Artist Statement:

I am a forward thinking designer looking to broaden minds and open eyes to new ways of design and manufacture. I see the designer's role in modern society as not solving a problem but posing further questions
in order for people to experience a greater quality of designed life.

I see myself as a multi-disciplinary designer in that I have experience of exhibition design, CAD, theatre set design, interior design and interior architecture. However, furniture and product design is a keen interest of
mine that I would like to pursue following the success of my final year thesis project concerning this specific area of design.

Project Statements:

TM Products: The Perfect Personalised Product

For my fourth year thesis project I chose to conceptually investigate the relationship between people and products in their own private interior environments. Looking specifically at how objects shape a space.

By asking a number of people to participate in interviews and photography sessions that included their possessions, themselves and their personal spaces, I attempted to discover the reasons why they chose specific objects
and what these objects said about their personalities, likes, dislikes, attitudes and beliefs.

Over the course of the year the main aim of the project was to arrive at a sufficient design conclusion, i.e. designing one object that would bring something to each individual space. I then took on the visual and corporate
identity of a fictional product design company that I called TM (standing for tailor made yet also a play on the traditional thinking and connotations of the trademark.)

The project took on four stages: Research, Evaluation, Design and Manufacture and finally Reaction. This was then pitched to the company directors (course tutors) as a feasible way to approach individual design
from a company perspective. Whether the process could work financially and commercially was insignificant as the key focus was on giving the opportunity to the general public to be able to own exclusive objects that
were unique to them as individuals.

Drug Development for Scotland: A collaborative project which resulted in the reworking of the companies corporate identity and a conceptual proposal for the interior working, meeting and transitory spaces worked up to computer
animation stage.

Xbox Travelling Exhibition: A compact, dynamic and atmospheric travelling exhibition for the launch of the Microsoft Xbox worked up to computer animation stage.

Workstation for the Future: A futuristic individually adaptable home/office workstation for today's professional. Cleverly hidden from view when not in use by a cover sheet inspired by Brancusi sculpture pieces.

Deconstruct Reconstruct: 2 found objects reworked to incorporate a seat for resting. Which could be used when the heat of the mid-day sun gets too much ... ... Astroturf was used to cushion the seat and back for a touch of
ironic humour.

Furniture Elective: Designed as an interactive seat/foot stool to test each individual user's level of curiosity. If the user pushed the piece to it's limit, they would be met with an intriguing outcome ... ...

Interior Architecture Projects: (Upper Picture) A Visitor Centre for the Dundee Tay River, designed from foundations up with complete material list and interior fittings. (Lower Picture) A re-development of an old, disused
warehouse into a state of the art gymnasium for Dundee United Football Club.

Paul Travers

BDes(Hons) Interior and Environmental Design