#24 Review of 2009 & 2010 Predictions

2009. A year to remember or a year to forget? I’ve put together this review of my year at University, saying what I thought about the second semester of first year and the first semester of second year. Following that, a small review of what designs caught my eye through the year.

The year has been a mixture for myself. Some highs and some lows, though in all fairness the lows did outnumber the highs. The projects in the second semester of first year didn’t really grab my attention as much as I wished they would. This is apart from the second project undertaken in Design Studies regarding supermarkets, where I feel the group I was in (bar one member) put in some of the best work we had done at University up to that point, and it was the first time since possibly the December of 6th year at high school where I felt I had put in the sufficient hours and had gotten far. It was a good group to work in, but not as good as the group for the first project of Design Studies in that semester where we had to create characters out of ‘junk’, and then using these characters, create a story involving them.

The product design part of that semester was interesting to say the least. A combination of modelling a dyson, a kitchen object and creating a product which met an unmet need in the kitchen was required. At the time it didn’t really seem that relevant, and if I’m honest, part of me still does not see the point in what we did, but it, at times, was good fun none the less.

The mechanics module was, well, rubbish. A lot of time was spent helping others, which, I should point out, do not really mind doing as long as people at least say thank you. Then there are those (and only one or two) who I like to help without expecting thanks from because I like them too much to mind. However, once the exam was over in the middle of May, that was the hardest part of the Mechanics done and dusted for the full university course.

First year left me with mixed feelings about the course. On one hand it was not quite what I had thought it was going to be, and thoughts were coming into my head about whether or not I had made the right choice about what I wanted to to, or if I had chosen the wrong place to go since I could have gone to either Edinburgh or Glasgow instead of Dundee. However on the other hand, I did have quite a lot of fun in my first year, ranging from meeting huge amounts of new people, some who have left a huge impression on me, to doing a range of things which I would not have done anywhere else, from sticking my face in paint, in the name of leaving my mark, to making a Dyson out of blue foam.

Before I knew what was what, September sprung up again and it was time to head back up to Dundee for the start of the second year, and as it turned out two of the modules were once again verging on awful, but one was pretty decent. The two which were not that enjoyable though were not two which were expected.

The two modules which were the ‘unenjoyable’ ones were the Design Studies and the Industrial Design modules. Design Studies because we started the project very late, the workload in the group was very uneven (read that as 2 or 3 people in the group doing the work and pulling the weight of the other 3 or 4), and in all honesty it was not the most interesting project, despite the people involved, those with Aphasia, who were some of the nicest people anyone could meet.

The Industrial Design module did not start very well, and neither did it finish very well, however the middle was quite enjoyable. This was probably in part due to the fact the lecturer ripped down everything that was put forward and did not really give any useful criticism. They changed their mind from week to week, and strongly seemed to favour some people more than they did others. And I know that this sentiment is shared with at least one other person in the class.

I have posted a full review of those two modules previously where I covered everything, or almost everything, as fully as I could, or felt I could since this is publicly available. You can view them here for Industrial Design and here for Design Studies.

The surprise module was the mechanics one, or giving it its proper name, Software Applications. This one was surprisingly enjoyable. I think this was because it was the only time when I felt as thought I was learning new skills which would be useful in later life. It started off with AutoCAD and then onto Solidworks. Whilst neither were taught that well, self experimentation gave me most of the answers I needed (along with Google I should add). This was then passed onto the majority of the class, who seemed to ask me more than they did the bearded lecturer. Again the same opinion as per first year mechanics, I did not mind helping people, and definitely helping more people more than others. It was a good thing most of my work was completed by putting in longer hours than others at the start of each part of the project as the later parts were consumed spending time crouched down, on my knees, next to the computers.

