Research

My research has taken many forms – from visiting shops, to looking online at the variety of products in shops I couldn’t visit.

My Nan owns a design-led gift shop in Chorlton that I used to work in (named No. 68) – it sells everything from cards to jewellery, baby wear and kitchenware. I asked her what products sold best in her shop, and she gave me a few answers:

Cards are probably the biggest seller – we stock many different companies including Modern Toss and Petra Boase

A babywear brand called Pitter Patter

The Cubic range, which is kitchenware with a few different design ranges

And of course the famous Orla Kiely – we stock a lot of products by her.

Working in this shop for two years has given me a useful insight into the wide spectrum of design-led products, and which ones sell. Almost every product in this shop has an element of graphic design to it - I just need to figure out what products I could make/design, and which would sell in The Whitworth's shop.

I am from London, and for 6 or 7 years I lived near London Bridge station, so I was only a short walk from the river. We used to walk or dog down to the Design Museum every Saturday, so I am very familiar with the kind of things they have in their shop.

I also went to Barcelona over Christmas and visited an awesome shop called Vincon, which also sold everything imaginable, including every type of furniture! Almost everything I saw in Vincon excited me, not only because the products were amazingly designed, but the whole layout of the shop is as well.

I have had many ideas for products from the inspiration of these shops. However, one thing kept sticking in my mind - The Whitworth's mantra - 'playful, intelligent, personal.' The children's section in shops seems to be the most 'playful' aspect, and I think I want to design something for that audience. I thought of making an activity book, as it encompasses the other two words as well. It also means I can possibly incorporate some of my other ideas into the activities.

The most valuable research experience I’ve had is to actually talk to the staff at the Whitworth, about the current activities they have available for children already.  I have never made a piece of work with children as my target audience, but I want to do something different, something that excites me.

I was surprised to learn how many materials like this that children already have available to them at The Whitworth. My work would have to stand out, and also be sellable. 

One of the main influences for my idea is ‘Project Wild Thing’ – a film led movement to get more kids outside and reconnecting with nature. The film follows filmmaker David Bond, a father of two young children, who gives himself two months to brand and ‘sell’ nature as a product.

In the film, he meets up with a group called Good For Nothing – a big collective of top designers, creative and communicators. They come up with loads of interesting ideas of how to promote nature, through many different media – from Apps to raps, to ad campaigns.

I realised that my idea can link to the work of Keri Smith, author of ‘Wreck This Journal’ and ‘This Is Not A Book’, in which the reader is invited to interact with the book in different ways, based on what she has written on that page. In Wreck This Journal, an example would be ‘poke holes in this page using a pencil’, or ‘trace your hand’. She has done many different books, others include ‘The Pocket Scavenger’, ‘Finish This Book’, ‘Mess, the manual of accidents and mistakes’, and ‘The Guerilla Art Kit’. I really like the hand drawn nature of her illustrations, and might want to include some creative ideas of hers in my own book.

I don’t know exactly what processes I will use for my book yet – I will either print it with a laser printer, or screen print. It depends on the content, colours and size of it. I might also want to do my own illustrations in it, but I am not an illustrator so it would be interesting to see if I could put my own mark on it.

I want my activity book to get kids to think more about the gallery, park and nature itself once they’ve gone home. I like that I can include different materials and content within the book and I don’t need to stick to one theme. For instance, I could include a cut-out stencil and instructions for how to make a birdhouse. I could also include some seeds and instructions to make a small flower bed, so they can plant flowers themselves. This idea is a work in progress, but I would definitely like the book to include lots of activities to do with nature.