Final destination?

As I've mentioned before, being in Form, Space and Order at SCAD has been a journey. For me it's been a rather bumpy one, but in my experience those are the journeys that teach you something. (And despite hearing others not in the class talk about 'time management,' that's not what this has taught. I had that already.) I'm still sorting out the lessons -- since the quarter officially ends tomorrow, for me, I'm still too close to it to assess with clarity -- but I did have an insight toward the end that has helped me put things into perspective.

My particular challenge in this course were many rounds of drafting and refining. Quite honestly, I find it tedious. However, it is a good opportunity to figure out how to do things differently so that your creation becomes that much better. I've had experience with that in writing, particularly freelance work. You're usually playing with someone else's world, someone else's creation, so if something has to change then you've got to roll with it. You can't afford to be married to your ideas because of that; you have to develop a thicker skin. You've also got to revise and edit as you're asked. That means refining your work, doing multiple drafts, and, as the writers say, kill your darlings.

So how did it all start? With our design philosophies, which I've detailed already. Those words and pictures became the basis for diagrams that would become our final parti drawing.

The upper left mini typology pic has the final parti; the right shows the  first version.

    

From there, we created Form and Space models from our parti diagrams. I preferred the outcome of my Form model, which served as the focus for my typology studies and inspiration further on in the project.

Then we were asked to make the leap from concept to functionality.  It was a pretty big leap, so naturally folks had to go through a few critiques. I went through a lot of critiques. I think the end result, however, turned out well.

So what does this look like three dimensionally? Take a look.

My barn door!

The sofa/bed. (It converts.)

Finished! From concept to reality.

I have my own opinions as to how it all turned out; there are parts I'm really displeased with (not due to design, but craftsmanship), and other parts of the cube that I'm coming to like very well.I know I wouldn't have designed it this way if I'd known we were doing this from the beginning. It was certainly long and exhausting to work as intensely as I did toward the end. Friends and family have seen a picture as well by now, and all of them are various shades of impressed. If that is where I set my standard --and I do, in a way, considering they're also future clients -- then I'm pleased, too.

What I take from this class is a need for flexibility, patience, and perseverance. It also needs designers to remember those concepts taught in their first design class, the elements and principles of design. All else builds upon that. It's the foundation for everything else.