TOM BECKER
Brompton_Tether
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Le Chat Botte
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Philips_The New Everyday
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RSPB_Batman & Robin RSA_Collaborative Consumption Forest Contracts_Placement
Sl’ight Bowers & Wilkins_Fragment Studio 104_Wares
Make with SOLE
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Design should provide elegant, practical solutions that inspire the individual Studying classic design has raised my awareness of how consumers interact both physically and emotionally with products, while objectively analysing how we live today continues to provide me with insights. I believe that the designer has a duty to ensure that their products are longlasting, ecologically sound, unobtrusive and honest. Working in teams has helped me develop my communication skills and working with large companies has taught me the importance of a professional attitude towards my work. During my placement at Forest Contracts in 2012 I developed a range of products from concept through to delivery to the client. This gave me a great insight into the realities of designing and manufacturing products and has made me realise the importance of materials and manufacturing processes.
I have a very good technical understanding and enjoy problem solving. I have a keen eye for detail and I’m proficient in Photoshop, InDesign, Lightroom, Flash, Illustrator, Graphite, SolidWorks and Rhino. However, particularly in the early stages of a project, I prefer to sketch and use my model-making skills to help me develop ideas towards reality. I hope to progress my design career in a team-based environment, where I can learn and develop my skills with the help of those around me. I hope you enjoy looking through my portfolio and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in contact.
Graduated 2007 from Christ’s School GCSE’s: 11 A to C grades
Began mountain bike riding in 2008 Sales Assistant at Blacks Outdoor Leisure 2006 to 2008
Gold Arts Award for photography awarded in 2009 Arts Richmond photography competition winner in 2009
Gained a BTEC in Technical Theatre in 2009 Graduated 2009 from Esher College A-Levels: Double Art & Design, Philosophy Designed and Constructed a display stand for WiZZBiKE in 2009 Photograph published in the Guardian’s Weekend Magazine in 2009
Graduated 2010 from Kingston University
Foundation: Art & Design
Sales Assistant at WiZZBiKE 2008 to 2010
Placement at Ford Motor Company 2010 Sales Assistant at Evans Cycles 2010 to 2011
Placement with model maker Jack Kirby 2011 Bar staff at The Stand Comedy Club in 2011
Placement at Forest Contracts 2012 Kitchen Porter at Tiger Tiger in 2012
Elected as Chairman of Studio 104 in 2013 Academic Course Representative since 2011 Graduated 2014 from Northumbria University BA: Design for Industry 2:1
A lock designed specifically for Brompton bicycles A Brompton is a unique and flexible bike to own, freeing the owner from many of the constraints of a full-size or non-folding bike. However, securing the bike can become an issue – most locks on the market are aimed at nonfolding bikes, making them awkward to carry and nearly impossible to mount to a Brompton. The lock I’ve designed fits snugly inside the main frame of the bike, ensuring minimum intrusion to the aesthetics and riding experience. The sturdy cable lock is permanently attached to the inside of the bike, making it simple for the customer to use – simply pull the ends out and tether your steed.
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Brompton_Tether
“Tom progressed from a broad initial brief to a concept, which with some further considered development may well be a viable product. He took direction well along the way and refined his initial concepts logically and with thought. The end product showed a good sense of understanding of the unique problems and concerns facing a Brompton user and a suitably logical development process.” – Paul Williams, Design Engineer, Brompton Bicycle Ltd.
Two piece expanding metal bung held together by special Argus tighten-only bolts.
Self retaining barrel lock end slots into the frame, tucking neatly out of the way.
The magnetic braided steel cable can be pulled out and pushed back inside the frame when the bike is being ridden. This prevents the lock rattling around.
Brompton_Tether
Stopper on the end of the cable stops the cable from pulling through the bung.
The lock is fitted entirely through the front of the main frame and is permanently fixed once in place.
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A new take on a ticket to make opera more engaging for children The tale of Le Chat BottĂŠ is all about a crafty cat who deceives, tricks and misleads. The mask I have designed for this fairy-tale opera has a sharp snout in order to represent the cunning feline. The design is based on a mask one might wear at a masquerade ball although it has been given a contemporary twist. The instructions encourage customers to customise their mask, which would appeal to children and would make the festival more exciting and diverse.
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Le Chat Botte
An exploration into the future of sharing media In this project for Phillips I began by imagining a not-too-distant future in which we find the electronic devices of our daily lives becoming more and more obtrusive and being so efficient there is little need for us to interact with each other. The Hive allows users to leave digital media for each other to collect whenever is convenient. The Hive detects when you’re in the room by identifying your smart phone and will then begin ripple gently, as if someone had just dropped something into its liquid-looking surface.
