The project is called 'Salvage Waste' 'Salvage Waste' project was about us going
down to Tasmania, and working with UTAS in using materials such as the cores from a rotational
plywood cutter and species of timber that are .... And then cut into short lengths that
aren't used very often.
It was about using those woods and studying the environment of Tasmania, and basically
bringing them into contemporary design and modern design today, and finding a use for
them.
In terms of amazing things in this project -- one of them was our Tassie trip.
It was probably the best way to start the uni in second year.
It just gave every single student this amazing excitement and inspiration to get into this
course and start designing and start making, and the Tassie trip was just unbelievable.
After a trip to Tasmania the furniture students found, well sourced, some cores.
And from there they designed their furniture piece.
They then came to us with a request for a textile, and from there we worked with their
theme and designed some textiles for them.
To keep their project as real as possible we also invited Industry Mentors.
So each group was assigned a mentor, and used them for as many times as they felt was needed.
And we also looked at the upholstery side of it and invited the textile students at
RMIT to be involved, and to look at this... the project from a sustainable angle, and
the outcome will then be seen at Furnitex, so that will be really exciting.
It's a wonderful opportunity to be able to collaborate with the Furniture students.
We can see their strengths and they can teach us how shapes work and we can apply knowledge
around fibres and fabrics.
We started off the project last year and it was basically a research project in the initial
stages about what indoor public furniture is about and what the market wants, and what
the demand is and how we can improve that.
And especially in terms of making it more sustainable.
So we ended up with eight budding designers.
Everyone's got their ideas and they're all putting them forward and it was really hard
to try and narrow it down, and you know people were people were feeling so strongly about
their ideas, so you know that was the next sort of step of what we had to learn.
Basically how to compromise and how to find the best in each idea, and take that forward.
Coming straight out of high school I was fairly shy, and the Associate Degree is not a sheltered
environment, but its vey one on one, and small class sizes and it's an extremely unique degree,
and I feel it developed me as a person let alone as a designer, where if I had gone straight
into a traditional uni course I really wouldn't have had that opportunity to develop and boost
my confidence and yeah turn out where I have today.
I think I am really enjoying designing, and moving on into other areas of design, and
hopefully if I manage to get into Industrial Design that that will expose me to lot more
areas of design and all the possibilities of becoming a designer maker or designing
for people or designing for a company or even teaching.
I'd love to come back to the Associate Degree one day and pass on the knowledge that I've
learned from it.