Welcome to session 3 of our introduction to design.
Warm-up exercises
Now before we go further it is important to get warmed up. As every week there are three parts to this process.
1 min – draw straight
1 min – draw spirals – start at the middle and work outward. Make your spiral as tight as possible but if your lines touch start again
5 min – now pick a house hold item near by and draw it either in isometric (you will want triangle paper for this) or using two point perspective.
Whilst warming up watch the video which will talk you through the two different types of drawing.
Convergent design
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.
Iteration
Can you think of any examples of convergent design? Can you draw how the solution has developed over time?
Example
Have you ever made a prototype? If so when? Maybe at school, maybe at home, maybe in minecraft.
Want to find out more?
In 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
‘Stuff Matters: The Strange Stories of the Marvellous Materials that Shape Our Man-made World’, Mark Miodownik, Penguin, 2014. I read this book recently and absolutely loved it, especially the chapter on chocolate. This book talks about materials in a way which is interesting and accessible. If we plan on making our designs we need to understand the materials we are going to use and this is a great place to start.
Watch this
This is a lovely video showing how a Lego submarine was designed iteratively – Building a Lego-powered Submarine 2.0 – magnetic couplings
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 Ralph Giles. Ralph Giles designs cars and he talks through his design process and where he takes inspiration from. (48 mins) https://youtu.be/vzJuhOn3Y58
Time to have a go
In every session there will be activities to try out.
Activity 1 – Make it better (1 hour)
Choose a house hold object, especially if you finding it frustrating, and iterate the design.
What is wrong with the design?
Now try and answer one of the following questions:
How could it be better?
How could it be cheaper?
How could it have a lower environmental impact?
How could it be easier to use?
Finally draw your new design. Or even better try and make it.
Oh and when I said and finally one of the things about iterative design is that you never reach the end – there is no perfect solution – so what I really meant was go back to the begging and now ask the same questions of your new design.
Activity 2 – Keep a creative scrap book (1 hour)
So this isn’t a new activity – but I would encourage you to keep going. Capture what you’ve read or seen. Maybe also think about things you’d like to learn more about and write a list.
< Go back to Drawing & design – session 2 Go to Drawing & design – session 4 >