It’s all about the product…

Our second year Artist Blacksmith students have started a new brief “It’s all about the product”. The brief gives them a choice of three products a chestnut roaster, bookends or a door knocker. The brief mimics the reality that often faces forged metal designers, when they are required to operate within a direct commission environment working closely with a client.

One of the first challenges of the brief is to dispel the design preconceptions of any given product, and to this end we asked Melanie Brown a member of academic staff who teaches into our Contemporary Design Crafts programme to bring in her extensive spoon collection, collected globally the spoons / ladles / scoops  illustrated an enormous breath of specific functions, a diverse use of materials and a rich variation of form and design approaches .. Just what was needed to dispel any preconceptions that students may have had about what a chestnut roaster, bookend or door knocker looked like …

Thank you Melanie for sharing your collection and baking a delicious cake that we all devoured whilst we enjoyed your spoon antidotes and stories ..

As the brief states, the project will require

• Focussed planning and preparation
• Defining the context of the product
• Production of a variety of initial designs that address to the client requirements
• Experimentation in resolving creative and technical issues
• The ability to make decisions – analyse, evaluate and select
• Efficient design and production management in a short time frame

I’ll post some images of the final products in just a few weeks from now.

Del