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- IndustrIal desIgn portfolIo | suMMer 2014 -

01DIAGNOSING CONCUSSION IN AMATEUR RUGBY

Final-year design project at Brunel University - investigating the concussion diagnosis process in amateur rugby.

03DEVELOPING IMPACT SENSING TECHNOLOGY FOR RUGBY

Facilitating the improved diagnosis process through the design of impact sensing headwear.

05SERVICE DESIGN - THE INNOVATION HUB

A service design project to offer students at Brunel the opportunity to develop their professional skills alongside their studies.

07PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

An insight into a number of recent design projects I have been involved in.

09THE SCOUT ASSOCIATION - MOVING FORWARD TO 2030

Brand evaluation and re-positioning of The Scout Association to ensure they remain relevant in the future.

12THE GAMIFICATION OF ADVENTURE

A smartphone-enabled adventure game to encourage teenagers to get outdoors and explore their surroundings.

13CV, PROFILE & INTERESTS

An insight into my character, academic background, employment history and skill set.

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DIAGNOSING CONCUSSION IN AMATEUR RUGBY

IntroducIng wearable technology Into aMateur rugby

OPPORTUNITY

The first phase of the design process ‘goes broad’ on the issue in hand; studying every aspect of ‘the concussion crisis’ and identifying key design opportunities to take forward. ‘Opportunity’ encapsulates research and a complete analysis of the problem in hand, culminating in a developed, refined design brief with a number of clear deliverables outlined.

The focus of my final year at Brunel was designing to ensure fewer concussions go undiagnosed in rugby union at a grass-roots level. A three stage design process has been developed and employed; researching the opportunity, re-thinking the concussion diagnosis experience and then designing a product to facilitate the improved diagnosis experience. Extensive research into the injury, its causes and current concussion diagnosis procedures was collated in order to develop a full ‘diagnosis experience’ for amateur rugby.

*Selected for project funding by The Dave Granshaw Foundation*Exhibited at New Designers and Made in Brunel 2014

ExPERIENCE

The experience phase is focused on gaining an understanding for the environment in which a product may be used. This ensures a user-centred design is developed, with the final concussion experience a practical, realistic solution which can be easily incorporated with no affect on the integrity of the sport or how it is played, instead continuing to play the same but with safe practices.

PRODUCT

The final design phase is product development. This phase consolidates all of the knowledge gained from ‘opportunity’ and ‘experience’ and uses it to generate a product concept, designed to help facilitate the new concussion diagnosis experience developed in ‘experience’. Combining the three design phases allows for a fully considered solution to the issue in hand.

stage 1. opportunIty

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stage 2. eXperIence

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stage 3. product

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THE CONCEPT

Research revealed the main barrier causing a lack of diagnosis in amateur rugby is a lack of visible symptoms which means the injury is often left to the subjectivity of the player, a decision biased by the macho attitudes of the players. To facilitate diagnosis, a prototype was developed which quantifies the severity of collisions and asses forces imparted on their head during a match or training situation.

ARDUINO PROTOTYPING

For this project, the Arduino platform was used as a platform for fast electronic functional prototyping. Prior to this project, I had no previous coding experience but by immersing myself in the platform I was quickly able to learn enough to enable the development of impact sensing headwear, with a view to develop the technology to pair with a smartphone in the future.

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DEVELOPING IMPACT SENSING TECHNOLOGY FOR RUGBY

IntroducIng wearable technology Into aMateur rugby

IDEATION

After the principle of impact-sensing headwear had been proved with the electronic prototyping; the technology had to be incorporated into headwear. It was decided that the headwear should remain similar to existing rugby scrum caps to allow flawless integration into the game. This process was extremely fast-flowing; often sketching with my focus group of amateur players for instant design feedback.

HEADWEAR PROTOTYPING

This project saw a large number of handmade fabric wearable prototypes created through an iterative 4 month prototyping period. By making physical prototypes, I could take them to my focus group for feedback - by wearing a prototype, I found the players could give me much more useful feedback than from looking at a sketch or a rendered CAD image.

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SERVICE DESIGN - THE INNOVATION HUB, BRUNEL UNIVERSITY

creatIng a brand new servIce for students

SERVICE GUIDELINES

To implement the core values to everyday activity within the Hub, a set of guidelines were established which allowed the Innovation Hub’s employees to easily conduct themselves in the correct professional, positive and encouraging manner by simply reading the guidelines.

SERVICE DESIGN TOOLkIT

The ‘Service Design Toolkit’ (http://www.servicedesigntoolkit.org/) was used as an introduction to the methodology and practices of service design. For the Innovation Hub project, four of the relevant tools were selected and employed throughout the design process.

