I did not have the time to put the research together back in Malaysia as I was busy everyday. So, I only put it together when I came back. With that said, I started researching for a sustainable restaurant and I stumbled across Azurmendi, the world’s most sustainable restaurant with their very own garden which they plant their own produce to serve to others. It was ahead of it’s time when it was built. I really loved the concept of the minimalistic vibes, incorporating lots of nature and what it has to offer as materials and as a food source.

When I finished the research, I started compiling it up and then moved onto the artist research. I researched 2 different companies because I wanted to see how diverse these companies could be in terms of their style and design. Their philosophies as an artist, as a designer and as a company are very different. One focuses on the minimalistic views of expanding themselves and the other keeps is a bit more subdued. It was interesting to see how they both worked and still produce a great outcome. It made me feel confident in myself. Although having different philosophies, the outcome is good. I guess it’s all about having passion in what you believe in. I only realised that. I thought there was only a certain way to do things. by doing this research, it broadened my horizons to different heights.

I did my primary research in Malaysia. It was hard getting away from my family as my mom usually plans what we are going to do that day despite the plans I made. It was also a time where I could luckily drive on my own with a friend. I then researched a bunch of restaurant-cafes around Kuala Lumpur online and called my friend over to accompany me to these areas.

I drove around to get to these areas. I took pictures. Stayed there for an hour each and ordered some food. To understand the area, I had to stay in that area. I looked around for materials used as well as the type of lights they used and the general space. I even talked about what was not sustainable. I went to 3 different places for research as I did not have much time. I did take a lot of pictures.

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There was one area I particularly liked. It was called Pokok. It was a glasshouse. As we know, glass traps the heat and Malaysia is hot. So, in order to reduce the usage of air conditioning and overall electricity, they installed a hose at the top so that the water will cool down the roof. I find this very smart. The usage of sustainable materials in there was also great. I want to be able to design something like that. They did not even use the lights on top as the day was really bright.

It was time to do the location research and site survey. I researched many locations, often staying there for 30 minutes each to get a feel of the location and study the behaviour of people around the area.

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Starting of with the Edinburgh Woollen Mill, we stayed outside for a bit to get a good feel of the place even though it was extremely cold. A lot of people seem to pass by the area as it connects to the city centre. The parking lot is not so far away from opposite ends of the street therefore there will be lots of people around the area. When we went inside, there were 2 floors which we deemed were too big for the actual restaurant-cafe.Next we went to Oliver Bonas which was next to the Edinburgh Woollen Mill which means the area was good. Earn took the measurements of the room while I took pictures. Didi was properly surveying the area. It was quite a good location which was good in size however, I did not like the staircase in the middle. It would not have been accessible to disabled people. Not only that, I didn’t like the size of the area. It felt very closed off.

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Joules was quite a good location in terms of the space it gave. It was tall, open and had lots of windows which gave off natural lighting. It didn’t feel suffocated at all. I liked this one and favourited it. It is also closer to city centre. Measurements and pictures were taken for a rough idea of how it would look like.Monsoon was too big. It had 2 floors but then again, I wasn’t a big fan of the staircase. It would look good design wise however, I wanted it to be inclusive for everyone.

Overall, we went to many different places but nothing clicked for me. I still felt like I could find somewhere better. While the team were at Cath Kids for a location research and site survey, I wandered around after I finished taking photos. I went next door to Hugo Boss. Hugo Boss is right in the city centre with Kings College directly behind it and the infamous Cambridge Market right in front. Not to mention, Grand Arcade, the shopping hub of Cambridge is literally 3 minutes away. There is a famous church beside it as well. Right next to the church, there are parking spaces for bikes which proves to be very convenient. I immediately fell in love with the location. I went inside and pretended to look at clothes whilst taking the measurements. I had to be really discreet because Hugo Boss is a luxury brand and they would not want people to do anything sneaky. I took some pictures and measured the area roughly. What I loved about this area is that it had 3 doors. It might be a little too much however, I liked it. It gives people their own right to choose and be free to explore.

