Tips on work samples product design
“Lev i arbetsproverna”
"Even though it didn't feel that way at the time, I realized that everything I had done before Beckmans has had an impact on me now sitting here at formprogrammet," says Lovisa, who took the road via Öland Folk High School, a turn at HDK and Beckmans Kvällskola before she came in last year.
It was the second time I applied Product design, the first time I was 1st reserve but still did not get in. Instead, I got into HDK in Gothenburg but felt that it did not suit me with the relatively large classes there.
Lovisa chose to drop out and instead attend Beckmans Kvällsskola for a year. During the day, she worked in a salad bar.
"The work test assignments were constantly squalling in the back of my head when I was working in the salad bar and I tried to take advantage of my chores there for inspiration, for example, I studied patterns that formed when I was ringing dressing," he said. So one tip is to really "live in the work samples", to have them with you in the tank and constantly take notes, draw in the sketchbook, tear out a picture from a newspaper and paste there, etc," she says.
Kourosh has in turn gone two years at Nyckelviken before Beckmans, and a semester at a school in Oslo with a focus on product design.
'But I felt that school didn't suit me because it was pure product design and I lacked artistic elements.
Find problem solutions in your data
Both liked last year's work test assignments and believe that they also gave a good picture of the education at Beckmans. One of the tasks was about the animals that live their lives in parallel with the people of the world's big cities. The task was to create a home for this animal and both Loviisa and Kourosh tried to find problem solutions in the task. Lovisa chose the endangered cod in order to both create a home for the fish and inform people about the situation of the threatened cod. Kourosh, in turn, chose the disliked pigeon to both create a settlement and make it more popular.
Another task was to choose a company in health, exercise or outdoor activities and create a product for their range. Lovisa thought again that she wanted to solve a problem related to the task and since it is not uncommon for adults not to be able to swim, she created a flexible floating pad for adults. The cushion is discreetly designed with parts that can be removed as the person becomes more and more safe in the water. Kourosh in turn chose Apoteket as his company and the highly gender-coded razor as a product.
"While I was doing the work tests, I studied gender studies at Stockholm University and I used a lot of what I learned in that course when I solved the task," says Kourosh, who also recommends going to a library to seek information.
"I highly recommend going to a library and borrowing books on the subject of your choice," he said. At the library you will always find other books on related topics that also provide inspiration. If you google, searching just becomes more limited and you always have to fact-check everything," Kourosh says.
