My Design Career

Writing a blog is something that I am not too familiar with. I am taking this as a learning experience in which I hope to find useful in keeping record of designs and projects, as well as developing new ideas. I guess in a way it is similar to my experience in the Industrial Design course so far. I have always been interested in the design field but it has not necessarily been focused on Industrial Design. In high school, I attended work placement at a company which specialised in Landscape Architecture. From this experience, I determined that Landscape Architecture was most likely the design field I wanted to study. I tried my best to plan the subject selection for Year 11 and 12 based on this decision but a limited range of offered subjects somewhat made my decision for me. Visual Arts, Industrial Technology and Engineering Studies were the best combination suited to a design career such as an Industrial Designer or Landscape Architect. Some aspects of these subjects have been relevant in the study of Industrial Design but I unfortunately missed out on some skills which others developed through Design and Technology.



As the HSC approached I realised that I could not base my uni preferences on just one course and I needed to consider other degrees. I was already familiar with UNSW’s Built Environment faculty and the high standard of education they provide so I knew that was a good place to start. At this time I was already well into my two major projects for the HSC, one being for Industrial Technology- timber studies. I had designed an Octagonal Poker Table, which by this time I was well into the construction stage. This project led me to look into courses on product design where I discovered Industrial Design. I was still unsure whether I had the right skills and design flair to succeed as an Industrial Designer but I knew there was only one way to find out.


With a base knowledge in drafting and much experience with timber from many hours of high school woodwork, I was able to work through a challenging opening semester of university. I think the hardest thing was not knowing what to expect and therefore being somewhat unprepared right from the beginning. I’m hoping so anyway because that would mean this semester might have less all nighters :)


Jason.