The research done for this was to summarise what environmental organisations like Greenpeace, WWF do. I took nearly 2 weeks to do this because I was tired of doing sustainable research again. With this being my third time since Ex Dip Year 1, I had to do it all again. In a way I was procrastinating it because I did not want to do it. I read the environmental organisations websites thoroughly and summarised who they are as an organisation.

I did not enjoy doing this part at all because I feel like I already know what it is. I wanted to just write it down with what I know about these organisations however, I needed proof that I actually read it on the bibliography. I feel like this was what held me up throughout the whole project. The project needed some back up to it and I delivered it. Originally 3 pages for research, I felt like it wouldn’t be a summary otherwise so I condensed it to 1 page. It took me a while to figure out what worked and what didn’t in the sentences but I got there. On top of that, I wanted to make it look good so, I went o photoshop to edit my notes to make them look prettier to look at.

I understand that I am supposed to find meaning in this research and research it to the best of my abilities which I have. It is simply not an excuse for me to be this negative about it however, I wanted to do something different other than sustainability. I feel like after I do my concept research, I will do better and spark my interest.

We did the logo design and logo research but it took us so long to complete it. This is when the schedule of works is crucial to help me time plan. I took a few days planning this out as I want things to run smoothly. It was hard to grasp what I had to complete and do so listing it out was good for me as I have an overview of what I have to do.

With this done, the three of us, Didi, Earn and I had to do a client brief. The questions were prepared by us. We only picked relevant questions that related to out restaurant-cafe. Picking out the questions were easy however, asking people was hard. Not everyone was reluctant to do it. Some even thought of it as fun and just for laughs. I did appreciate the people who took it seriously with some good answers. We asked the people of Cambridge, including foreigners as we wanted their input on the city and thought of what it lacked compared to their country back at home. There were 2 iPads for them to answer. We did not want to waste paper and be sustainable as possible. After all, this whole project is about sustainability. We took a total of 3 days to do this as it was hard gathering willing people to partake in the survey. Eventually, we did it and we had to tally the results.

I used Google Forms to tally my votes as it was easier to enter the details and have it automatically have the data. I had to correct a few things on there as some of the data was not shown properly. With this, I made an overall client brief with what the people of Cambridge wanted.

10th December: With my teammates, I sat down with them to talk about the logo of our Interior Design firm. At first we just tried making up random names and tried wordplay but it didn’t work very well. It wasn’t until someone in our group played with our names that a name idea struck us.

LED is the name. With my name starting with L, E for Earn and D for Didi, it was the perfect name for us. We then decided to add more meaning to it. Therefore, we started searching up words that could further impact the logo. After searching up good adjectives, we decided to name it Leading Endurable Design (LED) while still have our initials on it. After this, we then tried designing the logo. It was not an easy task.

Because each individual was so different, it was hard finding a medium with all of us. Didi is an elegant person that likes to incorporate with floral designs. Earn likes the extravagance and luxury of things while still keeping it simple whereas I look into the prospect of minimalism. Taking the form of a leaf, we decided to add geometric shapes to the outside and fill it with the name. We all did not know how to design the name so, all 3 of us designed on our own. With Earn’s design, it was very fluid. Didi’s design was floral and my design was more straight. We all agreed that my design was the best as it fit with the geometric leaf. With that, we started developing the name. There was a few mishaps along the way with the design as at one point, it looked like the Swastika, the German symbol for the Nazis. Minimalistic words that were made geometric were more in favour than the regular swirls to show professionalism. We then decided to add leaves and branches on it to follow the rules of sustainability. We wanted the LED to be shown for what it stands for so we added the text on the right hand side at the bottom so that it looks like the shape of the leaf.

Overall, it was hard to do but it was worth it as the designs and words were full of meaning and pushes for sustainability which we have to design a sustainable restaurant-cafe.

