BRITISH

Lucinda Noble

STUDENT YEARS

6

A PIECE OF SOUND ADVICE + A SINGLE WARNING TO A DESIGN STUDENT

Make the most of your time, facilities and access to people and resources. And enjoy! + Foresee the challenges in the professional world and start considering how you will incorporate them into your design vision

FAVOURITE FOOD THEN

Probably pasta

YOUR MOST VALUED POSSESSION THEN

My family, my photos, my Mac (sad but true), my ability to see things in a certain way

YEAR OF PROJECT

1999

STUDENT PROJECT BRIEF

Self-initiated project. A series of wall-mounted relief pieces based on a collection of original pieces of polystyrene packaging.

COLLEGE

Royal College of Art, London (United Kingdom)

TUTOR(S)

Richard Bonner-Morgan, Margaret Calvert (see also pp. 150–153), Lol Sargent

TECHNOLOGY

Scalpel knife, ruler, foam board and paint – the pieces were constructed by eye

TIME SPENT

1 week

WHY DO YOU LIKE THIS PROJECT?

I loved making something three-dimensional by hand, and I’m surprised to find that I still think they’re beautiful objects! At the time, I mounted them around the Stevens Building at the Royal College of Art and they blended in beautifully with the moulding on the walls, which I loved.

WHAT DO YOU DISLIKE ABOUT IT?

I would have liked to cast them in plaster.

OUTCOMES

Apart from slicing my finger with my scalpel blade working late one night(!), I got a lot of satisfaction out of constructing something with my hands. It was a ‘seed’ project that led to many other ideas.

FEEDBACK

I think the pieces went pretty much unnoticed!

ANYTHING ELSE

The polystyrene relief piece is perhaps a strange example from my student work. It was a small, insignificant project (in terms of my overall portfolio), but having thought about it, it emphasizes to me how important those sketchy little pieces can be, and how important I still find it to make time simply to follow an inspired creative urge to make something out of those seemingly meaningless little ideas that pop into my head!

PROJECT SIMILARITIES THEN AND NOW

I am still very much following my own lead. From my experience, my strongest work comes from those projects that are self-initiated or that I have most freedom to play around with. I am still fascinated by detail, bringing attention to the everyday, and the juxtaposition of function and beauty. Also, I continue to enjoy how things can be interpreted by the viewer/user in multiple ways.