WEEK 5: THE 24 HOUR TURNAROUND

16/05/22 - 20/05/22

This week was about bringing my seasonality project together through communications with other departments as well as preparations for detailed elements. This week also gave the me the ultimate test! A project with a 24 hour turnaround!

Bringing everything together and Preparations:

With the implementation date coming nearer, this week was about preparing all the items needed to bring the final space together. For this specific seasonality project, flowers were key to both the current season, but also the upcoming Swedish festivities that are trying to be communicated to the customers. As many will know, IKEA sells an entire range of artificial plants, from flowers to ivy to fake herbs, there was a lot of choice! As per my concept and the seasonality aspect, my job was to create a summery environment through the use and creation of flower crowns. Although they were not essential to the project, they really brought the Swedish traditions to IKEA Delft which therefore enhances the customer experience within our store. This also provided as nice break for me from the difficulties made apparent when working across departments to bring something together on a tight schedule!

I have definitely learnt from this experience that it is not always going to be easy communicating all my ideas, but it is very important to keep checking in throughout the project to ensure that everything runs as smoothly as possible! On a positive note however, my desk was by far the most summery and happy feeling by the end of the week which definitely created a better work environment within the office!

The 24 hour project:

Having completed the final communication and preparation for my seasonality project, it was up to the graphics and sales teams to complete the final things before the project could come together. Although this gave me time for writing up, my supervisor asked if I liked a challenge to which I obviously said yes! This is my opportunity to fully immerse myself in such an experience and I wasn't going to let a project slide by! This then turned out to be a project with a very quick turnaround as it was to replace another concept that was outdated. Although my supervisor was very considerate to my work balance and told me to take my time, I was determined to prove myself and ensure that there was not an empty space within the store. This project is within the co-worker social and working spaces which gives me a new user type but also needs to consider the new needs and wants of the client but also on the larger scale of users. The aim for this project was to inspire the co-workers with the new products and range that IKEA is creating and adding to the store. Not only does this reflect the seasonality of the store, creating a need for it to be easily modified at different times, but it is also in a transitional space meaning it has to speak volumes in a very small amount of time.

This project brief was given to me on the Thursday with an hour before the end of the work day and by Friday I was presenting my ideas to my new client group and supervisor. I really enjoyed this project as although I was let loose in terms of what I wanted to plan, I was able to work with my supervisor to combine my design skills with the knowledge of design at IKEA and what was going to be possible in 24hrs to create something simple yet effective which is exactly what was needed in a transitional space.

Next week will be a reflection of if and how my design processes are easily communicated and if they can come together correctly without my constant supervision. Although it will be a busy week, I am very excited to see my work come together across the store as it will inspire and encourage me to keep working and designing to really bring more to the many.