Evaluation unit 12 live brief
For my research I did
a full a4 sketchbook with some observational drawings included e.g. a bratz
doll and a captain America figurine, I prefer the drawing of the doll as it is
more detailed and it has colour though when colouring it in I found the hair to
be tricky as I didn’t really have the
right coloured pencils. For primary research we visited Shawlands primary
school, looked at our areas that we had to design for and had a mini tour of
the school as well. I managed to take a few pictures of my chosen areas and asked
about what the student’s favourite books were as well as some good information
on what calms the children that will be using the sensory room and what
triggers them. A lot of my sketchbook was primary research as I was a lot keener
to get to work on looking into the library wall. I wasn’t as enthusiastic about
the sensory room as I didn’t really know much of the autistic spectrum before I
started this project and it has been difficult trying to cater to several
different people whose triggers might have been something I had put into my
design unknowing of the fact it would affect them so badly. When developing my research
I looked at different artists and created mood boards for each of my chosen
areas which was the library wall and the sensory room. I also created a
customer board in which I dreamt up a person who was a student at Shawlands and
gave them a personality which I had to centre my project around.
For my designs I extracted
several things from my research for instance my space theme Idea for the
sensory room and some of the illustrations by artists I had done were on my
final designs like Quentin Blake he was quite a large part of this project as
he is also who I looked at for my artist research. When visiting the school I had
asked about some of the children’s favourite books as well as her own and I included
some of them in my research. I also asked about some of the triggers the
students who would use the sensory room had and she said that some were
sensitive to light, some were not, as well as that some were more sensitive to
smell and some weren’t so it was quite difficult trying to find even ground for
the designing of the sensory room. The client set specific constraints,
whatever we did it had to be age appropriate, the library wall couldn’t be
entirely blue and when designing the sensory room we couldn’t take out the
lights or the tent they had for the children, which overall I think was fair as
it wasn’t the specific constraints I had difficulty with it was designing a
room for children on the autistic spectrum.
In my sketchbook I experimented with textiles a
bit for the sensory room it had different textures on it and buttons it also
had a bell on it so I could say that was to look in to sounds as well, I also
looked at different types of fabric for if I wanted to design something
textiles based. My main issue was the costing sheets as I couldn’t find
magnetic paint that could be painted on to the wall it was wood and metal but I
found that the design could still work with normal paint. I think if I had to do
this project again without any constraints I would have painted a mural on the
wall a nice calming scene with a lot of detail as this project didn’t require
the designs to have a lot of detail in them. I also would’ve liked to create
something a bit more 3d like a tree for the library or a set of comfortable
chairs for the sensory room. For my artists I looked at Quentin Blake who
illustrated the Roald Dahl books and Jim Kay who illustrated the illustrated version
of harry potter out of the two I think Quentin Blake has influenced my design
more as his work is on one of my final designs Jim Kays work is very detailed
and to include on my final design I think would’ve cost too much as his work is
very detailed and a lot of various different paint would’ve been needed.
For my design sheets for the sensory room I decided it would
be better to do something simple and dark like most sensory rooms are designed.
For my first design I thought an underwater design would be quite good added
with the lights it would create a nice effect and some sensory rooms use fish tanks
in them as they help create a calming environment and are good for decoration
as well. For the design with a racetrack on it I thought it would give them something
to focus on, as a more interactive aspect of the design. I had intended to have
the tarmac painted with magnetic paint because you can buy little cars with
magnets on the bottom of them so they would be able to play, but the only magnetic
paint I could find was for wood and metal and the reviews said that it didn’t really
work that well anyway, but it still functions the design is still useful in
that way it just won’t let anything stick to it. The last idea I had was the
galaxy design I wasn’t sure how it would turn out but after I got the stars on
it blended nicely and it should feel nice and safe and I also think it would
make it feel more womblike.