CORE VALUES OF THE INNOVATION HUB

Six ‘core values’ of the service were established as a result of discussion with students who would be likely to use the service, university staff and research into similar services. These core values would become gospel for all decisions regarding the Innovation Hub.

Typically, university is not an environment which breeds creativity. The pressure of meeting deadlines in addition to achieving grades does not allow for student’s to ‘think outside the box’ in their day-to-day studies. However, increasingly companies are looking for this something extra in an employee. The most innovative companies have come to realise that creativity and innovative thinking are key skills in any position. The Innovation Hub will give students the opportunity to exercise their creativity, regardless of their background or degree choice. For this project, I was challenged with designing the service which is now on offer at Brunel university, using a number of tools to identify and implement key values and activities within the Hub.

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StudentsSMEsSta�Alumni

HEADINGS

Body text

FEATURE

Page title

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“IRRITATINGLY ANALOG” - THE DIGITAL SWITCHOVER OF MONEY

“Irritatingly Analog” is an example of my editorial design; written, designed and edited by myself. The essay investigates the possibility of a future where money goes digital, replacing all paper money in favour of transfers and card payments - and the implications this could have.

Read the full essay here: bit.ly/1nktC52

TROPHY MANUFACTURE/MATERIAL UP-CYCLING

At a number of times during my 12-month placement at Whitgift School (South London) I was required to produce a number of trophies to represent the school in sporting or academic competitions. This was particularly challenging as for the majority of these I chose to up-cycle excess material left over in the school’s (usually wasteful) manufacturing workshops; whilst still producing high-quality trophies which reflect the school’s prestige.

project hIghlIghts

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IDEO - “THE WORk/LIFE BALANCE”

“The Work/Life Balance” was a brief set by IDEO as part of the Made in Brunel “24 Hour Design Challenge”. This brief challenged the team to address the current issue of the work/life imbalance; suggesting ways to both maximise productivity and improve general wellbeing. Interestingly, at the end of the challenge, the concepts were presented using stop-motion animation as the format, used to highlight and suggest improvements which could be made to address the imbalance.

“CREATE” ExHIBITION, WHITGIFT SCHOOL

“Create” is an exhibition of the Whitgift School student’s GCSE and A-Level design work. During my placement at Whitgift I noticed that the students had little opportunity to present their impressive work, and decided to curate a new exhibition, from scratch, to give them this opportunity. This included the creation of a new exhibition brand in addition to way finding/signage design and various organisational tasks. The exhibition was a huge success and is now an annual event in Whitgift’s calendar.

project hIghlIghts

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THE SCOUT ASSOCIATION - MOVING FORWARD TO 2030

brand analysIs and developMent

In collaboration with four other designers, The Scout Association was analysed to uncover the core values which the Scouts represent: Fun, Friendship and Adventure. These core values were then investigated to ensure they (and in turn, the Scouts) will still be relevant in 2030. In order to do this, research into the issues society is likely to face in the coming years was carried out, hypothetically adapting the Scouts as a brand to ensure they are in a position to strive in the future. This project led to a product design concept to instil a sense of adventure in young people.

CONTExTUAL POSITIONING

Using academic studies and extrapolating current trends, contextual issues of 2030 could be predicted. This research revealed a major issue which generation Y will be facing in 2030 - technology reliance. Almost all entertainment will be screen-based and the Scouts will be forced to embrace technology into their traditional organisation. It was decided the Scouts would be likely to embrace technology in the future, which led to an exciting design proposal - “How might the Scouts instil fun, friendship and adventure in 2030?”

BRAND DECONSTRUCTION

This project began by analysing the Scout Association as a whole. Who are they? What do they represent? How are they perceived and how do they perceive themselves? How are they developing as a brand? From this, we could establish their core values - what makes the Scouts who they are. It soon became clear that the Scouting is a way of life, not just an organisation. The Scout Association is built on a foundation of three core elements which will remain a constant through to 2030: Fun, Friendship and Adventure.

PERSONAS

One of the tools used to gain empathy for the Scouts, a number of personas were generated. These are fictional characters whose characteristics cover the features of a number of responses from Scout interviews. The personas assume the attributes of the people they represent: their characteristics, needs, desires and motivations. These personas reflect the real Scouts - which allows for a greater understanding of the brand as a whole and for predictions to be made about their progression to 2030.