The other part of this module which proved to be quite enjoyable was the Microcontrollers part, though I am probably on my own with this one. It did finish quite quickly, I felt as though I learned quite a lot, though maybe it is not quite as useful as the AutoCAD and Solidworks. The labs were good as well, working with people who I enjoy working with, and putting into practice what we had learned. We had to do a project as well, creating something which used a microcontroller and all the previous knowledge we had gathered. Our group, after initially wanting to go for a car traction control system, changed it to an outdoor keyboard. The basic prototype is shown in the picture below.

Overall 2009, in terms of the University course, was not as good as what I was hoping it would be. There just seemed to be too much of ego’s getting in the way in some areas, not knowing what was going on, having to carry people through projects and not seeing the relevance of what was being done. It was sort of counterbalanced by the fact I got to work with some really good people, begin to make more of a mark for myself up in Dundee, feeling more comfortable with what I was doing, and since the amount of alcohol consumed in writing this post has increased over the time it has been written (though not that much to say what I really am thinking and start to not make sense), gotten closer to people who I really enjoy being with.

I am hoping that 2010 will be a much better year overall in terms of university work. Hoping that it will be more useful, more enjoyable. One of the projects I am looking forward to though, is one where we are going to be making an MP3 player, which should be interesting. There are many areas in which I feel as though I could improve and I hope to do so quickly and effectively..

I am aware that I have gone on for quite a bit in this post, so I shall try to keep this next bit to a minimum, despite it being a part in which I could write so much more than my 2009 University musings. I shall also try and keep it away from my usual haunts of Apple and Bang & Olufsen (or as it has been said to me instead of B&O, Häagen Dazs), but in some instances I cannot help it.

One of the first pieces of design which was revealed in 2009 was the Apple Magic Mouse. I wrote a piece about its predecessor, the Mighty Mouse a while ago, citing reasons why people thought the scroll ball was a bad piece of design and possible areas of improvement. It seems that Jonathan Ive or Steve Jobs read what I wrote and implemented it in the Magic Mouse. It is probably one of the best pieces of Apple design, up there with the iMac G4. It’s beautifully simple and elegant, almost Scandinavian in its design, and I love it. I was very close to ordering one when it was launched, and sometime over the break, I am planning on heading to the Apple store in either Glasgow or Aberdeen to try one out and then possibly buy one. (Post about Mighty Mouse here).

The next piece of design which caught my eye in 2009 was the Bang & Olufsen Beotime. A gorgeous alarm clock inspired by a flute. I have no other words to describe it other than I want one. But then again, I am a bit of a sucker for B&O (and Apple I should add). It just seems that at the moment, both companies are producing products which are leading in each of their respective fields. We all have, in our minds, what we think an alarm clock should look like, the Danes then took this archetype, turned it upside down and rewrote it, or drew it to create the Beotime.

Despite only being a concept. the Art.Lebedev Transparentius caught my eye for being something epically unique. It takes an aspect of road safety and turns it into something which has not been seen before. It is absolutely astounding. When following a lorry and looking for opportunities to pass, the driver is often unaware of oncoming obstacles until they pull out, and it is often too late then. A camera mounted on the front of the lorry, projects the front view onto the rear of the trailer so the drivers behind are able to see ‘through’ the lorry. Whilst this could be quite distracting, it is a start to reducing the number of deaths on the roads. Additionally, being from Art.Lebedev studios, a Russian design company who are responsible for some of the most random, yet brilliant pieces of modern product design available, you know the final product will be just as radical and fun as the concept.

The final product which has captured my imagination is another one which I have written about. The Eigenharp. Not really being musically minded (despite playing the violin for a few years when I was younger), the Eigenharp is an electronic instrument with a difference. It looks beautiful and sounds pretty spectacular, especially the Moby Extreme Ways version. Read more on what I said about it in the original post here.

I know those four may not have been the most radical designs of the past 12 months. But those are the three which have made an impression on me, or the ones in which I can remember. I may end up adding a couple of more in the coming days, as this year draws to an end. What sort of things am I expecting to appear next year? I don’t know, that is the beauty of product design, and only a question which can be answered when you work in the industry and not just studying it.