6 November: I actually dislike drawing technical drawings because it restricts my movement and I have to be really careful but I had to do it in order for me to understand the walk in flow and the size of the furniture and the walking path.

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I started off with the floor plan on a tracing paper. I first drew the room too small as I measured it 7×7 but I had forgotten I had to calculate the area of each rectangle and triangle to fit the dimensions given. With that, I drew it again, this time making it bigger than before. When I finished it, I measured the area and I when it totalled up it was a bit too big so I had to recalculate it and adjust the sides of the pop up shop. It was a long journey but I made it in the end. Once, I was done with this, I realised that the walk-in flow was too narrow so I had to make some changes to furniture. Instead of using cages, I opted to use clothing racks as it still goes by Adidas’s simplistic and sleek style. Instead of making a middle ramp, I made a ramp for the whole picture area as it is more convenient that way. I also reduced the amount of chairs as well as reduced the mannequin tables from 2 to 1 due to lack of space which I feel makes it better because it is a tiny pop up shop. The rest is still the same.

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Next, I did the 2 perspective drawings. I did a rendered one point perspective drawing of the picture area. I didn’t add words to it because I felt like the logo and the neon waves I added says a lot by itself. It looks neat and clean which is what I like. I did not have much difficulty drawing the first perspective drawing because it was pretty simple. The second one gave me a headache because it was harder. I wanted to draw from the middle to the entrance/exit of the pop up. I even made a few mistakes with the lines and had to go over them with a correction fluid. I got it in the end.

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After the perspective drawing, I started my elevations which was quite confusing to me as I’ve never done it before. I opened YouTube and searched how to do it but it didn’t really help so I had to ask my peers for help and it really did help me. What I thought was hard turned out to be quite simple. However, I had difficulty adding the fine line pen to it because the ink would not come out. I suspect it is from the correction fluid that blocked the flow for the ink. I will take this into account and make sure it doesn’t happen in the future as it is a hindrance to my work.

Next, I put together my mood and presentation board with ease. It took me less than 30 minutes to complete as I’ve already done most of the work.

Overall, I feel like I have improved myself in terms of development from the sustainable apartment project as it has more thoughts and changes to it. I really liked that each one is very different from the others and I have considered and taken different aspects of the research. There are obviously some improvements I could make in terms of technical drawings. I will try to improve myself in them. My only justification is that I have never really done perspective drawings before but I will try to be better at it and replace confusion with certainty.

3 November: With the research down, it was finally time for me to decide which collaboration I’d like to design for. In the end, I chose Parley because designing for Yohji Yamamoto requires the work to be very minimalistic and promoting the collaboration is not a very minimalistic move. I also chose Parley because I want the message “Run For The Ocean” to be heard loudly and clearly. I did a little research of retail spaces that were memorable and then proceeded to design possible floor plans first.

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I drew many of them as I wanted to show that I could design as much as I researched. I would say it was very well thought out and had good annotations throughout. Ultimately, I chose the one on the upper most left corner because it looks quite distinctive from the rest. It also fits the theme of adidas without it being too over the top. Once I chose this, I developed it further by making a furniture layout but before I did that, I wanted to design the logo and the top part of the pop up shop because in Grand Arcade, John Lewis is the main attraction. I want to be able to take the attraction of John Lewis away and focus on the pop up shop. The top part of the pop up shop will also attract people from afar. Grand Arcade has 3 entrances/exit from where it is positioned. I want to be able to utilise the entrances/exits and make more people enter the pop up shop. I made a few layouts of the top design and deemed all of them to be unfinished however, I picked the one I thought looked the best to me and developed it further. I was very satisfied when I came to a conclusion with the final design. Once I did that, I picked out the colours for it.

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There were many colours I could have chosen but I wanted it to be in theme with the collaboration. I also wanted Parley to feel included in this pop up and not be overshadowed by Adidas. I wanted Parley to be Adidas’s equal hence I created a balance in the end where the left side is the original logo of Adidas and the mirrored version of the logo would be Parley. I gave it that grainy texture to symbolise cork because cork is light and very sustainable. In this case, it is suitable to use cork as Parley is fighting against pollution. Once I finished designing for top half, it was time for the sketchy furniture plans.

