Amy Carter Interior Design
Day 1 23rd April 2018
During the morning I was firstly given a brief introduction to the Penketh Group by being shown around the office space I will be working in for the week, being introduced to the team and I was also told a bit about what the team do here and the type of work they do. I was then set up on a computer and quickly shown the main computer systems that the group use which is AutoCAD, SketchUp and Photoshop which I have already use quite a lot before which meant I didn't need any further training on these software systems. After this I was then given a quick mini task to start myself off with. This task was for a live job that the team have just received, and for this task I was given a set of AutoCAD floor plans for the clients offices as they want one of the meeting rooms to be reconfigured to see if it is possible to fit 24 plus people seated in the meeting room with enough room for a presentation board at the front of the room. For this I simply had to drop in an AutoCAD block of a chair into the room and see how many I could fit into the room; taking into consideration the regulations for a main walkway, how far apart chairs should be and place as many chairs as I could into the room working with these requirements. The first task I was given was rather simple and although I was happy to help another member of the team I also felt that it was a slight waste of my time considering I am only here for a week as it wasn't anything that was challenging or new to me, I really hope that the rest of the work they give throughout the week is more exciting and challenging.
Once I had finished this I was then given my own project to work on which required kitting out an office space and multiple other rooms within the building with furniture from either NoughtOne or SixteenThree as these are the two main providers that the Penketh Group use. To make the job a slight bit more challenging I was also given a set of requirements for each room to make designing the layout of the offices a bit more challenging. I felt much happier and more excited for the week ahead when I received this project as it seems like it will be a bit more of challenge and that I will be able to be a little bit more creative with what I do while here.
Day 2 24th April 2018
During the morning I was given one task that needed doing to help one of the team members. Firstly, I had to draw up the floor plans based off of the hand drawings and dimensions I was given in AutoCAD. For this particular room the client already has a reception desk, parts desk and two working desks. However, the layout and size of the room struggles to accommodate the furniture that is the the room at the moment, therefore I had to come up with various options to show the client of how they could still have a reception desk, parts desk and two working desks in the space they had but with more room to move between these pieces of furniture. The clients also had another room which they wanted to see various options for but in this room they wanted a storage unit and if possible either two normal 1600x800 desk or one 1600x800 desk and an 'L' shaped desk. I rather enjoyed doing this task as the requirements of what the client wanted coupled with the size of the room did cause some difficulties and complications but I enjoyed having to work around these problems and figure out how to get what the client wanted in the room whilst also meeting certain building regulations.
After I had finish creating these different options of the office layout for the client these were then sent off to the client for them to look over, discuss and approve which design they would like to go or for them to inform use of any other changes they may want to do now that they have seen the revised plans. For the rest of the day I continued to work on my individual project by kitting out more of the rooms with pieces of furniture I liked and that I felt was fit for the purpose of the room.
Day 3 25th April 2018
During the morning I was give another live job which consisted of 5 rooms in one office building. Firstly, I drew up the rooms in AutoCAD based off of the dimensions I was given and then I looked at the new plans that I had been drawn up for the space and the new designs that one of the team members had designed. Therefore, based off of the new revised plans I had to kit out the rooms I had just drawn up in AutoCAD by adding in furniture to accommodate the use of the space and the needs of the users. Today was a bit of a slow day as I wasn't really given much work to do so at times I felt a bit bored and like my time their wasn't being put to much use as so far I had only really received very basic activities to work on.
After I had finished this job I then continued to work on my own project and finished kitting out the rooms with the furniture that fits the space, that I liked, and that met the requirements given for each room.
Day 4 26th April 2018
Now that I have finished kitting out my office space for my own project I will be spending the rest of the creating a powerpoint looking further into the design of every room by doing a slide for each room that shows people how to understand the space I have designed by looking at how it was intended to be used by the users, different areas that are included in each room and finally how the room should make the users feel. Then I went a step further and also created inspiration boards for each room to show what inspired my design for each room and to give a sense of how it would look. I really enjoyed my project as a whole and had fun having free rein as to what went into the spaces while still complying the requirements I was set for each space as I feel like this was a good use of my time, allowed me to produce a good and professional looking piece of work, as well as teaching how to comprise with design sometimes or how to rework a space so that I am still able to design it the way I originally envisage.
To view my mood board presentation, please click on the link to the right.
Day 5 27th April 2018
Today was my final day so to really combine all my work together for my independent project I created a set of mood boards for each room that focuses on the materials and colour scheme I want for each room. I did this to look further into the design processes and to also experience how the Penketh Group display their ideas for jobs that they work on for a client. For each mood board I put an A4 print out of the floor plans of the room I would be focusing on, on the mood board and then select the fabrics I want from the stock of fabric swatches available to me and placed them next to the plans. To then demonstrate which fabric would be for which piece or pieces of furniture I then labelled the fabrics with a number and numbered the furniture that would be the that particular fabric that number. I really enjoyed creating these mood boards as not only did it allow me to work away from my desk, I was able to do a different style of work that what I had done for the rest of the week, as well as being able to tie of whole project together.
However, whilst here I did find some of the tasks I was given a little boring and tedious and a slight waste of my time considering I was only here for a short amount of time. I felt I could of been given some more challenging and exciting tasks then I was given as the majority of the work I did was relatively simple so I also fell as though I haven't really learnt anything new whilst here which is a shame. Other than this I did really enjoy my independent project as this did allow me to be creative and design something from scratch, as well as teach me about how to sometimes comprise design but not so much that affects the overall aesthetic and flow of the place I was designing.