I-phone game.

Part of my design submission for a Russian games designer, he was working on an impressive tank defence game and wanted logos, splash screens, loading screens etc.

This was a moody tank commanders helmet I drew with a graphics tablet. 

IRON-HERO was the title taken by the designer and so signing this on the helmet

gave it a personal touch along with other details such as the kill score marks etched above the right goggle.

Ref image

Office space, Norwich. visual 4 - Plan and section

Lobby space - office design - how can touch/texture aid stress relief? experimental material finishes and fingerprint ceiling.

Sketchup model for 3ds max export

Office space, Norwich. visual 2

Office space, Norwich visual 1

Tax Dep. inspired by the chalk mines below. Tin veins in the chalk
resemble concrete incredibly well, the light fittings elude at this
vein too. The booths follow the shape of the cliffs
(also kiln formed glass is used to create the
illusion of water). Even the shelving resembles a seam.

RISK - bar/restaurant logo design

Whilst designing my portfolio, I enjoy 'branding' each page,

this new logo for the scheme gives me a raw style and colour/

texture to follow through into the layout.

Logo in-situ

D&AD entry - spacial design for Holiday inn

 Part of the animated design proposal for a redesign of the holiday inn 

check-in experience. The problem of working on an artificial screen before bed + 

the problem of jet lag could be solved with a 'natural light bar' emitting a dose

of natural light to help reset the body clock and keep people from using laptops

in bed (which aids in solving the problem of erratic Melatonin levels).

Sketchup import to 3dsMAX

 Added walls to help define the angle needed to match up with

the photo of a holiday inn lobby.

Final render with a little photoshop magic and hand drawing to

give an idea of the 'Light Bar' in-situ.

CONCEPT - PwC (Price waterhouse cooper) office design (BDP brief)

 Initial design concepts for Pwc's office space in Norwich

They desire a 'regional concept' with an idea that can be manipulated

and rolled out too various other office spaces, basically a flagship office.

An aspect of helping the community should also be considered.

The regional concept progresses from the chalk and tin mines upon

which Norwich was then built. The mines remain unmapped as the city was

not foreseen and thus the area is prone to sink holes. A famous image can be

seen of a bus sinking into one of these holes, this was used in Cadbury's advertisement 

"nothing fills a hole like a double decker"

The tin and chalk forms fantastic fluid shapes and seams that can be used to

design aspects such as walls, layout and furniture (seen below) ideas for implementing the 

kilns with rotating table arms (based on the plans/sections of the mining style can be seen ABOVE.

In terms of designing for the community I looked into previous pursuits of the company,

they have done work getting the homeless trained up in cooking and then back into 

work through their experience in the financial field. 

One of the favoured aspects from the previous office space was the kitchen which was seen as a social 'hub' for the staff. The concept of smell and taste triggered an idea; have deaf people manning the

kitchen. The office will be based around this idea of senses (sound, touch, smell, taste, sight) 

smell and taste will be covered with the kitchen itself... the others need to be linked with the mining concept somehow.

Touchpoints of different textured rock from the local area (chalk, tin, pebbles from the beach) will be

embedded in the tables, walls and seating areas.

SOUND - it would be fantastic for the deaf to be able to understand sound interaction in the space visually, thus the idea of acoustic pyramids ABOVE. There will be simple hydraulics controlling the hight of these canopies, changing the acoustics of an area based on how loud it is. This helps the deaf understand the sound whilst improving the ambience for office staff too!

Experimenting with the idea of light and dark spaces, this follows the cave concept directly. Miners had difficulty adjusting to light contrast when exiting a cave. Dark was associated with work and light with freedom and leisure - this concept will be inverted by having the lobby area low and dark and office workspaces light. This gives people the sensation and association that work is linked with light and thus work with leisure. 

Initial presentation boards

Initial presentation boards for the new Holiday Inn check-in experience and lobby concept. The boards should speak for themselves so i'll keep this short.

