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I am writing this post to let people know I received a Dundee Graduate Skills Award!

The Dundee Graduate Skills Award is a fairly new initiative from the university that aims to allow its students to gain the skills needed to be employable. In order to receive the award you have to complete 3 sections of the award, and have to be skills completed out with university for instance being apart of a society, a class rep or even your weekend job.More information for the award can be found at: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/careers/skillsaward/

My three sections were:

1)  Professional Attitudes & Commercial Awareness

2)  Analysing & Problem Solving

3) Communication & Literacy

My skills were mainly through opportunities I had from the university and the staff within my department and for that I would like to thank them!

I am also very pleased with the feedback I received from my application:

“Your successful application was highly regarded by Careers Service staff “ – Graham Nicholson
Deputy Director of Student Operations and Director of the Careers Service

I would like to encourage my fellow course mates and everyone studying at Dundee university to be involved with the Skills award! I found the process rather straightforward and learnt some new skills on the way for instance peer assessing and understanding more about what employers are looking for and most importantly it is a great feeling to be recognised for the work you have put in!

As you can see from my previous post WANTED I am still looking for employability and hope the skills award will work in my favour!

To gather some background research into allotments around Dundee I took my camera up to the Law hill and took photographs of the allotments:

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At this meeting on 17th February we started go through our idea.

From the previous meeting we were all given a tasks to start primary research. I was asked to research what was already out there like our proposal, Kirsty was contacting the allotment group at the Botanic’s, Vicky was speaking to an independent salad bar in Dundee town centre and Abbie was asked to talk to her father about his allotment.

From the notes gathered on the 17th we decide to think about fresh local produce from allotments in the area and contact people that we knew who owned allotments.

Questions were raised such as:

Do allotment owners care about their surplus?

What would we offer as a company?

What type of demand would be put on the company to distribute to a buisness for example?

We decided to look on the internet to see what was out there already. Here is a mind map I made that includes all the websites I researched that were focused on giving back to the community, surplus laws and similar organisations.

 

In this meeting we wanted to think about our idea in more detail. Due to our company selling surplus crops from allotments Abbie came up with the quirky, self-explanatory name of  ‘Allotleft’ . Having read a governemnt journal it became clear that as a company we could sell surplus crops but it would be illegal for the allotment owners to receive money for their crops. So to target this we decided it would be fitting to give the allotment club the money back as a charitable donation. Allotleft would be a non-profit organisation that would be have strong links with the local community to survive.

As a group we thought about how we would distribute the crops to the local communities- mainly through farmers markets. We also had discussions about advertising, current supermarket prices on fruit and veg and also what local events were up and coming surrounding selling local produce. Kirsty knew of a few organisations and named one in particular that took place the week after this meeting at The Bridge on the Perth Road. Kirsty and Leanne attended the event and spoke to the volunteers about their produce and about our project.

Here are my rough notes from the meeting:

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As a group we felt that we would hold off blogging until our presentation was over, we wanted keep our idea close to our chests!

Sketchbook picture: Gary Gourley sketchbook

At this meeting which took place 10th February 2011 (pictured above) it was the first time we had full attendance, in previous meetings we had talked about some of business ideas and elaborated on them. Having made a post consumer profile poster we had a rough idea about what area we would like to tackle. A big brainstorming session took place and some crazy ideas were thought up such as a horse that toured Scotland picking up people’s left overs.

Some initial ideas thought up were:

Waste not want not!
A service that took discarded waste from retailers and distributed it to homeless organisations such as Shelter and Salvation Army. However we were conscious of the ethical concerns associated with waste food -is it safe to eat? Would retailers agree?

Interactive up-cycling clothing store
A website that would give advice and inspiration to bland wardrobes. The website would allow you to upload photographs of your clothing that was past its sell-by-date and use the power of social networking to bring it back to life.. i.e. members would comment of how to customise/ jazz the item up a bit to prolong its life. This would not end at clothing other suggestions included taking a battered pair of old jeans and creating an alternative seat cover. The website would have close links to craft sites such as etsy and Not On The High Street

Energy Saving

This idea was some kind of measuring indicator on the side of your kettle that would tell you the correct about to pour into your kettle. This idea came from the notion that a post-consumer does not like wasting water and energy and could be used in a variety of tasks throughout the kitchen for example when filling a pan full of water.

Next Stage

We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each. As a group we all agreed that the waste idea was the area we wanted to look into most. This was the point that Leanne can up with the idea of using surplus allotment waste and selling it to the community. Brilliant.

We really liked this idea and decided to go away and research into surplus crops, allotments, local farmers markets and think up a name.

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On another note as I am back tracking.. it was also on this day that a group of design/non-design students including myself took part in the ART societies Valentines Craft night which was also a charity night for the club. We had a free reign of the supplies available and had fun making things!

Here are some pictures below:

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Apologies for being so slow at uploading these, thought about writing a big ramble but have decided to spare you the bore and opt for  a sideshow of my prototypes leading to my final design from last semester. Enjoy!

This semesters product design module is based on the D&AD brief for their student awards . There were 4 briefs to choose from. I picked the Michelin brief which reads…

“Create a unique product for MICHELIN that will provide real life assistance to high risk motorists in a roadside emergency situation.

This product should be aimed primarily at a ‘high risk’ group such as the elderly, the disabled or a family with children in an emergency situation. As a secondary audience it may be suitable for the wider motoring public.”

The first week involved gathering research via surveys, phone calls and internet sites and then in week two was idea generation week including the standard 100 ideas:

I did not feel my 100 ideas were very good considering the amount of time I spent looking up roadside procedures. I could tell anyone advice on what to do when they breakdown as this is pretty standard information but trying to think up a product that I will have to make was pretty tough.

Here are my ideas via a lengthy PDF:

100ideas

So now I am at the end of week 3 having spent the week struggling with what idea to go forward with. I d have a chosen idea but I am very quickly going off it. I have been sketching and researching how my product could be made/ used but feel slightly deflated with what I am achieving. My idea which I will write about soon appeared on google when I search for it.EEEK!  I just hope I can go with it :S putting my own stance on it!

My idea…

My idea is primarily aimed at a family and is effectively a large illuminate umbrella with lights inside for extra visibility and a seat for kids to sit down. Here are some quick sketches of my idea explained more clearly. I would really appreciate any feedback, if you hate it tell me, I need opinions! …

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