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Designers and designing
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Exam expectations
Issues associated with how we design and famous designers are regularly tested in the written paper.
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Empirical designing
• Trial and error designing• Modelling most likely route
Dyson use modelling and testing as their preferred method of designing
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Intuitive designing
• Sum of past knowledge• Often very specialised areas
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Systematic designing
• Separate discreet stages• Sub-systems often dealt with by
others• Teamwork most common
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Where do we get new ideas?
• Nature• Geometry/mathematics• The man-made world• Other designers• Other products
Rarely from looking at a piece of blank paper!
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Nature
• Patterns and texture• Structure and form• Colour
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Observational work of plants
Designers such as William Morris have used detailed drawings of plants to create new designs
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Looking at anatomy
George Carwardine designed the first Anglepoise lamp in the 1930s based upon how the human arm works
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Geometry & mathematics
Geometry and mathematics is all around us
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Islamic design
• Mathematics is a strong influence • Based on grid patterns
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Celtic design
• Still a popular influence today• Based on geometric grids
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Fibonacci series
• A series of numbers to create well proportioned rectangles
• 1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89• Any adjacent numbers
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Geometric form
• Particularly used in architecture and some domestic products
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Grids
• Often the starting point for textile designs
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Geodesic domes
• Very strong structures based on geometric shapes
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Existing products
• Which came first?
Ideas are often developed from existing products
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Retro design
• Modern products based on styling from the past
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Design Icons
Classic design• Innovative• Often copied
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Philippe Starck
• Often unusual• Always fun• Not always practical
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James Dyson
• Best known for the innovative cleaners
• Strong use of colour and form
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Jonathan Ive
• Senior VP at Apple • Innovative styling and micro
electronics
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Robin Day
• World’s best selling chair• Developed polypropylene
moulding techniques
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Mary Quant
• Led the sixties look• Short skirts• Geometric designs
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Philip Treacy
• Unusual forms
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Richard Sapper
• High Tech• Post Modernism
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Giorgio Armani
• Softer suits• Lightweight fabrics• Well tailored
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Charles Rennie Mackintosh
• Mix of geometry and stylised natural form
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Vernon Panton
• Exciting plastic furniture
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Henry Beck
• London Underground map• Format copied around the world
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Arne Jacobsen
• Futuristic at the time• Laminated plywood
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Design movements
• Arts & Crafts movement• Art Nouveau• Art Deco• Bauhaus• De Stijl• Modernism• Memphis• Post Modernism
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Art Nouveau
• Nature a strong influence
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Art Deco
• Geometry a strong influence• High glamour
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Bauhaus
• First real attempt to train product designers• Form follows function
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De Stijl
• Absolute abstraction• Simple slabs • Primary colours, black & white
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Memphis
• Surface pattern• Strong colours• Rebellion
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Market Pull
• The market place creates consumer demand
• Sometimes the demand is created by the manufacturers
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Technology Push
• R&D labs are constantly developing new technologies
• Scientists often provide the driving force behind new products