Clients - Holiday Inn & D&AD

Audience - The individual business traveler

Problem - Empty lobby spaces and people working in their rooms before bed, creating problems with eyes and dopamine levels.

Solution -

Work in progress.....

My current brief with Holiday Inn to redesign a conceptual lobby space and check-in experience. An audience and problem must be targeted and a clear solution produced and presented digitally. This is a competition brief with D&AD with the prestigious yellow pencil award.

Audience - The individual, a business traveler

Problem - spending an hour in the space I recorded that the vast majority of people entering the space were business orientated and many were foreign travelers on business trips, the first problem that I noticed was that as soon as somebody enters the space everybody else (either in the seating area or restaurant) could see the person entering. This created an awkward and judgmental atmosphere, thus nearly on every occasion the customer felt inclined to go straight to his/her room and work alone.

Solution - My solution is to create a new branch to the company called 'HOP' - this targets the travel side of the audience offering solutions such as being able to buy tickets, plan journeys and have information on various travel links and local interests.

The customer will also be offered an office atmosphere, but somewhere they can work alone with all of the services required. They will often have spent a day in the office and a similar environment will be the last thing they want to see, this space will be fun and quirky... a kind of reward for working out of office hours.

The initial concept for the Lobby, because there are 1200 lobbys

of all shapes and sizes I will be designing each idea separately,

a sort of installation that can be slotted into the specifications of each 

building. Firstly the individual booths allowing people the freedom to 

work without going to their rooms, at this stage the shape is undecided, 

maybe a droplet or cocoon? You will 'board' them from bridges based around

the way you board a plane. The floor will be dropped to make space for

cloud installation (inspired by the ceiling of the EBAY office, next pic).

   

Looking at the plane itself and how different parts function allowed me to experiment

with the form/shape. The final outcome of this was having the rotary blades from within

an engine twisted in the same way as the center of the blade is decorated. This twisting effect

forms around the spherical booth.

A refinement of the previous idea, the blades created voids that took away the privacy aspect

of the space, one of these voids will create an abstracted doorway whereas the others will be

filled with a patchwork of rubber and leather. This idea came across from what bussinessmen/women

carry, such as wallets and breefcases. The rubber will be from the shoes as in any travel scenario

walking is still required... this will make each space bespoke (individual) and give a relate-able scent.

Zira Island

Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner of BIG, Copenhagen :

  What we propose for Zira Zero Island is an architectural landscape based on the natural landscape of Azerbaijan. This new architecture not only recreates the iconic silhouettes of the seven peaks, but more importantly creates an autonomous ecosystem where the flow of air, water, heat and energy are channeled in almost natural ways. A mountain creates biotopes and eco-niches, it channels water and stores heat, it provides viewpoints and valleys, access and shelter. The Seven Peaks of Azerbaijan are not only metaphors, but actual living models of the mountainous ecosystems of Azerbaijan.


  Each of the Seven Peaks house a residential development derived from the geometry of a famous mountain in Azerbaijan. Individually each mountain becomes a principle for mixing private and public functions. Together the mountains form an organic skyline merging with the natural topography of the island. A dense vibrant urban community connected to a series of private resort villages by a central public valley and surrounding beaches. A continuous public trekking path connects the mountains and invites visitors to scale the top of all seven peaks. In addition to the Seven Peaks the Master Plan also includes 300 private villas that take advantage of their setting with panoramic views out over the Caspian Sea.

What is really impressive about this scheme is not the aesthetics, or even the architectural design of these structures, it is the concept behind it all. Without a solid conceptual base for design ideas can go off at a tangent and veer away from the true intended spirit of the project. This project has mountains at its roots, everything from structure and form, to an ecosystem of renewables. A very well presented animation, the renders and flythroughs provide the wow-factor but the graphic simplicity of the informant sections shows complex ideas clearly. Please let this be built!

Final Boards for presentation/pitch