So there we go. Nearing the end of not one of my favourite years. A post verging on 2000 words, and the general tone of my posts turning to grumbles instead of musings. I am planning on making a few changes on here for next year, some more subtle than others, a post sometime in January will hopefully and probably outline them. Thank you for reading my posts this year, and I hope everyone got something from at least one of them.

Radio Redux: Final Thoughts

Post previously going to be called “Let there be light… and music!” until I decided to defer posting this until it had been completely finished and I was in such a mood to finish what I had started on here.

The following post has not really been updated too much from original draft up until now, so any updates made during this post being held back will have an update next to it, so they have not been updated since this has been published. The first part of this post was written on the 14th of November, so it has been sitting, waiting in the wings for almost a month.

Time for another update about the radio project. Since the last time I posted something about it, there hasn’t really been that much of a change. After spending time getting the two light organs soldered up and then hooked up to get them tested, neither of them worked. This was a very big problem as the feature of the radio, having the light flicker to the sound produced by the radio, was very important. This problem even flummoxed the graduate in the department who is helping us with the electronics part of the project.

Eventually, the decision was taken to ditch those two light organ kits and try and use something else. So a Vellemans MK 103 light organ kit was ordered. This kit, instead of being hooked up directly to the speaker of the radio, is hooked up to a microphone. Getting it soldered up and tested, showed that it worked, and so finally I am able to move ahead with the technical prototype.

On the aesthetics side of the radio, they haven’t really moved on that far, a top cover has been produced and overall dimensions have been calculated, and put into a cutting list in preparation for it to be made, starting this week. I’ll post photos of the exterior of it once it has finished instead of the concept model since there are some differences which make all of the difference between them both.

So that was a little update for this part of the course. The next time I say something about it, I should be finished it and it should all work. And on that note, I leave you with a video of me testing the light organ.

Update: As of today, the 23rd of November, I have commenced making the radio and should be finished it within the next week or so. And despite generally seeming generally positive about the project, everything has just dipped in terms of its ability to keep me interested. I shall power on though, and it will be a very long and hard couple of weeks until everything is finished.

Update II: Today, the 9th of December see’s the project finally finished. Well, in all honesty, it finished on Monday, the 7th, but because I was exhausted and didn’t really want to post anything about it then, since it was still quite annoying me and not really something I was going to spend even more time on when I had finished, I had decided to leave it for a few days and come back to it when I could reflect on what I had done more effectively than what I would have done on Monday.

A few weeks ago, when the model of the radio was being made, it was clear that despite looking quite good in the original concept sketches, the proportions of the actual model were not what they would have liked to have been. It was far too chunky for my liking. And so began the smorgasbord of different problems which occurred over the next few weeks in finishing the project.

Making the model went pretty well, and only took about a day and a half total, but then the next problem arrived. The painting and finishing of the model. Painting it started off well enough, as did the sanding down of each layer of paint to get it smooth before the next layer was put on. It then turned out that when the paint was finished, there was none left in the studio or the workshop, so a trip to B&Q was in order. A small tester pot was bought of emulsion paint, which was the same colour as the paint used. However, once it was painted on the model and it was dry, it was clear that the paint was not the same, it was a light grey. So instead of just one more layer of paint, the model required a further 2 coats, which took too much time, and the finish on the exterior was not as good as I would have liked it.

The next problem to crop up was with the electronics. One week before the deadline, the electronics were working. The day in which 12 hours were spent in the studio, albeit doing Design Studies, instead of doing the radio, they were working fine, and a video was made of the electronics working was made and uploaded to YouTube. However, the day before the deadline, when the model had been finished drying and sanded, and was getting put together, a number of wires came off the volume potentiometer on the radio, so a quick trip to a friend who had a soldering iron was in order, and thanks to them for allowing me to use their soldering iron. Everything was then working fine, until attempting to assemble the model part 2. More wires from the radio circuit board came off, and the potentiometer on the light organ stopped working. There was no time to solder them that night, so I had to make sure I got into the studio early the next morning to get them soldered.

