Page 45 - Tristan Kwong

Industrial Design
Reflection Project booklet

Year Overview
I believe the year overall was an interesting one, it came with many abstract difficulties due to the time we were studying in but it was most definitely an experience. Personally
I found my year to be eye opening as I feel proud of the work that Ive output, although I do think I could have invested more time and energy into certain projects/ areas in

order to push myself and see how much more I could improve, especially in areas of interest.
Although I had some experience in doing similar projects in the past I found these current ones to be very engaging and filled with challenging aspects. In 3rd year research is
of utmost importance and your workflow through each project conveys it and I feel that the research element was the biggest hurdle for me. I think research is dependent on
how you find, view and link the information you come across and the depth you dive into it and as designers we are often very visual people which can make conveying
research effectively difficult. This is something that I feel the need to work on as I've learned that good design is based upon a solid foundation of research and without it you
may begin to feel somewhat lost during specific phases of a project which is quite unproductive and as a result can make your perspective become very linear.
In essence I think that 3rd year sets out to show you the benefits of how important effective research is and I think it does a great job at doing so.

Positives
In terms of positives throughout the year, I've learned a lot in regards to design skills and how each of them come together to form one cohesive end result. Each phase of the
design process is equally valuable in relation to your workflow and final product outcome.
Some of the biggest learning points were related to using programs such as Illustrator and especially Keyshot. Keyshot was insightful as it gave me a taste of how my products
could go from a very abstract concept/ idea to a fully formed rendered product and it was always an extremely positive moment seeing your hard work come to light. It helped
convey the ideas that were envisioned and how it could look/ find its place in the real world which is something throughout the earlier years of the course you dont see often in
your own work as its focused primarily on the basics and sketching.

Covid-19 and its Impact
Covid had a huge impact on the learning experience due to the shift of working in college to remotely working from home. It was a difficult transition to make especially from a
design perspective as I feel that although you can improve a lot through your own self teaching and investment, it is difficult to beat having guidance from lecturers as their
insights are always helpful especialy when you're stuck. The lack of a physical design environment was stressful at times due to the nature of design itself but working from
home was also insightful as it helped showed what one can do by themselves, which may exceed ones own expectations.
I thought the online learning platform was interesting in a sense that it could have its benefits if used correctly but I found it difficult to engage in classes as it didn't feel like I
was in a class at all. They were primarily filled with lecturers presenting and us as students just listening with minimum engagement which made the classes feel somewhat
pointless at times. With that being said I found the one on one meetings to be very helpful during this time even if it was only 15 minutes it was always helpful.
Overall Covid had a very detrimental role this year and although difficult it was not impossible to output decent level work if you put your mind to it.

Conclusion
In conclusion I found the year to be eventful and have gained a lot of experience and learned new skills that will be helpful in progressing through my career as a designer and
my focus for next year will be taking such skills and pushing myself to see how far I can take myself.

41. Reflection