Designing and designers

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Designing and designers
Brian Russell
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Design Methodology

• There is no such thing as the design process

Empirical designing
Intuitive designing
Systematic designing
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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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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

• Worlds 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