Today, it’s the first day of IPT. The company I am attached to is TID associates Pte Ltd. From the website, the company has quite a few branches in asia doing mostly commercial design. The company is situated at 22B Mosque Road at Chinatown. It was raining on the first day but luckily it’s very near Chinatown MRT station.

I met chiew hua standing outside the office and I thought she was waiting for someone. Then I realized we actually reached quite early around 7am+ and to enter the office we actually need a card to tap in. So, we phone through the office for the receptionist to let us enter the office.After a few minutes, Jaes came and she introduced the company, TID to us. She showed us some of the projects they have done over the years and the huge collection of materials from different suppliers they contacted and the library of design books and magazines. Their collections are 10x that of NAFA materials library. After the brief introduction, she told us to attend their weekly meeting at 930am. During the meeting, the discussion was about the upcoming projects and the individual members will brief through the progress of the project they have in hand and raise problems and solutions to the different projects.

After the meeting, we were given an orientation to the office and introduced us to all the members in the office and lastly shown to our respective workspace. After that, I was told to help out one of the designer, Jent to do a material board for Bukit Café & 19^th Bar. The way they present the material board is very professional and organized. For furnishes, they actually sewed them into small pillows which gives a 3-D effect. It was pretty interesting. Lunch was at 1pm sharp and they have a culture of sleeping and stop all work during lunch break which I think is pretty cool. After 2pm sharp, the designers will resumed their work. Their office culture is really professional whereby work is work and play is play. After lunch, Jaes showed us her projects on 3 cancer centres ( PCC). She also explained to us the process of interior design projects from meeting the client, understanding the client, to design phase, presentation, tendering phase and construction phase. During the whole project, they have to attend to the clients and watch over the whole project till they hand over the place to the client. After that, she introduced us to another designer, Macus to assist him in his project which is NUSS at NUS for the alumni. He told us the project has been ongoing for 2 years already and there is still another year before completion. He gave us a few places in the NUSS to design the layout plan. I was assigned to a children centre, a sports bar and a games room. In the evening, we show him the initial layout plans and he gave us comments on the plans before we end the day. The next day I will be following him to the NUSS site at NUS for a meeting which he claims to be very dry and boring but I think I can learn more on how designers work in real life.

27^th May 2008 / Tuesday

It’s the second day, we were given access cards to enter the previous day and it makes life easier for them and us. We always seem to come in quite early and the cleaner auntie always asked us to help ourselves to the drinks and snack. When you came to the office, you feel more like home which I think is very good for designers to work and be creative.

We continued with our development of the layout plans and Jaes told us that on Wednesday she will bring Chiew hua first to the project meeting and site visit to Parkway cancer centre before bringing me on the following week.

In the afternoon, I went with Macus and his colleague, Tuan Kai who assisting him with the project to the site. During the journey, I got to understand more on TID and how they work. When we reached, Macus and I went to the site to attend the meeting while Tuan Kai went to look at the progress of the project. The minute was about the progress of the whole project with all the architect, contractors, client and of course interior designers. I got to know that the project have not met most of the deadline given for the different stage of construction and this is why the project has been delayed until 2 years. They went according to the minute and raised problems on the construction. There was not much about interior design mostly architecture and Macus told me interior design is always the last before completion. Therefore if the construction part is delayed, the interior design part will have a shorter period of time to complete and meet the deadline.

After the meeting, we went to look at the site. Macus met up with a sign designer to discuss on the position of the different signs that we see in a building. In the first place I thought sign is done by interior designers but for larger scale projects they actually hire a specialist in sign design. The whole site visit was pretty fun. I got to know that, interior designers have to coordinate very well with different specialists and contractors in order the keep the whole construction running smoothly. It’s all about team work. By the time we finished walking through, it was 7pm+ and Macus told me to cab home and claim from office the next day.

28^th May 2008 / Wednesday

We continue to work on the development of the floor plans and before lunch we discuss with Macus. He gave me some visual references on bars and restaurants because it’s my first time doing a bar design. Actually, it’s my first time on children centers and games room as well. It’s a good learning experience for me. After lunch, he told us to start cadding out the layout plans on computers and we basically spend the whole day doing autocad. From what I observed, our autocad skill is very bad because when they use computers, their fingers are like playing on piano, very swift. I also realized that the designers hardly do any autocad except for the design part as most will be done by draftsmen on the 3^rd floor. As for rendering, they hired freelance to help them. The company actually doesn’t do rendering. They focus more on design consulting unlike the keyturn companies. They earn money based on design consultancy which I think is better in a way because you can concentrate on designing your concept. After finishing our cadding, we discuss with Macus again for further feedbacks and comments. After that, he told us to work on concept, materials and furnishes the next day. He told us to look for Ika who is experience in FFE. The day ended quite fast in the office actually but it’s really tiring.

29^th May 2008 / Thursday

Macus was on off today. In the morning, we further edited our floor plan from yesterday’s discussion. After lunch break, we went to look for Ika who showed us some catalogues on furniture which is suitable for the budget of the project and discuss with us on the different finishes for the flooring and walls. For the whole afternoon, we were searching for materials suitable for our concept and design. For me, I was designing a children centre which I had little knowledge on what kind of furniture and furnishing are suitable. She said she will be meeting a supplier on children’s playground and she will pass me a few catalogues to help with my design. We were quite lost because there are so many different materials to select from and our concept was not that strong at the moment. So we were like searching all over the place and the rest were busy with their work so we don’t really want to bother them too much. We still managed to find some materials that we wanted in the end.

30^th May 2008 / Friday

It’s the last day of the week. The week really flew by and in just one week we actually have done most of the designing stage of work for a few areas unlike in school we took 6 weeks to complete just one project. So, I wonder how we managed to did it. However, there is still a lot of improvements to make. We continued with the material selection and colour scheme today. As Macus was not in office in the morning, we help Cecia another designer with her project. Chiew hua help her with furniture detail drawings while I help her to photoshop in the materials for her elevation. They actually don’t render the elevation using 3D max. They only rendered perspective and for the elevation and details they used photoshop to edit. My photoshop skill is quite limited and some shortcut I also not sure. In the end, I spent almost the whole afternoon rendering the elevation using photoshop for her. I feel so sorry for taking so much time to complete it. I guess I really need to brush up my Photoshop skills to work faster. I still have so much to learn. I also got to experience meeting of suppliers because the children centre requires expert with the safety measures of different equipments, tables and chairs. Usually, when they required new materials or specific materials, they will call up different suppliers and ask for their expertise and see which is more suitable for the project. In the end, part of the children centre we leave it for the specialist to plan out for us. That’s the end of this week. Hope to learn more new things next week.