Furniture Design Portfolio
P r o f i l e Education
Skills
Experience
Contact
Nottingham Trent University 2017-Present BA (Hons) Furniture and Product Design
Solidworks In Design Adobe Illustrator 2D Design V2 Photoshop Keyshot
Set construction for my A-level drama performance School Design Prize winner at the Young Furniture Makers
grace.amelia@hotmail.co.uk 07478708312 @gracejastrzebski_design
Contents Reader’s Donkey Brighton Coffee Table Edesem The Knoodle Up-cycled Lamp Drawing
Reader’s D o n k e y P e n g u i n The brief was set out by Isokon for us to design a new Donkey that is more suited to our modern day needs while also fitting in with their original three Donkeys. As an avid reader I have decided to design it around the past time in such a way as to create a piece of furniture that is transportable. This allows the user to take the donkey and their current reading material and any other amenities that they may need with them.
Reading Transportable Picnic Comfortable
D e t a i l i n g
These images show the details of my final Donkey prototype from the spherical feet, curved edges and simplistic straight lines.
Central divider • Slot for up to two books depending on how they are placed inside. • Curved for easy access to reading material. • 40o radii same as glass stopper to create uniformity.
Book storage • Slot for up to two books depending on how they are placed inside. • Curved for easy access to reading material. • 40o radii same as glass stopper to create uniformity.
Blanket storage • Can store a blanket for cosying up with while reading or can be used for a picnic blanket so as to use for outdoor reading.
Handle • 22mm in diameter to be a comfortable fit for a person to hold. • Handle comes through to the other side of the piece adding a circular detail, mimicking the spherical components to the design.
Wine storage • The wine bottle holder is curved so as to match the contours of the bottle, while also being wide enough to fit large bottles • The height between the base and the handle are made so as to ensure there is ample room between the users hand and the bottle top. • The glass holder, like the book holder has a 40o radius The storage area can hold up to two glass’.
Feet • The feet consist of two wooden balls, these balls are understated so as to not take away from the overall design while keeping it circular and holding the Donkey up-write.
The product in use
The Reader’s Donkey’s main purpose is to allow the user to have a comfortable and peaceful reading experience. In order to do this it needed to be highly functional and be a small ‘friend’ for the user to take with them when they need it.
• Blanket storage • Outdoor use • Picnic use • Easy to remove
• Donkey in transit, • Easy to lift • Lightweight • Transportable item
• Showing the book storage in use • Easy to slot book in • Easy to take book out • Sideways for single use, vertical for dual use
1 I decided that it would be too bulky to incorporate the rectangular handle piece that was originally designed to fit round the main body of the Donkey.
In order to make my Donkey concept more multi-functional I decided to adapt the design so as to incorporate a greater number of storage facilities. However it appeared to me to need to incorporate more curves.
The use of curves across all of my design creates a feeling of uniformity. Because of this I decided to use mostly the same radii throughout my entire design. In order to make the design uniformed throughout.
2
3
Product development
The Reader’s Donkey’s main purpose is to allow the user to have a comfortable and peaceful reading experience. In order to do this it needed to be highly functional and be a small ‘friend’ for the user to take with them when they need it.
Brighton
A p p l i q u ĂŠ Brighton is an area that I love to photograph and visit when I can. The buildings, sea and fairground activities are beautiful to look at so I decided to take the aspects that I love of the area and create my own appliquĂŠd piece incorporating the beauty of the seaside city.
Beading Screen-printing Fabric Sewing
D e t a i l i n g Each of these photographs show this piece’s details from the screen-printed background, to the intricate sewing and meticulously placed beading.
Beading was added onto the helter-skelter to mimic the fairground lights.
Here shows some detailing I did of the lettering on the helterskelter. I did it using a sewing machine over a screen-printed image.
I screen-printed an image onto multiple pieces of fabric which I used a fixing spray to adhere them together, once this had been done I used a sewing machine and stitched it all together, using the screen-prints as a guideline
C o f f e e T a b l e R e c y c l i n g Throwing away a piece of wood as beautiful in colour and in grain as Iroko would be a huge waste. Because of this I decided to clean up and fix the wood so I could make it into a coffee table.
Home office Lift-up section Iroko Steel
Making the Table-top
‘I designed my coffee table to fit our lounge area at home as a central piece, but it could easily be moved to the side when not in use. It was also important to my family that we used materials which were either recycled or sustainable.’
As my school had recently had their sciences labs refurbished there was a lot of left over Iroko; the wood used for the science bench tops. This material was very worn and old with many burn marks and chemical spillages on it making it a very unattractive piece of wood that was in desperate need of being refurbished
Once I had sanded down the surface to remove thick layers if varnish and burnt areas covered with chemicals I began to cut up the wood into the pieces I needed for the manufacture of my design.
One of my favourite details of my design was my hand made knees used to add extra support.
Making the Table legs
The making of the legs gave me the chance to work with metal, something I had not done before. This was something that I really enjoyed and was very excited to do.
To make the base I began with cutting up old pieces of metal box section and then used MIG welding to join these cut pieces together.
The next stage was to grind down my welds to make the piece nice and smooth.
