Ashlee Harding Industrial Design Portfolio
Northumbria University Design for Industry Ba Hons Dob 14/08/1996 60 Blackwood Road Townend Farm Sunderland SR54PS ashleewharding@hotmail.com 07446961800
2014 - 2018
Northumbria University Design for Industry Ba (hons) Graduated with a Second-class BA (hons) Degree
2007 - 2014
St. Robert of Newminster Catholic School & Sixth Form GCSE/A levels 9 GCSE’s Dist*, C, D
I am a well rounded student within design, my particular strengths lie in ideation development, presentation, sketching, model making and computer applications. I am a young motivated designer seeking an entry level job in order to build on my experience and career. I am a confident team worker which is shown in collective university projects such as our Reveal show build and New Designers. In my own time I practise and teach martial arts which is where I get a lot of my discipline from, I am also part of The England MMA Team. I have a diverse range of experience from previous briefs, these include working with:
Onesign & Digital Placement: Worked in a fast paced design team that dealt with different clients everyday. I took my own signs/products from the design, to manufacture, to the end product and then fitting. This 4 month placement gave me an insight into the industry of design. SAIC Motor MG Motor: Worked in the colour and trim department within the exterior and interior design. Researching trends within different areas in order to find new colours and materials. The projects I took on were all in mind for 2019 and later, this lead me on visits to manufacturers and trend forcasters giving me further insight into industry. Lab4 Marketing: As well as freelance design work I also do facebook advertising and social media marketing with the company Lab4 Marketing. I have designed for a number of businesses and have also made advertisement campaigns for companies with followers in their millions. Aphrodite Clothing Sunderland: Part-time modelling for the luxury and streetwear fashion stockist. Other: Working at my family buisness I’ve gained a lot of experience coping well with stress as I have worked in fast paced environments such as a bar, cafe/restaurant. Working in an office environment also helped me build on new experiences and work ethic.
Adobe Illustrator
Workshop use
Adobe Indesign
Model making
Adobe Photoshop Adobe Premier Pro dss Solidworks Rhinoceros 3D Autodesk Inventor 3D Windows OS Mac OS
Sketching Photography
The Lexus Design Award 2015 was based around the word ‘Anticipation’. My entry was The Newton Vase. “Anticipating the drop, anticipates life“
Upright Vase
Water is added
Vase tilts when water is filled
When the water is absorbed the vase stands upright, anticipating that the plant needs more water or may soon
The product works by what position the vase is in, this indicates how much water is left in the vase or if the plant needs water. Explained in the diagram to the left. The way that it works is basically the exchanging of weight distribution.
“Anticipating the drop, anticipates life“
If the product would actually be made it would be formed in the classic way of making a vase from clay. The centre of gravity would be really important and so would the weight of the product inorder for the product to actually anticipate when it is empty or full. It would come in all ranges of colours, but I believe the most effective colours would be natural and earthy such as:
The name of the product I came up with is ‘The Newton Vase’. The reason for this being because the product uses gravity in order to anticipate the flowers needing water. Anticipating the drop, anticipates life.
While working with Lacoste I was put into a group in order to design all aspects of one of their shoe products. Our group was given JD Sports to design an exclusive tennis sneaker that could be sold from their shelves. We were to design the shoe, packaging, POS, internet pages and even price tags. Unfortunately, I can only show a small amount of the work from the live project.
Svänga Svänga Leave work and personal life apart, findAthelightbalance designedand in the keeping with essence of Northern Hygge.Lighting brief.
the
Leave work and personal life apart, find the balance and the essence of Hygge.
Intera
Interaction
Inspiration The Scandinavian lifestyle is one of hard work and relaxation. However, there is a clear line between them both. Only 1% of the population does overtime as their work ethic is to put in effective time in the work place, then when they go home they can focus on their personal life and relax. When returning home they want a feeling of cosiness and content, in Scandinavian countries this is known as ‘Hygge’. The Idea behind the Svänga desk lamp is having the right to disconnect. Leave work and personal life apart, find the balance and the essence of Hygge.
My role at MG and SAIC Motors was within the Colour & Trim department. The 4 month I speant there focussed on the innovation of materials and colours of the interior and exterior of future models. Here is some feedback on my time there.