See something that someone you live with would find interesting...
Send it to the Hive for them to retrieve at their convenience...
Philips_The New Everyday
The Hive knows when the recipient is in the room and will ripple, gently reminding them to check for content.
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Philips_The New Everyday
A bird box designed to get better with age, for the RSPB My concept was to create a nest box that does not stand out from the surrounding environment, but would slowly begin to blend in and become part of the environment. Hence the material choices of oak and copper. As the oak ages it will naturally stain and will become more organic. Similarly as the copper becomes verdigris the colour and lack of shine will also help it blend in. My nest box will not decay, but will age as time goes on.
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RSPB_Batman & Robin
A non-profit, kitchensharing service for smallscale food businesses The rigorous standards of the Food Standards Agency can be expensive to meet and difficult to maintain. The Kitchen Cooperative is a service which provides space and equipment to smallscale food producers which meet these requirements. This allows them to worry about their food, not the legislation. Professional kitchens (such as those in schools) rent their space and equipment during closing hours, earning a bit of extra money and a free professional deep clean once a month. By working with an existing commercial kitchen, any start-up food entrepreneur can make use of top-quality equipment and facilities without the expenditure or hassle to worry about.
The website Also allows members to contact or research local food producers, retailers as well as other members.
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RSA_Collaborative Consumption
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Members must clean their work station and do their washing up after they’ve finished cooking.
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Chef Checks cleaning The head chef checks the member has cleaned up after themselves and confirms this online.
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Arriving with their ingredients members get access to professional standard kitchens.
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Once the Kitchen has clocked up a number of hours ‘rents’ it receives a deep clean, courtesy of The kitchen Cooperative.
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Using the website allows members to find a kitchen near them, for a modest fee.
have a sink for
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BOOK ONLINE
To produce food at home, to sell, you must:
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These spaces could be rented out.
Insight
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A SCHOOL KITCHEN IS TYPICALLY CLOSED IN THE AFTERNOONS.
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There are many professional kitchens that are not used at certain times.
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Insight
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Placement. Forest Contracts is a medium-size, familyrun, contract furniture business. They specialise in designing, manufacturing and installing bespoke furniture to hotels, hospitals, bars, schools and private houses across the UK and have worked at many of London’s most prestigious hotels and restaurants. Bear Interiors is a furniture and interiors shop in Bath, which opened in late 2012. The owner of Bear Interiors was my client for this placement, with me acting as a freelance designer working for Forest Contracts. The owners of both companies are old friends and had decided to engage me to
explore the possibility of Forest Contracts manufacturing a small range of furniture to be retailed at Bear Interiors, with the view to expanding the range and/or the retail options if the venture proved successful. So over the three months I was working for Forest Contracts I created a range of three shelving products for Bear Interiors, as well as working on the concept of an under stair play area and an AV unit. The projects were self-driven and I can now proudly announce that my products are on sale at Bear Interiors in Bath.
Forest Contracts
A customisable, modular shelving system created for Bear Interiors This simple, clean and adaptable shelving system is based on a three-sided cuboid. Each SheLf can be rotated 90ยบ to create a range of different spaces. A small lip runs around the edge of the SheLf, adding structural support and allowing items to be stacked front on, as well as preventing anything from falling from the SheLf. They are made in the UK from powder-coated mild steel in two sizes and a range of colours. The project required me to not only design the unit but also deal with manufacturers and suppliers while still ensuring that the project was cost-effective.
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Forest Contacts_Placement
An adaptable storage concept and an under-stair den At Forest Contracts I also worked on a number of conceptual projects, including a flat-pack under-stair children’s play area (with a printed photographic canvas that can be used to hide away the mess away or become part of the adventure) and also a modular media stand that can be wall mounted or freestanding and conceals all cables.
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Forest Contacts_Placement
A contemporary look at the traditional picture rail The PicRidge was conceived to provide a simple and flexible space to show graphics. It offers a ledged space for prints, photos, cards, magazines or album covers so you can create a personal display and change it as the mood takes you. Available in two different lengths, cut from a solid piece of tulipwood, oak or walnut, the Pic Ridge conceals all it’s fixings giving it the appearance of floating mid-wall.
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Forest Contacts_Placement
An intuitive light S’light has been created around the notion of ‘sleight of hand’ – simple motions that produce unexpected results. A switch-less design relies on motion to turn the light on and off, making it intuitive to use even in the dark. The light has been designed to look ‘wrong’ when in the off position, with the intention of making consumers want to interact with it in order to ‘put it right’.