The final stage was finishing the piece. I chose to use black spray paint as it was a cost effective finish as it is an indoor piece of furniture that will be subjected to very little wear and tear.
D e t a i l i n g These images show the details of my final Coffee table.
Lift up top • Hinged top that can be raised and lowered. • Handles routed out of top. • Two pieces of Iroko attached together with biscuit joints.
Table-top • Joined together with handmade finger joints. • Top attached to squared base with biscuit joints. • Wood has character from previous use.
Legs • The legs are made from 50mill box section. • All steel was recycled from old A-level projects that were unclaimed.
E d e s e m
SCP small space living SCP’s boxed collection includes a variety of products ranging from hooks to side-tables all in a size that can be easily posted to the buyer or even carried out of the shop there and then, allowing for the products being impulse buys. I was set the task to design a product for this boxed collection, this is when I created ‘Edesem’ a side table that has space for storage and even a plant holder
Solidworks Photoshop Small spaced living Keyshot
D e t a i l i n g
‘I designed my coffee table to fit our lounge area at home as a central piece, but it could easily be moved to the side when not in use. It was also important to my family that we used materials which were either recycled or sustainable.’
Pot The London rental market has a distinct lack of garden space. Because of this a lot of homeowners are deciding to invest in house plants. The use of plants such as spider plants in the home has numerous health benefits they are known to reduce the amount of carbon monoxide in the air. This is why I decided to incorporate a plant pot in my design
Shelves The shelving areas were designed so items that are regularly used can be placed and kept. There are two differing heights for the shelves and a third for the pot. This style was inspired by the giants causeway.
Legs The legs are angled at 60 degrees and with the one under the base at 180 so as to provide extra support.
1:5
scale
model
Here are a selection of photographs I took of my 1:5 scale model for my design. This was done so I could gage how well it will fit together and support itself.
Product development
The Reader’s Donkey’s main purpose is to allow the user to have a comfortable and peaceful reading experience. In order to do this it needed to be highly functional and be a small ‘friend’ for the user to take with them when they need it.
As I would not be making a full sized product for this project it was important that I used CAD soft-wear to work out the dimensions of the piece.
This allowed me to learn keyshot and practice and improve upon my Photoshop skills.
From building the side-table in Solidworks I was able to experiment with the height of each of the elements of the design to make it most aesthetic and ergonomic. I learnt that it would look best if the hexagons hovered over each other to best mimic the giants causeway’s natural shape.
Knoodle Relationships The knoodle is two hand-knitted blankets, one for each person in a long distance relationship that, when the couple are together, can be buttoned up creating one whole blanket. This shows a narrative of two coming together and becoming whole while also still being functional when separated.
Narrative and Ritual Knitting Moulding Comfort
B l a n k e t s
To make the blankets I had to make my own knitting needles as I wanted to use 6 pieces of yarn at once to create thick and weighty blankets.
This process was very interesting, as someone who was not very confident with knitting before starting this project I really enjoyed learning to knit especially on such a large scale.
I wanted to use a stitch with created a plat-like pattern. To do this I used the knit a row, pearl a row stitch.
The blankets weight is around 2 kilograms each. This weight creates a feeling of comfort when in use.
Each of the buttons have been moulded to a size of around 70mm in diameter so that they can fit into the blankets at any part that the user wishes.
The imprints are each done to represent a part of mine and Gabriel’s lives and represent things we like.
• Leicester city • Rick and Morty • Grey’s Anatomy • Music • Jewellery • Beer
B u t t o n s The main part of the Knoodle is the ability to be taken apart and joined together again. To do this I made personalised buttons that are meaningful within my relationship.
Up-cycled Lamp
S u s t a i n a b i l i t y The simple, yet elegant pages of a book should not be wasted no matter its age or condition. That was why I decided to up-cycle one into a pendant light.
Recycling Paper Sustainability Books
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As a lover of reading the thought of letting an old book that is falling apart at the spine is an incredible waste. Because of this I wasted to find a way to keep this elegant and beautifully coloured paper and fold it into a pendant lamp shape.
This was my original sketch of the design for my up-cycled lamp. The shape is simple but pretty in that it has small folds and fans out in a cone shape.
Here shows the lampshade in use. Because of it being made from paper it needs to be sprayed with a spray to make it flame retardant or it would need to be used with only a LED bulb
To make the lamp I used 6 pieces of paper from old books that were falling apart. These were folded to make a fan-like shape and then stuck together with double sided tape. To keep the shape at the top I then stitched some thread through. The base naturally flared out when placed on a bulb.
When thinking about paper automatically think to the natural world. Because of this I decided to look to nature for inspiration for my lamp design.
The simplicity of these daisy’s made me want to follow this simplicity in my design.
The natural shape and folds in leaves and flowers particularly interested me. Because of this I decided to look into ways of incorporating natural looking folds into a pendant light.
I n s p i r a t i o n
As books originate from trees I wanted to create my design in such a way as remembers this original place.
Drawing S k e t c h i n g Here are some examples of my hand drawn renders and working drawings.
Rendering Sketching Working-drawing Markers
Grace
Jastrzebski