turnkey collection – a large range of appliance types, with variants in different price segments.


 There are quite a few different products that needed to be designed. 

- Toaster
- Sandwich Press
- Kettle
- Blender
- Hand held stick blender
- Food Processor
- Mixer 
- Juicer

The three range types

Köket is a premium range of products, offering the highest levels of quality,
functionality, interface backed up by a commercial appearance and hard-wearing
materials.

Cochina is the mid-market offering, giving consumers dependable
performance and useful features at a more accessible price point, with a
more classic approach to colour and form.

FAMILIA is the entry-level range of products, with a very high costperformance
ratio this range brings simple, dependable products to younger
and family-oriented consumers with a timeless, functionalist aesthetic.


What was involved?

My product that I was delegated to design was the Toaster in the Koket range which was the premium range.

The project combined the combined effort of all the students in the class through group work and also solo work as well.

Each colour represented different component types

 

 

Koket Premium range of Kitchen Appliances

Each product was designed by a different student. From right to left. Toaster - myself, Rowan Turnham, Food Processor - Cindy Wang, Food mixer - Taylor Zhou, Blender - Lewis Piccoli, Kettle - Tina Dinh, Stick Blender - Nick McIver and lucky last Sandwich Press - Patrick Sohn. 


 

Kitchen Appliance Ranges - Koket, Cochina and Familia

As there was another two ranges. We decided to compile every product designed in the studio into one Keyshot render scene. And take a happy snap of all the hard work done!

Look Upstairs Wrap Up - agIdeas - Melbourne 2014

I know after three days of non-stop presentations that each speaker had inspired us all to keep persevering with our studies to become designers. Whether that is graphic design, multimedia design or industrial design each profession has so much to give to our societies all over the world. 

Each day there was around 2,000 students, professionals and educators which sat and listened to some particularly intriguing and innovative solutions to problems. 

To pick out some designers out of this amazing pool. 

I would have to say John Bielenberg's (North America) work stood out to me with such projects like as Project M which helps young designers prove their work to have a positive impact on their communities. Giuseppe Demaio's (Australia) work such as the campaign to highlight problems in some of the poorest communities on the planet. The movement is called NCDFREE a global movement against non-communicable deseases. Kongjian Yu (China) a landscape and urban designer. His work prioritizes the environment first allowing design to deliver it to the people that interact and walk through it. Studio Roosegaarge (Netherlands) a social design lab which had projects such as the Smart Highway using smart paints, energy harvesting and sensors to improve safety, efficiency and the overall driving experience. Lotus Dome made from a unique temperature sensitive foil which moves in relation to heat opening and closing accordingly. These works really stood out to me. There were so many more that I could talk about but it would take hours and hours!

Over the 3 days right outside the Hammer Hall a design garden was set up allowing during the breaks and for the design week people to socialize and hang out. 

1st Day - Seats were comfortable, not so on the 3rd Day

Amazing ceiling lights, Hammer Hall

Old school vespa with tray!

Design garden with digital exhibition on the lawn

Just stumbled across this once empty block now converted into "Testing Grounds"

Pallets, Fruit, Vegetables, Water, Tacos what more could you want

Design garden

Well they said that this is the last agIdeas. I luckily got to go twice in its long history of events in Melbourne. The tickets were not cheap at all, but in the end totally worth it.

Look upstairs agideas - Melbourne 2014

 

Image Courtesy of agideas

I went to this design event in 2010. That year it was called "Design is difference" and it was celebrating 20years of agideas. Each year since 1991 this event has reeled in the creative thinkers around world to one place coming from every design discipline covering 2D, 3D and the digital arena.

I remember at that point I was at RMIT, Melbourne, studying Furniture Design. I was in first year. Well actually I should correct that I was in first year again. As the previous year (First year out of high school) I was studying Furniture Design at Box Hill Tafe, Melbourne. And we were told rumours that the course was not to go ahead the next year as low numbers meant it was not be viable for the institution to continue the course. But we were assured that it would continue. The next year 2010, I was ready for second year and got to Tafe early but all the doors were locked. No one was around and it was like a ghost town. I went to the office and I asked the lady at the desk why everything was closed. A man then came out and said "I'm sorry to say, but your course will not be continuing this year". 

When I look back on this I don't actually care too much that I lost a year, because I gained so much more knowledge and experience. But the fact that a institution could do that was disgusting. I managed to get my years fees back but I could have taken them to court to get a years wage off them. To me there was no point dragging it on, I needed to get on with my life.

So I continued Furniture Design at RMIT. And then graduated in 2011. I was then accepted into Industrial Design at Monash University, the prime goal. It took 3years to get there but it was worth it in the end. I'm now in 3rd year Industrial Design and loving every minute of it!


Back to agideas, this event was mind-blowing. It showed me that I could aspire to these creatives and one day be just as good as them. That solving problems in humanity via design is how us humans will progress in the future to evolve and adapt to problems that majority of the time we create in the first place. 


Sometimes the solution is the problem


It is our job as designers to create solutions that serve their purpose. I strive to do this everyday.



The most important part of this post is who is speaking at the 3 day event? I've listed the amazing designers below. You can go to the agideas website and each designer has a profile.

Day 1

• Wesley Burt United States of America
• Luke Lucas Australia
• Robbie Wells New Zealand
• Studio Roosegaarde Netherlands

• Jason Hutchinson Australia
• Björn Kusoffsky Sweden
• Alla Wolf-Tasker AM Australia

• David Retallack Australia
• Ken-Tsai Lee Taiwan
• Mari Velonaki Australia
• Dick Frizzell New Zealand

• Paolo Tassinari Italy
• Greg More Australia
• Kym Barrett Australia

Day 2

• Philippe Apeloig France
• Mark Douglass Australia
• Cordula Alessandri Austria

• Jonathan Zawada Australia
• Ken Carbone United States of America
• Kelo Kubu South Africa

• Agnello Dias India
• Hannah Rose Robinson Australia
• Charles Wilson Australia
• Saed Meshki Iran

• Søren Petersen United States of America
• Rowena Curlewis Australia
• Alejandro Magallanes Mexico

Day 3

• Kongjian Yu China
• Anupama Kundoo India
• John Bielenberg Germany
• Sean Godsell Australia

• Alex Lehours Australia
• Alison Page Australia
• Super Critical Mass Australia

• Francesco Calvi Australia
• Raymond Coffey United Kingdom
• Giuseppe (Pino) Demaio Australia
• André Baldinger Switzerland

• Kent Sneddon New Zealand
• Sandra Hill Australia
• Paul Boudens Belgium
  
  
  
  
  
  I hope you guys that are in Melbourne have your tickets and I hope to see you all there this week!
  
  
  
  
  
  https://www.agideas.net/