A day in the life of the Benchmark Fixperts Resident

This article was published 11 years

This week, Fixperts Resident Maya Alvarado catches up with Benchmark co-founder and MD Sean Sutcliffe to discuss her progress, starts making films to document her fixes and finds inspiration from a uniquely Japanese solution to a problem…

06:20: I wake up for work and get ready. I have some cereal for breakfast and a cup of tea.

07:15: I start my day in the office thinking about the design of the tapered fork for Heidi. It needs to be slim at the tip to easily fit in the mouth, but with big enough gaps between each prong to grip food well. I spend some time sketching ideas of different shapes. The handle is also important, it would suit having a malleable material to squeeze in the palm – last time I was at The Castle I noticed that Heidi had a new stress ball, it would be good to take some of the benefits of that and apply it to the fork.

09:00: In the workshop I bend a fork in a vice. I follow the bends that worked well in Heidi’s fork last week and try to squeeze the prongs close together. It will be good to laser cut some stainless steel prototypes, and then bend appropriate forms from the flat sheet. I research local metalwork companies and there is one in Newbury that does laser cutting, so I will contact them for a quote.

10:00: Sean and I sit down to talk about my projects. We discuss the leather footrests made from Benchmark’s leftover leather. He is really pleased to see these offcuts put to such good use. When Benchmark used this material for the original client, they would have had no idea that it would become a fix, so Sean is thrilled to see it reach this second life.

11:30: The material is great quality and very strong – perfect for a footrest. I capture some close-up details of the leather to include in my FixFilm about Heidi’s footrests. Now I am in the process of editing the films for my seven fixes to date: these footrests, Heidi’s utensils, the Sugru joystick, Mrs Ellis’ food tray, the metal rack for Benchmark’s metal press, the fridge handle fix for Benchmark’s fridge and the doors for the spray room’s shelving in the workshop.

12:30: I create an ident for the films explaining a bit about the residency. This involves filming shots of the makers in the workshop and selecting clips of the film documentation I have taken of my process in the workshop.

1:00: We break for lunch – Jo makes a wonderful roasted vegetable couscous with fresh harissa.

1:30: After lunch I film a clip of Pete as he dominoes some table legs. I gather some shots of a few other people as they work through projects in the workshop, including Rob in the Mill as he processes some wood for a refurbishment.

2.30: I spend the afternoon on Premiere Pro editing the Fridge Fix film with the new ident and layout. I consider which sounds to use, the recordings of the workshop work well with the context of this film as a Benchmark fix. The overlay of text should be easier to follow than speech if played in a festival or exhibition environment.

5:00: I watch the FixFilm ‘SUNOKO for Nurses at Healthcare Center’ by Fixperts Kohei Sakata, Mizuki Minami and Yuki Takahashi from the Kyoto Institute of Technology. The problem was that students were not taking off their shoes at the entrance despite nurses leaving slippers out as a subtle hint. The Fixperts used a cultural norm to communicate this message in a stronger way to patients. From the beginning of school, children in Japan learn that when they see the slatted sunoko boards they should remove their outdoor shoes. This fix is really understated and still very successful. I like the fact that it works only in Japan, it would not be relevant in any other country, and that makes it all the more special. I begin wondering what subtle cultural hints we adhere to as I head home to Hungerford.