Year 2 is over!

So, my second year at university is officially over now. This year has really tested me, both as a designer and as a person, but I can see the improvements that have been made and I have thoroughly enjoyed this year! As a designer, I am more confident in my designs and process, making projects more enjoyable and easier to experiment with beyond what the brief specifies. Although this year has definitely been hard, it has also been extremely fun and creative!

In terms of the projects that I have completed this year, some have been fun, some have been hard but all have helped me develop my skills in new and existing areas. My favourite project of the whole year has to be the Fairy Liquid packaging project where I not only redesigned the packaging of the bottle but also focused on enhancing the user experience. This project really pushed my design skills in many ways as well as pushed me to think outside of the box. Surprisingly, at the start, I didn't enjoy this project, I felt that simply redesigning a bottle wouldn't offer much in terms of exploration and problem solving, however, my research led me down the path of pods and fizzers, making this project much more exciting and different to what everyone else was designing. I found over the course of the last year that many of my projects have a focus on family and/or children. I have found a strong passion for products that improve the lives of others, whether that be vulnerable people, children or just people in their daily lives. For instance, the dog Play Cubes I designed before Christmas allow people to work without having to worry about their dogs getting enough exercise to be healthy. Therefore, designing products that aid others is something I want to continue doing in the future.

CAD has been a focus area for improvement this year, across several platforms. My main focus this year was to build on my SolidWorks and KeyShot skills in order to produce more refined and professional images of my designs. KeyShot in particular has been a big focus. At the start of this year, I'd hardly used KeyShot, however, after many hours sat watching videos on how to use different lighting and planes, I feel much more confident in my ability to produce rendered images of my designs that look professional and clean. Little details such as texture and logos has helped my design look more realistic and communicate more details to the audience. In addition, my experience with the Adobe Creative Suite has also improved vastly this year; particularly photoshop. Having the ability to tidy up sketches, models and images on Photoshop has really helped improve the overall quality of my work, as well as editing CAD renders into a background image for presentation boards. Overall, my CAD work has improved majorly in my second year at university and will only continue to improve with more experience.

My sketch work has been a big focus this year. At the start of this year, I was receiving low grades for my sketch work and getting upset since I didn't know how to improve. However, in just a few months, I am now able to look back on my work from October/November/December and see exactly why my sketch work was letting me down! There is a visual difference in my sketch work quality over the last 9 months which amazes me considering I don't see or feel the improvements until looking back now! Simple things such as line weights and shadows were things I only used in final designs but now use throughout the whole project as well as marker renderings on sketches or elements I want to draw attention to. I also purchased a white pencil recently and it has made rendering so much easier! I can now add highlights after adding marker rather than hoping the marker won't bleed and fill the gap. Simple things that add so much to my sketches and make them look so much more realistic.

The final area of improvement that I have noticed over my second year at university is my modelling. I bought a 3D printer earlier this year, more so as a hobby to play around with, but since the files it reads can be made from SolidWorks, I played around printing some of my final models out rather than make them from cardboard and cereal boxes. This has been especially helpful with more complex models such as the Fairy Dispenser as it has the Fairy Swirls imprinted onto the front. However, 3D printing isn't always ideal, especially for quick, early models. Therefore, I've been using air-drying clay and even salt dough for my early, more complex models. I have found that exploring different materials has made my modelling process more enjoyable but also more beneficial as the models I have made this year show details, movement and ergonomics of my designs rather than just a simple shape.

Overall, this year has really pushed me to better myself in more ways than one. Not only have my design skills improved but also my perseverance and confidence in my own work. Many times I sat at my desk struggling and counting down until the deadline hit and the work could be done but I learnt to keep going and find new ways of working when things don't go to plan. This year has definitely pushed me harder than I thought it would, but I'm grateful for how far I have come and know that with further experience, my skills will continue to grow!

View Projects