FINAL MODEL!

And the last stage is here. The last step before the final destination. The final model for the project! Yes, it took me truck loads of time and hard work, but I can proudly say that I am finally done with it. And I promise, you guys won't be disappointed. :D

As you would have already seen in my previous posts, I had to redesign the book shelves of my book shop in an effort to make them more convenient and customer-friendly. So I decided on taking sunboard as my material for the outer structure as well as for the detailing.

Have a look, peeps!

Billing Counter

Book Shelves for First Floor

 

And this brings me to an end of this beautiful blogging journey of mine. It's been a reallyyyyy long way, but I have to confess that blogging changed me in a whole different way and helped me improve my writing skills at an infinite level. And with you guys beside me, motivating me and suggesting me ways to improve myself at every point, it wasn't that tough afterall. I am gonna miss this, I swear!

But I promise to get back to blogging again as soon as I manage to get some time out of my "horrifyingly busy-looking future". This time, with better words. ;)

Until next time, see you <3

Ideate till you live!

Hola, guys! After the super long process of working hard and wishing "oh-when-will-this-get-over", I am back with the next dish on the menu- Ideation for design solutions.


Ideation was one of the most important stair on my ladder to the final model because this was where I was going to decide what exactly am I gonna make at the end. What made it more difficult was the fact that my shop did not have sufficient space and a very huge stock of books. So I had to design something which was not only new-age and trendy, but also something which could be a space-saver and very convenient for the shopkeeper as well as the customers.

So after a lot of thinking, doodling and Pinteresting, I came up with different book shelves for each floor of my shop, depending upon the category and the stock.

For the basement, which was the Children's Section, I came up with book shelves in the form of a 'jigsaw puzzle' which were arranged in the form of a 'small hut', with a drawer at the end for storage space for extra books.

Children's Section- Basement

For the ground floor, which including General Books and the Billing Counter, I firstly redesigned the billing counter in a way that it didn't take up extra space and could accommodate new arrivals or best-sellers at its sides. After that, I designed closed booked shelves for other books so that the entry area does not look too stacked up and the people get more breathing space in the shop.

Billing Counter- Ground Floor

Book Shelves- Ground Floor

Last but not the least, for the first floor which included all the other sections like Fashion, Jewellery, History, Business, Health etc, I designed book shelves in a different shape and colour alternatively so that the customers find it easy to differentiate the various sections and the books get accommodated perfectly within them.

General Section- First Floor

Now, this leaves me with just one last step to go, ie, the final model. Hold your breaths, people. I'll be back with it pretty soon! :)

Boards!

Hello, good fellows!
My last post must have given you a fair deal of idea about what have I taken up as my Opportunity Area, which in turn is going to be my main concept and is going to reflect in my Concept Board, Inspiration Board, Mood Board, and Consumer Board.

So without further ado, here are my boards-

Design Intervention

After the whole process of researching, writing and sketching, it was now time to find a problem/opportunity area in my book shop which I could think upon innovatively and try finding a solution to. For this, it was important that I looked around the shop from the eyes of a customer, and not just a design student.

So I decided to explore the shop and I found out that the shop housed a very large variety of books. But the only issue with it was that the book shelves were very traditional and boring and also had a poor classification and categorization of books. This meant that a customer looking for a particular genre had to take the help of the staff present around to find it among the billion similar-looking book shelves.
Thus, I decided to take this up as my concept and find interesting solutions to it.

Although, my process of finding an appropriate solution is still in process, here is a glimpse of my target space to make the concept clearer for you guys.

Stacked Up Book Shelves
Photographed by- Shikha Gupta

Customers Looking For Books
Photographed by- Shikha Gupta

 

 Unorganized Categories in Kids' Section
Photographed by- Shikha Gupta

Sketch it till you can!

A person learns more from his mistakes than anything else. One major mistake that I made in my previous project was that I did not realize the importance of sketching more and lamenting less. (Yeah, you read it right.) But as it is said, life is all about learning and improving. So I kinda made it a point this time that sketching had to be one of my main priorities. I didn't want to cry over spilled milk again, afterall.

So here you have it, some of the sketches and doodles that I did.

A glimpse of the work which is still in progress!

 

3D Maps and what not?

Before I was even half way through my Micro research, we were told about another part of our group project- a 3D Map. Another huge pressure on our already tired minds, I'd say. But the good thing was that without pondering much upon how would we be able to do it, we just let go of our worries and started working on it.

We first made a huge map of the Aurobindo Market on a full imperial ivory sheet. We then traced it on a similar sized gateway sheet and finally, on a choksi board. It was a tedious process ofcourse, but we still had a long way to go. We then started to paint our base and also, cutting and pasting sunboard and making structures. Afterwards, we tried to incorporate new ways to make trees, cars, fences etc.

Although, all the parts of our model are still not put in place entirely, I'd still like you to have a look at the ongoing process.

Market Structure

Photographed by- Shikha Gupta

Overall Layout of the Market
Photographed by- Shikha Gupta

Gyan ka Dariya: Midland Book Shop

So it's time for me to start with my Micro. To make it more clear for you guys, the Micro research includes choosing a particular shop, stall or store, and collecting information about its history, civics and geography. Honestly, it wasn't really difficult for me to choose my Micro. After getting to know that 'Midland Book Shop' was one of the oldest, and rather the very first shop to open up in Aurobindo Market, I was already sure that this was it!

So in my 2nd visit to the market, I went straight up to the shop owner of the Midland Book Shop and he agreed to tell me all that he knew. He told me that his was one shop out of a chain of four similar shops, and also that all the four shops were owned by four sons of a the man who started the chain.

However, according to me, the most interesting input he gave me was about the meaning of the name of the shop. He told me that Midland meant 'Ocean' or 'Dariya', and his father used to think that a book shop is an 'Ocean of Knowledge' or 'Gyan ka Dariya'. Thus, the name.

Oh, and I also bought a book that I was interested in since a long time, a book with a compilation of  'Urdu Couplets'.

Urdu Couplets

Photographed by- Shikha Gupta

  

Overall, I was amazed by all the information that I received. Also, I found a lot of pictures where I could spot the shop owner with a lot of popular entities.  Here are a few glimpses from my visit-

Famous Entities Visiting

Midland Book Shop
Photographed by- Shikha Gupta

Wide Range of Books

Available in the Book Shop
Photographed by- Shikha Gupta