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I made 3 sketchy floor plans with furniture in them. At first, I thought I would be done with the first sketchy floor plan and did not want to improve on it because I really liked it like that however, I found that my brain is constantly changing so each floor plan is quite different from the other as new ideas come into my head. Once I was done with this, it was time for 3D freehand sketches.

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I quite enjoyed drawing the sketches as they were quite therapeutic. It allowed my creativity to further flow through the different types of furniture that can be seen at any Adidas retail stores. I freehanded it, barely using any rulers. It took me quite a short time to draw them. I explained even the smallest details in the sketchbook like why I chose the furniture. Once I was done with this, it was time to move on to the technical drawings which I dislike.

Overall, I would say the ideas kept flowing and coming even when I least expect it. I have to thank the research that I did because without it, I probably would have lesser ideas and developments: my sketches would look the same and I don’t want that to happen. I hope the progress develops further into the project.

10 October: Before I started designing the pop-up shop for Adidas, I first had to get to know my client.

I started off with the client brief. I really wanted to design a pop up shop for adidas because I really love their brand and I would like to represent them in a design which I think I can pull off. However, I still need to show the research and get to know their background history. I started off with the logo designs for adidas and talked a bit about the meaning behind them. As I unraveled the story of the logos, I happened to look beyond the start of the company. It turns out, Adidas came about when Adi had a falling out with his brother, who ran Puma. I found that very interesting and continued on to the future of the brand. They then created the Trefoil which is a very iconic logo for Adidas as it now features classical, timeless products. The Three Bars, the latest logo features a more futuristic yet sleek look to it. I was always confused by The Trefoil and The Three Bars as I questioned why there were 2 logos of the same brand. Through this research, I now know the difference and will know how to apply this to my design in the future. Once I was done with the history of Adidas, I then ventured into what Adidas hopes to achieve in the future. With this, I looked into their business plan. I wasn’t surprised when I saw that they wanted to reduce their carbon footprint (water, energy, pollution) because of their partnership with Parley (an organisation dedicated to helping clean up the ocean plastic). As a company that moves forward with forward thinking, they want athletes to push boundaries with the products they create through innovation.

With the background information I have on Adidas, I then proceeded to check out their line of products to see what kind of event I should design for the pop up by looking at their sales and products. I took everything into careful consideration and was stuck at a crossroad between designing a pop up for the collaboration between Yohji Yamamoto and Parley. I came to a conclusion in the end, that I will decide right after the location research which I did.

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30th October: I went to two different locations: Grand Arcade and The Grafton to check out the ambience of the space. I concluded that I liked Grand Arcade better because it is right in the heart of the city centre. That means, it is always bustling with people as there are punting activities, shops and popular landmarks located near the shopping mall. The reason why I did not choose Grafton is because not many people go inside the mall unless they want to go to they gym or the cinema. There are more shops and things to see outside of the Grafton which people enjoy more. The pop up shop will be located in front of John Lewis (a retail space for branded things to be featured in). Not only that, Starbucks and Costa Coffee is right next to the pop up which can bring people’s attention when they are just having their drink. I took pictures of the space using my Canon DSLR camera. I even measured the width and height of the location using my feet as I counted how many steps it took to get the whole dimension.

Next, I needed to know the elements of the pop up shop before designing so I did a bit of research based on that. I learnt that pop up shops are very distinctive and can be engraved into people’s minds as they think it is memorable. I included a few examples where I analysed some of them myself.

Overall, I liked what I did with the research however, I felt that I took too long doing my research when I could have just spent one week doing it. I ended up taking 2 whole weeks for research when I know that development and ideas are more important however, development and ideas are derived from research so I will just have to make due and grind harder for the developmental process.