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Sl’ight
I have worked with a number of industry collaborators, but it’s a bit hush–hush This can be a bit of a nuisance as I am restricted from showing you some projects due to Non-Disclosure Agreements. While I can’t show you any of the work I have produced working upon such projects, I can talk about what I learnt & how the projects have helped me develop.
USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN
PACKAGING DESIGN
PRODUCT DESIGN
Mars has a strong link with Design for Industry at Northumbria and has employed a number of course graduates.
Unilever asked us to work on an incredibly challenging brief along with the Masters of Design Innovation students.
Mamas & Papas approached the university and set us the brief of creating a potty, a baby swing or a changing mat.
During this project I was examining how people engage with the confectionary aisle and how it could be improved to become more exciting.
The project was for them a visualisation of their ongoing project Genesis. For me it was an incredibly exciting and dynamic brief, with an enormous amount of potential.
The brief asked us to focus closely on the company’s aesthetics and branding. This was an area that I was relatively inexperienced in up until this point.
The non-disclosure agreement for this project was the most restrictive I’ve ever signed. The project resulted in a presentation to Mars at their headquarters in Slough. The project was well received and gave me a great insight into userexperience design.
My project focused on creating a solution that would change the behaviour patterns of the users in order to provide a real benefit themselves, their local community and the global environment. I’m hugely proud of the work I did on this project.
I learnt a lot about how to follow a company’s design profile and created a product which would fit well into Mamas & Papas current product line.
T E R C E TOP S
A portable speaker system designed for Bowers and Wilkins In this project I created a speaker which splits from a compact and portable single unit into three separate parts, giving stereo sound while on the go. The speaker has one bass speaker, two mid-range speakers and two tweeters. It wirelessly connects to your music device, although it does also have an auxiliary socket and a 1/4 inch jack for jamming on the go.
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Bowers & Wilkins_Fragment
About Studo 104 Studio 104 is a student company, created in September 2012 by myself and a group of like-minded students at Northumbria University. We set out to further our design careers by promoting our design work and also to raise enough money to take us to London New Designers in summer 2014. Being part of this collective has been a hugely rewarding experience and the commitment to a common goal not only helped me develop as a designer but also develop my business skills.
A stool I produced and sold in order to raise money for our final show I was elected as Chairman of Studio 104 in April 2013 and made it my goal to organise the design, manufacture and retail of range of products. We produced a diverse range of wares from salvaged materials, ensuring that our costs were minimal and our products had the ‘crafted’ value we were aiming for. Each of us focused on creating one product and I produced a number of simple, geometric stools from offcuts of walnut and oak flooring. They were well received and quickly sold out.
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Studio 104_Wares
Major Project Today we buy, bin and bury more than ever before. Over-consumption has become the normal way of life for many of us in the world’s most developed nations. We aspire to own the latest and greatest, with the availability of products causing a lack of attachment to many of the objects in our daily lives. Pieces of furniture are often considered challenging to make, even by the skilled and experienced. My aim was to show individuals that they don’t need to be master-joiners in order to create highquality furniture, nor do they need to own the same furniture as everyone else.
A product that allows customers to assemble and customise furniture. The Assemble range consists of seven simple furniture pieces which can all be put together using nothing but a screwdriver. Intended for novice makers with little or no experience, the pieces have been designed to build customers’ understanding of making and confidence in their own abilities. The range comes flat-packed and is made from high-quality plywood with a Red Grandis hardwood frame and the pieces come untreated so the makers can put their own stamp on them, painting, waxing or oiling the piece to suit their home.
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Make with SOLE
Or fabricate their own The components used in the Assemble range can also be purchased individually to allow customers to easily construct high-quality, long-lasting, hardwood frames that they can use to produce their own bespoke pieces of furniture. The components are intended for those with some confidence in their own abilities who would like to develop their skills and deepen their knowledge of the making process. To inspire customers to work out for themselves how to make their piece, they come with no instructions.
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Make with SOLE
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Make with SOLE
But creating Isn’t all about making Creating something can be a challenge – but it also provides a sense of satisfaction, pride in a job well done, and a relationship with the finished object that is unique and personal. However, coming up with and developing an idea into a viable design is a serious challenge in itself, so I put together a guide to designing for those who are confident about their practical skills but less comfortable with the creative aspect.
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Make with SOLE
Thank you for taking the time to look through this portfolio. If you would like know more or see any references then please do contact me.
T:
07979
441
394
E: thetombecker@gmail.com
| T: 07979 441 394 | E: thetombecker@gmail.com |