Concepts Workshop

15 / 10 / 13

OUGD405 / DESIGN PRODUCTION

CONCEPTS

STUDIO WORKSHOP.


CONCEPT
A plan our intension.

con•cept

1. a general notion or idea; conception.

2. an idea of something formed by mentally combining all its characteristics or particulars; a construct.

3. a directly conceived or intuited object of thought.

4. a theme or image, esp. as embodied in the design or execution of something.

SOURCE

A good example of a concept is that used by the IKEA company.

The instruction booklets that accompany every one of their products do not contain text like your average instruction book but has simple illustrative diagrams that show visually, step by step, how to put together your product. This is a very simple and straight forward way of explaining the construction of a product which is also reminiscent of the actual furniture they design and produce. I also breaks through language barriers to which the IKEA company has to consider as they supply its furniture all around the world.


Another very good example of a well thought out concept is from Graphic designer Wanda Priem and her own self promotional work.

'For this project I had to design an identity for me as a designer. The project included a name, logo, business card, letterhead, quotation form, fax form, data sheet, poster, and a promotional gift. For my surname is Priem, I have chosen the concept Prime and played with the different meanings of the word. My slogan is taken from the meaning of the word prime as an attribute: of best possible quality.

Also using with the concept of prime numbers, which are only numbers that can be evenly divisible only by itself and one. Throughout my project the non prime numbers are eliminated and only prime numbers are used. Trough this elimination, a pattern is formed, this pattern becomes a design element in my project.

The photographs also contribute to the concept. Through showing how prime numbers can only be divided through itself and one.'

SOURCE


GROUP TASK
We were put in groups at the beginning of the session.
Our Group: Myself, Amy, Shaun, Beth, Grace & Sophie.

We were asked to then pick an establishment type from one jar. 
We got: Hotel

We were then asked to pick three subjects from a 2nd jar.
We got: Book, Block, Test.

As a group we broke down each subject digging for things to do with or are some how related to the word. We did this by setting out spider diagrams and shouting out what first came to out minds as well as add ons that came from these initial thoughts.

We feel that the word 'test' has too much of a link to science and the process of experimenting and antagonising which does not seem to suitable for the theme or ethos of a hotel.

The word 'book' seemed to be quite vague and wasn't too easy to link to a hotel like establishment. There was the ideas of book themed rooms however this kind of thing has been done before.

This is a Themed hotel located in Las Vagas. 

 SOURCE

After coming up with all we could on the spider diagrams we decided to turn are attention to the Hotel side of the concept and what you would want or expect when staying at a Hotel.

With these pieces of information we could then try to relate and visualise ideas in how they could be linked and made in to a successful concept for a hotel. After a little deliberation we decided that the word 'Block' would be a good subject to work with.

Once we had decided on the word 'Block', we went back to the spider diagram and added more in-depth subjects that related to the once we already had. Through this process we took the word 'Block' regarding an area with in a city and pushed towards the subject of 'Block Party'.

'A block party or street party is a large public party in which many members of a single neighborhood congregate, either to observe an event of some importance or simply for mutual enjoyment.'
SOURCE


We started to think about how this subject could be related and used and a concept for a hotel. Beth raised the goo point in that Hotels usually make sure you check out early in the morning around 9 or 10 o'clock with their checkins being around 12 or 1. If you have been on a night out or party that has involved drinking and getting in in the early hours, having to pack up an get out of the hotel in the morning can be difficult.

Because of this issue, we came up with the ideas that the hotels checkins and outs are done later on in the day. Usually when you are going out, you don't set out to town until at least 11 at night. Considering this, also, we decided that check in times would be around 8 or 9 in the evening so clients could come in, get ready in the facility and maybe have a few pre drinks and snacks before the leave to go out. Check out would be around 7 or 8 the next evening. Through out the day after, there would be specialised facilities that would help the clients recover from the night before.

To come up with more ideas for this hotel we came up with another diagram that helped us define our concept and how we could apply this to a hotel facility.

This was very helpful in coming up and defining our concept and helped us get into the thought process of the hotel and the ethos we want to give off.



FURTHER THOUGHTS.
While adding to this diagram, Both Phil and Lorraine interjected into our developments and suggested us to look further into our concept and the details of it before we accept and go with the idea had.

It was pointed out that, having the audience and clientele being 'students & young professionals' is not really a specific target. You can be a student at any age. Because of this we decided to alter the age range from 18 to 35 year olds.
This categorisation is set around students that may want to travel together to experience other cities or visit friends at other universities in larger number. it can also be used for Hen, Stag or wedding parties that may want to use this facility as an event as well as accommodation. There are many other resins that people may want to use this hotel to.

Instead of just being specific to people going on a night out, why not just have a getaway for people that just want to relax and be lazy for a day?
At first we liked this idea, however after thinking about this concept we felt that it would just  come across as a spa hotel and this is already a very common thing. Spa hotels are usually quite expense to stay in and we would want to make the facility more accessible to people visiting leeds.


After deliberating together, we decided to carry on with our original concept of caring facilities after a night out, but make sue that we do it in an achievable and intriguing way.

The most Popular ideas to have with in our hotel were

- Check ins and outs later in the day.

- Interiors and Furiture evolving around comfort (Big beds, lots of cushions, soft/fluffy rugs and carpets, bean bags, Duvets, Blankets, etc)

- Mini Fridges plied with pints of water.

- fast food service.

- Morning after health smoothie & food.

- Oxygen bar.

- Spooning service.

beging able to hire someone to spoon with after a night out.

(Personally I preferred the idea of have cushions in the shape of a spoon or just having a large pillow that had an embroider spoon on it for a tounge in cheek representation of the act of spooning. I also think that this ida would be more acceptable and doable when it comes to a real and workable facility.)


- Jacuzzis and Hot tubs

- Private masseuse 

- Cinema rooms with unlimited film selection.

After coming up with the basic concept we want out hotel to have. I started to look at possible logos and Identities that could be used to represent and pre mote the hotel. At this point we were still deliberating what we should name our hotel.

I liked the the name idle to start with and the group on a whole also liked the name remedy.