Joshua Summerfield

Industrial Design

Hey, I'm Josh Summerfield, an Industrial Designer. My skill set and passion are found in the collaborative team environment, product aesthetic refinement and user-centred design approaches. With the increasingly complex digital and spatial environment we find ourselves amongst, a carefully considered revolution of design is needed. Emerging technologies and innovation provide exciting and meaningful opportunities to reimagine products and the way they enrich our lives and the environment. I fundamentally believe that world-changing design must evoke an emotional response in the user while being optimised around circular product lifecycles.

My Capstone project is centred around the user experience. It aims to challenge preconceived expectations of privacy in the restaurant environment by drawing upon principles of theatre performance and a sense of play. Blur Privacy Table brings a captivating experience to the restaurant's ambience with an air of sophistication and mystery. Too often the layout of restaurants evokes discomfort due to the feeling of being seen and heard. Using precision-designed vapour technology, Blur Privacy Table creates a dynamic screen of privacy that obscures diner's interactions from neighbouring tables, while maintaining a connection to the environment surrounding them. Blur Privacy Table reimagines the possibilities of interior spaces to bring a soothing, private and memorable experience to patrons.

You can see more examples of my work and get in touch on my website.

Blur Privacy Table

Dining with the Blur Privacy Table

Serving through the Blur Privacy Table

Argo Original Coffee Table

Symphony Bathroom Tap

Acknowledgement of Country

The School of Design and Architecture respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and knowledge-keepers of the lands, waters and sky that surround us, where we work, learn, create, communicate and make place. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded and this always was and will always be Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who continue to make a better world through design.

We extend our acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, alumni, real-life clients, and knowledge keepers, who have contributed to our own education diversity and growth. We will continue to ensure that staff and students respectfully honour ancestral connection to Country and Place in everything that they do.

We are dedicated to the notion of design to make a better world and we acknowledge that making tools, shaping place, sharing stories, making meaning, wayfinding and collaborating have long been and continue to be both central and integral to First Peoples' cultures. We recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural contributions have continued relevance to design practice and commit to: reconciling ancestries of design and contemporary practice as well as pursuing culturally and professionally appropriate ways to engage with a diverse population of colleagues, industries and clients. In a time of treaty-making and voice we understand that there are overlaps between caring for Country and the sustainable production of goods, services, experiences, products and buildings.

Guided by the principles of respect, reconciliation, and reciprocity we undertake to indigenising and decolonising design practice by dismantling colonial structures and challenging biases that have marginalised Indigenous voices and design.

As students of SoDA you will be given opportunities to both engage with and educate yourself in Indigenous creative practices and cultural protocols through a lens of inclusivity, diversity, respect, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue in all aspects of design practice. Indigenous people have been telling stories, making tools, and connecting to Country through visual media, placemaking and place marking for more than 60,000 years and these practices are part of an ongoing, evolving and live tradition.