The “Kalideascope”
Welcome to session 2 of our introduction to design. As a structural engineer I have designed lot’s of buildings. But as engineers you will be covering a much wider range of problems than just building design. As a result I thought I would include some design projects I have worked on outside of engineering. This time I will talk about a record I designed.
Warm-up exercises
Now before we go further it is important to get warmed up. As for every session, there are three parts to this process.
1 min – draw straight lines – try to make them as long and straight as possible. Use your whole arm. And keep practicing.
1 min – draw circles – try and make them as round as possible. Remember if you go round twice your eye will approximate a perfect circle.
8 min – now pick a house hold item near by and draw it in plan, elevation and section.
Whilst warming up watch the video which will talk you through the three activities.
So now you are warmed up – it’s time to learn a bit more about design. Watch these three videos. Keep your paper and pencil ready, and after each one follow the short activities.
Pop on a 1 minute timer and write down everything you can see around you that’s been designed (or even better pop on a ten minute timer and draw everything you can see around you that’s been designed).
Now for each item answer these three questions as best you can:
1. Who designed it?
2. What engineering was considered in the design?
3. What is the consequence of the item breaking and how likely is this?
Can you think of some examples of the following:
The context of a project?
The creative individual?
Society?
If you’re not sure where to start pick one of the items on your list and try and break it down. For example – my espresso mug.
The context or brief is that it needs to hold coffee.
For society the coffee cup is a ‘type’ (we referred to typology) we know it’s a coffee mug before we see any coffee in it.
The creative individual has taken this object and added a twist – the paint dribbling down the sides and onto the saucer.
The idea of the Kalideascope comes from Oli Broadbent. If you would like to find out more you can read his very nice blog on ‘How to have ideas’.
http://eiffelover.com/how-to-have-ideas-guidance-for-engineers-and-other-humans/
In addition Oli wrote a chapter for my book on conceptual design of buildings (IStructE 2020) which you will hopefully come across if you study Civil Engineering.
Want to find out more?
For each session we will highlight some further resources where you can find out more – these are not essential but if you are interested you might find them interesting.
Book Suggestion
‘Do Design – Why beauty is key to everything’, Alan Moore, The Do Book Co, 2016.
I have enjoyed many books by the Do Book company. This one focus’s on design in the very broadest sense. It includes examples of engineering design but also many other types. But it also talks about the art and creativity in design.
Watch this
Bridge Engineer Angus Low talks about his approach to bridge design (7 mins) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TP0S4qVK5o
James Dyson talks about what makes a design engineer (2 mins) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD6d8Em8q5A
Find out more
Netflix have run two series on the Art of Design – the first series is now also available on YouTube – I recommend watching a different episode alongside every one of these sessions. This time I recommend this video about Paula Scher. She is an incredible and highly influential graphic designer (so not an engineer) but she talks about where her ideas come from, what inspires her, and likes to doodle and sketch (41 mins) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCfBYE97rFk
Time to have a go
In every session there are activities to try out.
Activity 1 – Design a home school (1 hour)
For this session I would like you to have a go at designing a home school. For you. In your home.
You might want to think about some of the following questions:
Where will it go?
Is it permanent or temporary?
Does it need to be packed down at the end of the day?
How much space do you need?
These questions are part of the brief and context.
Next what is a school like?
What do you need to be able to go to school at home?
What parts of a school ‘type’ can we learn from?
These questions are part of the societal knowledge of school.
Finally what has frustrated you about learning from home?
What have you learnt from learning from home?
What is helping or hindering you in doing this exercise right now?
What ideas can you bring to the design which come from your own interests, reading, past times or activities?
These are your inputs as a creative individual.
Now get out some paper and think and draw. Don’t just come up with one idea, try and come out with as many as you can. Try and rate them, which one is the best? What can you learn from other ideas to make it even better. Don’t worry if this is tricky – we will be covering some more ideas on design over the next two weeks which might make it easier.
Activity 2 – Keep a creative scrap book
The second activity is to start investing in your creative “pension” by keeping a record of anything you find interesting, inspiring, challenging. Add photos. Sketches. Notes. Books. Blogs. Documentaries. Podcasts. Date them. Add a few words to say why you’ve included them. Don’t feel precious about them. Start by scribbling on the first page so every other page will be “better”.
Alternatively do this on line. Create a blog. Or website. Or just use Instagram. But curate it and focus on the value it brings to you and not the number of views or likes you might get.
Or you can do what I do and take photos of everything. And create albums and file them together.
This might seem like a small activity but there are four things to consider:
1. Doing it now will create a habit.
2. Employers will Love Love Love it when you go for interview.
3. Large engineering firms do exactly the same thing. I believe if you work at Dyson all your thoughts and ideas and questions are recorded in notebooks and filed away. Then if (when) you have a brilliant idea and file for a patent you have a record of it.
4. the more you do it the better you will get at it until you suddenly discover its actually quite fun.
And finally if it seems too much like hard work (and I am sure it will at times) remember that most people won’t do it – so if you do it will be a key differentiator when you go for a job.
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