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THE SCOUT ASSOCIATION - “THE GAMIFICATION OF ADVENTURE”

conceptual desIgn and product language

PRODUCT CONCEPT - THE ADVENTUREPOD

The concept encourages young people to explore their surroundings; using gamification to ‘make the problem the cure’ - embracing technology as the facilitator for a fun adventure game. The ‘AdventurePod’ links with a smartphone app, challenging teens to complete active tasks in order to earn points to reveal, find and unlock an ‘AdventurePod’; earning a digital scout badge for doing so. The young Scout can then replace the ‘AdventurePod’ in a location of their choice and challenge a friend to unlock it.

* Selected by Co-Innovate for exhibition at ‘New Designers’ and ‘Made in Brunel’ (2014)

PRODUCT LANGUAGE

Working in a team of five students, five product concepts were generated: each of which were designed to remain consistent to the Scout’s brand. In order to achieve this, a set of CFM (Colour, Finish, Material) guidelines were established, in addition to product styling/aesthetic guidelines and a strict concept screening process. This ensured a consistent product language could be applied to each concept, both visually and ideologically.

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CV, PROFILE & INTERESTS

educatIon, skIlls, achIeveMents and prevIous eXployMent

EDUCATION

SkILLS

ACHIEVEMENTS

Brunel University, 2010 - 2014Industrial Design & Technology (Honours) (Grade: 2.1) Final year modules: Major Project, Contextual Design, Environmentally Sensitive Design, Innovation Management and Graphic Communication

Sir Roger Manwoods Grammar School, 2003 - 20103 A-Levels (ABB) - Design Technology, English and Film Studies12 GCSEs (A-C) - Inc. Resistant Materials, English, Maths and Science

Practical:Workshop Skills:- Joinery- Material finishing- Material testing- Metal machining- MIG Welding- Woodturning

Other:- 1 year controlling a CAM facility- Prototyping/Modelling- Quick sketching/Ideation- Spray booth experience- Verbal communication

Software:Competent using:- Adobe Creative Suite (Including Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign)- Apple iWork- CorelDRAW X5- Mac and PC - Microsoft Office

Some experience using:- Arduino Coding- Adobe Flash- Apple iMovie- Sketchbook Pro- Solidworks

- “Hand Me Up” exhibited at ‘Marks & Spencer Innovation Exhibition’ (2011)- “AdventurePod for The Scout Association” exhibited at ‘New Designers’ and ‘Made in Brunel’ (2014)- “Diagnosing Concussion In Contact Sport” exhibited at ‘New Designers’ and ‘Made in Brunel’ (2014)- Received scholarship from the Dave Granshaw Foundation (2014)

Core Brand Team @ Made in Brunel, October 2013 - June 2014This voluntary position required me to assist with the application of ‘Made in Brunel’ as a brand - typically involving layout and graphic design tasks, culminating in a published project directory and central London design exhibition.

Junior Design Technician @ Whitgift School, August 2012 - August 2013A 12 month placement assisting with the running of the department on a day-to-day basis by participating in lessons with all year groups, liaising with teachers to develop new and future projects. The main priority was the independent control of the CAD/CAM facilities (laser cutter, CNC flat-bed router, CNC plasma cutter and vinyl cutter) as well as completing daily maintenance of the workshop facilities. Under this role, I was also required to produce all of the marketing material for the department and I took it upon myself to organise an exhibition to showcase the final year projects of the talented young design students.

Assistant @ Sandwich Property Maintenance, April 2012 - August 2012This position required me to assist within a small local business on a number of varying property maintenance jobs, including tasks such as painting, filling, sealing and paving. The practical skills and attention to detail which were instilled during this part-time job have been clearly transferable to my design career.

Senior Caddy @ Royal St. George’s Golf Club, July 2006 - April 2012Working within this prestigious golf club I have worked with business executives, professional golfers and royalty - honing my ability to communicate on a professional level. Advising players on their club choice has given me the confidence to express my reasoning which has been beneficial throughout the early stages of my design career.

EMPLOYMENT

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I have been making things for as long as I can remember. My earliest memories include making new accessories for my toys from cardboard and paper, or anything I could get my hands on.

It’s safe to say I have an abnormal amount of Lego for a 22 year old graduate.

A design degree has always been the obvious choice and I have thoroughly enjoyed learning new skills and developing my creative thinking; solving problems and collaborating in teams through my university career. However, I am now more than ready to apply these skills to a real-world challenge and dive in to some exciting new projects, continuing my education in a professional environment.

TOMADCOCkDESIGN@GMAIL.COM

07805 781511

WWW.TOMADCOCkDESIGN.COM

LIVE MUSIC

I’ve seen over 150 bands/acts live!FISHING

I have caught over 30 species of fish in the UK!RUGBY

I won the OWRFC Captains Award in the 2012/13 season!

profIle and Interests

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WWW.TOMADCOCkDESIGN.COM