Artists! Help a design student.

[vaughany_boy]

Hey, I'm just starting my second year of A level studies in the UK. For those of you not familiar with the British education system that makes me 17, having left high school but not yet started university. College sort of level possibly?

Anyway, one of the subjects I am studying is Design and Technology: Product Design, which, as the name suggests, involves designing and making prototype products. We are encouraged to pick unusual design briefs which are involved with our own interests so my project for the next year is designing a workstation for a student artist who doesn't have the space or money for a dedicated studio in their home or otherwise. The idea is that it folds away to save some space and has storage for artists materials so that everything you need is there for you in one unit.

I need to have input from artists on how they like to work as part of my research. (and As Soon As Possible)

The sort of things I'm thinking about are: the layouts, angles, finishes, sizes of work surfaces, easels etc. what do you need to store? what little tricks do you personally like to do to set up where you work? What do you need where you work?

This would be more aimed at tradional media as opposed to digital, but absolutely any ideas or input anyone can give would be really very helpful to me.

(It would also be useful if you leave a first name for me to quote, but don't worry if you don't, I'll make you one up :wink: )

Thanks very much.



Ben.

[savii]

Hey Ben, nice idea. I did D&T: Product Design as well for which I worked on an arm for my Wacom tablet so that I could move it around while using it. Something you got to keep in mind is that not everyone works the same way, for example some people found it a really great idea while others thought it was a waste of time. In that sense your desk should be as easy to customize I think as possible. It should be able to tilt I guess much like a drawing board (I get the idea thats something you had in mind). Look at whats out on the market at the moment and what they can do and decide what it is that is gonna make your product better/new/innovative.

Personally I like to have all my art equipment (palettes, paint, brushes all next to me on my right hand side of my drawing board which is on a say 40 degree angle with a ledge to keep my canvas', (canvi?) on the board steadily. The problems I find is that I keep having to move my palette all over the place, cause I don't find it comfortable without it in my hand while I paint. I also stick a lot of reference over my canvas or around the edges. Maybe something like a cork board that I cant just pin things too. To be honest the best advice I can give you is to get out and shadow a working artist, look at the way he works, how he interacts with his equipment, take notes on the ergonomics (the way something is designed for interaction with human beings) of the easel/drawing board or whatever. Or you could even get a friend to start do a painting (preferably someone who knows how :) ) and takes notes, takes pictures, ask the person about the experience, get as mch research as possible.

Anyway I hope I was of some help. Good luck to you.
Mac.

[sleep]

essentials for me-

-enough space for a crt monitor
-place for a cpu
-wide surface area on desk
-compartments for keeping pencils n pens n stuff
just basic stuff really

like savii mentioned.. if you could make it so that there's a button or ability to tilt the desktop so that the far end lifts a bit and raises the drawing.. that would be real cool

[vaughany_boy]

Thanks for your replies, exactly the sort of thing I'm after.

I do actually study art aswell, which is the main reason I chose this area, so I have an idea of how I personally like to work and will probably also question my classmates and those in the year below, giving me a pool of about 20 - 30 more people.

I'd just like to get some responses from here because the chances are the people are more serious and experienced and the wider the variety of my research the better. As you say, people all work differently, so the more I ask the more I can try and please in the designs.

Keep them coming please! :bashful:

[vaughany_boy]

bump?