My year internship at Centreline is unfortunately coming to a close, in this blog post I will be honestly reviewing and reflecting on the last 12 months. For a TLDR, I have had an amazing time working at Centreline, I am truly grateful for the opportunities I have been given while working here and all the great projects I have had the chance to work on. One of the many highlights was helping to build a large-scale prototype with two of the senior designers, seeing and walking through something that until then had only been an on-screen model gave it a new sense of scale. I have been challenged throughout the year and through these challenges I have developed my technical, software and soft skills. I have learnt a huge amount in a very short period of time and this has only been possible through working alongside a great team of talented and knowledgeable individuals.
Over the year I have been challenged and improved in every field. Many of these challenges have come through working on a wide range of products I am less familiar with and using different modelling techniques to achieve the varied aesthetics of the many companies we worked with. One of the biggest challenges this year was working on multiple projects at the same time and balancing them, this was a learning curve compared to university, it is however one I feel I have risen and adapted to. To work effectively on multiple projects simultaneously has required me to take on changes and critiques more efficiently, a way I have endeavoured to achieve this is by improving my own self review skills. Improving these skills allows me to independently critique and develop concepts quickly. I can do this with confidence as my critiques and designs are reviewed by designers with years of experience from across the team.
Working on these projects, I have developed and deepened my understanding of the design process. This new understanding of the process will be an invaluable takeaway from this year when I go back to university. Through my work, one main area of development has been in the research phase of a project, rather than being an independent phase, it is an ongoing part of the process which is woven throughout the project. This integration of research is something which I have learnt to make better use of while at Centreline. Another major aspect of design which I have developed is using CMF to bring a product to life. This brings the product into reality and most importantly adds visual interest and value without additional cost by making full use of the manufacturing processes and materials. Developing design skills required me to improve my workshop and software skills to make full use of my knowledge and more complex designs. I swiftly relearnt the Adobe suite, in particular photoshop and illustrator, improving my conceptualisation as well as allowing me to layout my work more elegantly than I had managed before. To model these concepts, I have developed my Solidworks skills by learning easier, more streamlined ways to complete tasks. I really benefited from the insight of the team at Centreline when it came to improving my surface modelling to create smoother and more organic models with greater ease. I have also been taught to streamline my models to allow faster and more efficient load times, this is particularly important on larger and more complex projects.
More than anything, my time at Centreline has taught me the massive benefit of working in a studio environment with other creative people, the opportunity to share knowledge, insight, and opinions, helping to develop better products much faster.
Peter Quine
