My Rugged Placement Year - Daniel Harvey

In 2014, I had a week of work experience at Rugged Interactive back when they were Fowey based. I recalled it as a small-scale company with a great team. Looking back at my week there, it was definitely what solidified my decision to study Product Design at Bournemouth University.

Within the first week of starting my placement year at Rugged, it was clear how much the company had moved forward in terms of scale and production - whilst still maintaining the fun, close-knit work environment I remembered from my work experience.

The first step of starting my placement at Rugged was moving down to Cornwall. I’m from Surrey which is less remote and far from the realms of a beach or coastline walk. One aspect I had to get accustomed to when moving down to the coast, was how dependent you are on your car. Lucky for me, I found this out the hard way when my car broke down and I had to rely on public transport for a week...

Other than transport, the Cornish are very talkative and welcoming, making it super easy to get know them and feel settled - the same goes for Team Rugged!

I currently work in the workshop as a production/design assistant. My work comprises of assembly, testing and coming up with more effective ways of storing components. Alongside this work, I get assigned design tasks such as idea and concept generation, illustrator work and research.

There have been many work highlights during my placement. They include designing a multi-sport indoor arena concept, developing a new way to store graphic sheets in the workshop, and designing new components and test rigs for products - every day is different so there's never a case of the Monday blues!

During my time here the most important thing I’ve learnt is self-reliance, whether it be at home or the workplace. If you’re thinking of doing a placement at Rugged, I’d say go for it. As a small company, there are so many opportunities to try something new and Cornwall is a great place to live.

#RatherbeRugged.

by Daniel Harvey