So I'm coming to the end of my first offical client project and what an experience it has been !
Throughout the project which started in Jan 2012 , there has been many ups and downs and important decisions that had to be made. Its made me realise the many challenges that designers face and how to tackle issues that have arosed . Having a project based on a real client is a whole different level on design . Making sure you have a good relationship between yourself and the client is essential to begin to understand them so you can provide the best 'service' that you can be and in the end provide a good quality piece !

So I'm nearly half way into my second year at university and what a challenge it is becoming. With long in depth design projects and design essays to write it is making me think about what type of designer that I am or becoming. Although by now I should have an idea what type of designer I am, there are so many areas in design that I'm interested in. Hopefully in time I will be able to tell you exactly what type of designer I am :)

The very first project at university was to use paper manipulation an design a some sort of seating. It took a while to warm up to the project but seeing as it was a two week project the final design came very late. Throughout the year we had a few competitions one of them being the Lighting Competition and the other The Paul Smith Project. By this stage in the year I gradually was able to plan my time and be able to meet deadlines.

Being on an art foundation course literally changed the way i precieved things . Coming from a business and engineering background it enabled to push me to discover new things . It allowed me to see things in more detail then I ever did before . Thoughtout my art foundation course i was heavily researching spirals in nature it started with looking at DNA strands and finally coming up with some sort of 3D object . My first design was a transparent spiral staircase in which the steps were made out of LEDS . The Following project from this research was the melon lamp

So it all started whilst studying Resistant Materials as an A level in 2008. My teacher asked me what I wanted to design and the first thing I remember saying is a table with lights (known now as my mood table) . At the time it was unheard off which was the reason I came up with this idea to be able to have an household object that users could interact with and changed how they felt. This project took over my life that year, looking at existing tables for inspiration. But what drove this project for me was to have the freedom to design something that could be revolutionary.

This project is what has driven me in the last few years and is the main reason why I'm currently studying furniture and product design at Nottingham Trent University

Terrance Conran has teamed up with Marks and Spencers to design its new furnishings

At last Blueprint Magazine has finally issued the Paul Smith article on the collaboration Project 2011 with Nottingham Trent University