“Ashlee was new to automotive Colour & Material design and I believe found this an interesting experience to understand more about his likes and dislikes within the design industry. As a Colour & Materials Design Intern he was motivated to research new materials, helping with internal company trend reports and found some fascinating areas to report on. Ashlee also enjoyed a couple of visits outside of the business looking at finishes and trends. I could see that some of those experiences really excited him. Ashlee injected some much needed youth culture into the studio with his passion for sneakers. He presented his Sneaker report well within Design many designers found this engaging and inspiring. I would recommend that Ashlee uses any available opportunities during further work experience to try and build up rapport with others around him, in order to gain greater learning. If Ashlee had worked more with designers, clay modellers and studio engineers, these moments would have given him insight into other areas of design. Ashlee did get involved with the designers on a current car programme and I could see this was a real highlight for him. Ashlee inspired other designers with his material research and even if Colour & Materials design is not a desired area for him, I believe there were definitely areas of the role which he found enjoyable. “ Rebecca Heath Colour & Trim Manager
Back in 2016 I took place in a live group project for Gillette, this was with the look over of design consultancy Matter. Before working on this project I had to sign an NDA meaning I can’t showcase the work in my portfolio. However, I can say Gillette have began to bring our ideas to market. Here is some feedback on the work.
“During the winter term of 2016 Ashlee Harding participated in a collaborative design project with Gillette and their innovation partner, Matter. Due to the commercial sensitivity of this work to Gillette, the students are unable to share their work at this time; however, what follows is a short project overview: As part of a four-week project, students were tasked to create small teams and operate as a design consultancy. Each team worked against a brief to explore new grooming solutions for male and female consumers. The consultancies were challenged to uncover local market insights, create new found empathy with their target consumers and innovate solutions using P&G’s Moments of Truth framework. The final output was a well thought out, holistic concept that delivered against market, consumer, brand and business requirements. The continued quality of work, professional attitude, and high level of creative thinking demonstrated by the BAJJ consultancy was commendable and of great value to the Gillette business.” Matt Hodgson Principle Design Engineer, P&G Beauty and Grooming R&D
“Team BAJJ presented a thoughtful market relevant concept for the Mach 3 Brand. Their design showed an appreciation of the brand design values and how future trends might influence the brand. Their holistic concept execution showed a range of skills covering packaging, instore/POS and product design. The team delivered a good monochrome model, CAD renderings and pack mock-ups. The group initially had commitment challenges however with guidance, a good team leader and a big push towards the end of the project the final execution was professional and commendable.” Lottie King Senior Design Partner, Matter
My time at Onesign and Digital was eye opening to the graphic side of the design industry. In the 4 month I was there I learnt a lot about print and manufacture which will be overviewed on the next page.
Onesign specialise in all types of digital print and signage manufacture. One such area is flat bed printing, which is where a design is printed directly onto the material (an example of this would be a durst omega 1 machine which can print on any material). Another way they do this is by printing onto vinyl and then wrapping the material (using either of their HP designjet printers which can also print on wide ranges of materials). The way they decide on which way to print designs is whether they will be used internally or externally, with direct printing for internal and wrapping for external (anti-graffiti cover and weather resistance). All processes of their products are done in-house, from design, to manufacture and all the way through to fitting, depending on the product/service. Onesign deal a lot in the retail side of business, working with large customers such as Poundland, The Works and Yesss Electrical to mention just a few. They also deal with smaller clients such as charities, small businesses etc. The company also specialises in graphic design whilst possessing facilities to wrap cars. During the 4 month placement I worked in a fast paced design team that dealt with different clients everyday. I took my own signs/products from the design, to manufacture, to the end product and then finally, fitting. I was lucky enough to experience every aspect and process needed in order to produce quality products and gained hands on experience.
Hygym is a product driven service which aims to increase hand hygiene compliance. It does this by allowing people to use hand sanitizers and clean supplies more freely, more often, in one station. It solves the problem of making cleaning easier for gym users, which gives a cleaner environment. It decreases cleaning costs for gyms and is more cost effective by paying one service rather than 4 different.
Grey Area is a new apparel brand that I have been closely working with in order to design their lines of clothing. We sat down together in order to get a feel for the styles they wanted. They gave me the definition of their name to work from, creating a mood board and then designs from that board. The first stage includes t-shirt designs, these include muscle fit t-shirts and oversized fit. The next stage will also include caps.
Smuggling Duds is a underwear brand that has been worked upon for over 10 years and is a leading sponsor for many athletes. Luckily, I had the chance to work with their team in developing their patented pocket designs. Originally, the pocket was smaller and on the left side of the underwear, however the new design turns the front panel into a full sized pocket. The next page shows simplified CAD mockups of the products for manufacturers and also the end product.
I was recently invited to Adidas HQ in Amsterdam to design and customise 12 pairs of shoes. Whilst there I had the opportunity to look and feel the different materials available, allowing me to have a better insight into how footwear is put together and designed. I also spent time with a range of employees and was shown around the offices. This was an insightful and amazing experience.
Thanks for your attention, if you would like to contact me here are my details: arding@hotmail.com ashleewharding@hotmail.com 7446961800 07446961800