Matthew Bowman

I was a Junior Product Designer for a company called Glasdon, the market leader in the design and manufacture of street furniture and recycling products.

In this position I fulfilled a number of routine tasks, including:

Product Changes - Improving current products by implementing changes to design, manufacture or assembly.
Concept Generation - Both in-house and customer lead briefs
Technical Drawings - to be sent off to suppliers
Contact with Suppliers - building up relationships with customer and suppliers
Prototype Modelling - creating prototypes of concepts including foam/card modelling and metal work.
Computer Modelling - Using NX
Rendering - Using NX and Alias

Within the company I immersed myself in all aspects of the design services we offered.
Whilst working within the team I worked on creating new product concepts whilst also identifying new areas for product innovation.

As well as the product design side of the company I also worked on company rebranding, marketing and advertising.
This included company rebranding, promotional materials and internal stationary - such as letter heads and business cards.

I graduated from The University of Salford with a 1st class Hons Degree.
The course was a three year course that was built up from a number of different projects, both conceptual and live projects with local companies.

Whilst completing the course I began to build my knowledge of the main processes involved within the design cycle, this included the use of exploratory sketches, 2D and 3D prototype models, concept development and presentation skills.

As well as these essential skills, I also began building an in depth knowledge of the computer programs used within the field, including:
-Solidworks
-Photoview 360
-Photoshop
-Illustrator
-InDesign
-Microsoft Office Package - Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc

I began working with Ipeology over the Easter holiday in 2011; I worked for two weeks full time as unpaid work experience. Once I had finished these two weeks and returned to university to finish the year I kept in contact with Ipeology, this then lead to me working with them full time over the summer period, the majority of this was paid work experience. Whilst there I have learnt a range of skills, including:
- Sketching development
- Research
- Computer modelling
- Computer rendering
- Working with technical drawings and GA drawings
- Patent drawings
- 3D prototyping
- Team Working

The main focus of my experience was using Solid Works; I increased my skills in using this program dramatically from completing this work experience.
From this work experience I also gained an insight into the professional work place and have become used to completing tasks within the professional environment. I also gained valuable experience of working within a team whilst working there. I also gained experience creating new ideas from working within a team and sharing ideas as well as proposing my own ideas and solutions.