Real World

Looking back at the work we produced and how we got to that point, it was obvious that some people put more in than others. Certain ideas were more developed, and some people didn’t term up to be part of group conversations; this sort of behaviour in group environments cause a lot of friction between members, and the design work can suffer because of it. Working as a group is one of my personal dislikes when it is forced upon me, like within this project, mainly due to the fact that they are randomly put together with people of better and worse performance than yourself along with unknown specialities or interests that could be useful within the project.

While I felt that this was an issue that plagued our team, particularly because of one team member, we were still able to create and pitch an idea to our client that was ambitious and was shown in a manner that allowed for the spaces we designed to come across as we had intended. There could have been a better development in the umbrella branding of the multiple spaces, with tasks being delegated in a manner that may have not been optimum, hence the branding becoming one of the weaker aspects of the pitch.

If this was to be worked on again, I believe the correct division of skill sets after talking about carefully so the finished product was stronger than what we showed in our presentation. Another issue that could be fixed would be having certain team members replaced by more useful ones, though this was something completely out of my control.

Entering the final week, a sense of urgency began to set in as it drew to the time of presenting our concepts to the client as a whole, and along with the deadline for handing in our dissertation there seemed to be quite a bit going on, and with a sudden post-it note in the form of an email reminding us that there was also a video pitch to make, there wasn’t much time to be sitting down. We brought our ideas to life through use of digital creation and manipulation to bring to life the spaces which we envisioned, allowing our clients to experience our concept as much as we were able to without creating the spaces themselves – if we had the opportunity I would have jumped at the chance to do that, it would have definitely been fun to get involved with creating a whole space in the university.

Before we knew it Wednesday had come to slap us around the face, and we were well on our way to being fully ready to present to our clients as the work piled into our keynote while we wrote the script alongside it. It’s a shame, but Amy was nowhere to be found at the time of our presentation and with no luck in contacting her, we rose to the stage without her. Before we came to the front to deliver our concept to the clients, we were lucky enough to have a short rehearsal with our tutor to get things sorted out, and those small improvements definitely helped to get our point across. It seemed the highlight to the clients was the space used within the stairwells, transforming them into places from across the world such as the rainforest we presented.

Coming together for the final project was the first time we were able to finally fabricate our space within the bazaar that would be viewed by the clients after the presentations. It was great to see our hard work put together into a set of final pieces that we could show to the client and get their responses, which seemed to be overwhelmingly positive as we explained to them the different spaces that would be provided as well as ways to expand the spaces across the university in both the Llandaff and Cyncoed campuses. After the clients and mentor disappeared in a puff of smoke, we explored each other’s work and complimented one another for what went well while we waited for the final verdict…and after what felt like a good hour they told us who the final winner was.

Now I’m not saying we should have won. But we should have won. Nonetheless, Seb and Kieran plus the empty space that should have been filled by the rest of their group was declared the winner with their innovative piece that would get people to realise the difficulties that arise for those who are less-abled, either physically or mentally. Now that sounds like I’m mean, but their piece was something that I could agree was worth the recognition as the winner, as nobody had tried anything that was similar or relatively close at all; everybody’s work was incredible in their own ways, bringing about the Healthy Universities aspirations to light within interactive pieces and I think that is something that we can all be proud of.