Discussing the multi-purpose blender with a fellow student in the Level 2 Design Studio
already completed for his degree. Some of these took
a few days to complete, some months, and most were
in collaboration with other students on his course.
The work spans design genres and forms, from a
detailed computer rendering of a noir detective’s
office – complete with bottle of Jack Daniels and
filing cabinets wreathed in smoke – to a model for
a self-piloting medical helicopter pod and kitchen
tools for the blind.
The helicopter pod, which looks like some-
thing out of a science fiction film, aims to allow
paramedics to reach isolated spots quickly and
avoid the overcrowded hospitals. The group he
designed it with won a competition organised by
the university, with judges from six companies
listening to presentations from them and 12 other
groups’ proposals for public transport vehicles.
Alfie was particularly keen to create something
that wasn’t simply well-designed, but which could
benefit society.
The kitchen equipment stemmed from a similar
impulse. The group worked with a close friend of
Alfie’s, a blind reflexologist, to get her input into
what would be most useful. They also ran a focus
group with 23 people from the Kingston Association
of the Blind. ‘That was such an inspirational project
to work on,’ he says. ‘Visual impairment is such
a hard thing to design for, especially when you
want to make it a mass-market product, but new
technology is emerging all the time.’
The group used that to its advantage, designing
a multi-purpose blender that links to Amazon’s
voice-activated Alexa service. The resulting
prototype met with a hugely positive response from
the focus group. ‘They were delighted, and pleased
we were putting the effort in to try to cater for
people whose normal everyday needs aren’t met.’
Following graduation, he wants to return to the
blender and produce at least a small number to
give to people.
Alfie is at that exhilarating point in life where a
near-infinite number of options is available for him
to pursue, and he’s on the brink of having the skills
and experience to pick and choose which to take.
This can be overwhelming, but he seems to have his
head set firmly on his shoulders and is weighing up
The Wykeham Journal 2018 35