DE5004 - Design: Atelier

The projects you undertake in this module will be answers to design questions posed in project briefs. The briefs present opportunities for you to develop and use theoretical and practical skills to design functionally useful products and furniture. Much of the module’s learning is through ‘doing’ the practice of design and engaging in the experience of ‘making’ functionally useful products/ furniture. The studio and workshops, therefore, play a crucial role in how you engage with the module content.

Each project that makes up this module is supported by group critiques and individual tutorials providing regular feedback on the crucial stages of the design process and encouraging the development of oral and visual communication skills.

Workshop inductions and demonstrations from technical and academic staff are followed by timetabled workshop sessions where your competence and skills are acquired over time via rehearsal and evidenced by the production of samples and test pieces. This element of the module is pass/fail, illustrating the crucial factor health and safety plays in both this module and in wider professional/ industrial practice.

Formal formative assessment upon completion of projects allows students to further engage in reflective practice and take responsibility for the evidencing of the module learning outcomes across multiple projects. Professional skills of presentation are developed by the requirement of the portfolio of module projects to be presented in a summatively assessed exhibition of projects at the end of semester 2.

This module is supported by studio and workshop based teaching. Tutor-led seminar groups, peer review sessions and regular formative assessment make up a multifaceted holistic teaching and learning strategy encouraging personal responsibility and ownership and the opportunity to apply feedback and improve competences in future work.

In addition to the timetabled slots with academic staff the important workshop aspects of the module are supported by dedicated technical staff based in the 3d workshops.

Tutor Guided Independent Learning/Student Independent Learning will help make constructive use of feedback received in the studio/workshop, and encourage the responsibility to direct your own learning needs. Such learning may include a range of activities such as; contextual reading; software skills and techniques; traditional media experimentation; photographic practice; practical skills-based learning.

The module utilises an “Extended” studio approach and is supported by a specific virtual learning environment (eLearning Portal) where you will find all the relevant documentation (briefs, module guides, assessment requirements etc.) The digital submission of interim works for tutorial guidance and formative assessment allows for expedient communication and the effective review of work whilst also utilising industry standard practices.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

On successful completion of this module, you should be able to:

Knowledge & Understanding:

? Demonstrate a progressed knowledge of functional and aesthetic principles through the completion of a working prototype.
? Apply detailed knowledge of materials, skills and processes in the realisation of a fully resolved prototype.
? Understand the relationship between creative and commercial requirements when designing furniture and products.

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:

? Produce and communicate a creative solution with distinguishable skill, application and presentation.

Personal Values Attributes

? Evaluate your own progress, exercise self-criticism and analysis in the resolution of a 3D design opportunity.
? Show a professional approach to your studies via your engagement with module staff and peer interactivity.

The module has 2 assessment tasks:

The first assessment task is Pass/Fail and is based on the attendance of a programme of inductions to the 3d design workshop, the submission of sample pieces and a workshop process document that evidences both an understanding of health and safety and the competencies built up during this carefully structured experience. Students will submit their workshop process diaries at the end of semester 1 for final review.

The second task is made up of a number of furniture/product design projects that are formatively assessed during the year following staged hand-ins. 1:1 Tutorial support and peer review during and upon completion of each of the module projects provides students with multiple opportunities to reflect on their own progress in the evidencing of the module learning outcomes. Students submit their portfolio of project work at the end of semester 2.

Both components address all the MLOs. Feedback is given via an end semester review and end of year tutorial.

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The module embraces the design writer Stephen Bayley’s assertion that ”…If you know how to make something, you understand everything about it. You appreciate its logic, its beauty and its meaning. And its value.”

This year long module is made up of design projects that extend your experience of designing and making products and furniture. It consists of a series of design briefs that present the creative opportunities and constraints necessary for you to develop both practical and theoretical design skills. The nature of the project briefs challenge you to extend your ability to sensitively address the requirements of defined markets and end users whilst beginning to articulate your own design philosophies and preoccupations. As the module progresses you are encouraged to take more ownership of project direction and become more confident in justifying your actions.

There is a bespoke workshop induction programme within the module that underpins the practical outcomes required of the projects. These sessions introduce you to materials, processes and safe working practices and crucially provide you with the opportunity to build competency in the workshop environment.