BA (Hons) Product Design
Fredrick James Owen
My journey as a product designer has driven me to become a detail orientated creative with a particular fascination with colour and materials embodied with layers of narrative. Following university, I intend to pursue this interest and seek experience in the field of material research and design.
A Material Exploration Project: Polynewton
The project aim is to explore how waste can be recycled into a raw material of the future, and to use material design as a conveyor of meaning, to help change the way society thinks about lateral waste streams. Using wastepaper cups, pulled straight from the bins of NTU's Newton and Arkwright buildings as well as waste coffee grounds sourced from Newton's cafes, combined with a natural binder dehydrated egg white, the 'new' material aims to make the university and the public more curious about the future of consumption. The name for the material, Polynewton, is derived from a number of meanings. 'Poly' refers to the biopolymer nature of the egg white content in the material. 'Newton' refers to the building where the paper cups and coffee grounds were sourced to use in the composite, while also referring to the 350,000 Newtons of force applied to the material pre-thermoset. Each Polynewton tile contains 4 or 5 wastepaper cups.
Collectiv One
The modular speaker is orientated towards the desire for self-expression. Users have the choice between 19 customisable parts, all with additional colour options. Some of these parts can be customised further: dials and sliders can be configured to control audio options such as volume, bass and treble. These parts can be enhanced if paired with an extension module like the additional tweeter panel, providing the user with a higher range of audio frequencies. Other extensions can be configured, for example the LCD panels, where users can choose what gets displayed - from graphics to information feedback.