The next day, deadline day, I did manage to resolder the radio, and get the light organ working again, but the radio decided to make a buzzing noise, similar to that of a small toy aeroplane, I could live with that, however, it was doing it when it was switched off. Quickly playing around with a number of the wires, resoldering some more of them, seemed to temporarily solve the problem. Enter trying to assemble the radio part 3. It was all going well until, just millimetres away from getting the base cover on the radio, the buzzing started again. The cover was quickly whipped off, and the buzzing stopped, and reassembling began again. Went well this time, cover went on, light bulb inserted into the holder, time to test the radio. Turned the dial, switched it on and increased the volume and…….. nothing, the radio was dead. The batteries were inserted and there was nothing. The cover was removed once again to find that another wire had come off. But the wire which came off was from a position which would have taken ages to fix, and all I had was 2 hours. I was sick of the project at this point and had to leave it, I had a video of it working from the previous week and that is all I had to go with on that front.

One of the other things which I am considering to be a problem regarding the radio was the dials and the buttons on the radio. They didn’t quite fit or seem to appear to work as well as I would have liked them. The dials were too big, too chunky, didn’t fit the appearance of the radio at all. The buttons were fine, but the they did keep on falling off.

Overall the only part of the radio project which I am relatively pleased with the outcome of was the presentation boards which accompanied the radio for the hand in. Despite making them with a cold/fluey bug type thing, they turned out quite well and the way which I actually envisaged.

Did I like the project? On the whole, sort of. There were many high points, but there were also quite a few low points which did bring the overall mood about it down. Stress levels overall were far too high for my liking, and because of that, many packets of Polo’s were consumed. Let’s just hope that the project next semester is much better than this one though.

New Goods

Is it not just brilliant when you order something and when it comes, you get to unwrap it and it is like your birthday, but only this time you know what it is and it is also something you actually want. The only thing which has the ability to top that feeling is if you have bought more than one thing from different places and they all arrive at the same time. A wonderful feeling.

The past couple of weeks have been spent waiting for some things to arrive, and it was only today (or yesterday, depending on whether or not I post this on the Sunday or the Monday) that I had the opportunity to pick them up from home and then open them. It just so happens that they all relate to design in one form or another so I thought I would share what I got.

1. Bang & Olufsen A8 earphones – A few weeks ago when my old pair of earphones died, I thought I would treat myself with something that I have wanted for a very long time, and it just so happens to be my first foray into products from the Danish company. Already having used them extensively, I can say they are extremely comfortable to wear and have great sound, also they have exquisite detail. I may post something more in depth about the earphones and/or B&O at a later date.

2. Objectified – a DVD about the complex relationship people have with manufactured products. Having known about this film almost since its website appeared on the internet, I leapt at the chance to pre-order it. I have watched it already and it really does provide a unique insight into design and the designers working on products we use everyday, especially the interview or segment with Jonathan Ive from Apple.

3. T-shirts – Having taken part in a competition in the Final Gear forums to design a t-shirt (a competition they hold every 6 months or so), I was lucky enough to have 2 of my designs made in to t-shirts where only 150 or so people worldwide will wear them. A very limited run and I am glad to say that I am very pleased with both of my shirts which I did get for free. One design is based on outlines of different iconic cars, so the Ferrari F2007, Porsche 911 GT3, a Mini and a Ford GT40, the second shirt was a play on a fun feature of an early Top Gear episode where the differences between Oversteer and Understeer were being explained using toy cars.

4. Light Organ – I think I mentioned this in my last post, but this piece of equipment is to help with the radio project on my University course. The purpose of the light organ is to flicker the light or a set of lights to sound or music. This is the basis of my radio design, or it is now, and it should make a very effective looking radio. One thing which I personally am not looking forward to is having to solder all of the components onto the circuit board myself, so I’m glad I bought two, just in case.

Websites which relate to the content of my post:

Bang & Olufsen A8′s

Objectified

Light Organ