Design Summaries

Here is a checklist for you to help you prepare summaries of each of the designs that go in your portfolio. These summaries will help us see the progress that you have made, and illustrate your ability to explain your work in design terms.

If you are typing up your summaries, you should be able to fit each of them into two printed pages, so you may use technical language in note form.

A design summary should include the main points about the design in question, and include some of your reflections on your journey through the design process.

A set of good summaries should take you a long way towards diploma accreditation. And they will contain much of the information that you will need to put across at your final presentation.

You can download a copy of our suggested design summary headings

More information is available in the Northern School Design Guide.

Some of the key elements in a design summary are:

• An outline of the design brief that you have worked to (just a few sentences)
• The overall design framework, or process, you have used.
• The main design methods that you have used at various stages along the design process
• List the design directives that you have followed
• List the main tools that you have used in the various stages of your framework
• Give your reflections on how well the design meets the client's needs, and how you have upheld the ethics of permaculture
• What you have learned from working with the client, and what are the next steps to take?

Further information on methods and tools may be found at Mark Fisher's website "self-willed land"

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