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13.02.19 Introduction of course syllabus
An essay by Dan Saffer “Form in Design”.
Midterm Assignment: Inspiring Designers
Ron Arad- Thomas Heatherwick- Ichiro Iwasaki- Karim Rashid
20.02.19 A very short introduction to cognitive aspects of Creativity
Designers give”Form”, they “Create”. What is creativity? How this concept defined in cognitive psychology literature? How our brains form creative ideas?
A movie “Inside out” inspired by the psychoevolutionary theory of Robert Plutchnik.
27.02.19 Creative design process
Combination, Mutation, Analogy, Design from 1st principles, Emergent Structure
06.03.19 About the design process and formal features of products.
What are the essential elements of the design process? Is there a designer’s checklist? What is the importance of form?
The Form Giving Exercise
The first part of this exercise, lasting one week, dealing with a formal analysis of a home appliance chosen from a given list of categories: kitchen scales, coffee/tea machines, toasters, food processors and electric squeezers. Students, grouped in teams of three, is asked to choose a product category and to collect 10-15 products images taken from visual media; the main criterion of choice is that these products should have a well recognizable aspect. In more details, the choice have to be made according to their geometry and composition.
After this phase, each students team choose one of the home-appliances and analyzed it according to a list of six formal features: Geometry, composition, proportion, dimension, color and texture, material and finishing.?They are also required to define the product “character” (modern, classic, masculine, feminine, etc...) basing on the individuated features.
In the second part of the exercise, lasting one weeks, each student is asked to apply the character of the analyzed product to a new one, chosen in the initial list of product categories; for instance, if a team analyzed the character of an electric squeezer, one student had to apply the same character to a toaster, another one to a kitchen scale and the third one to a coffee machine.?Students therefore will try to apply to the new product the distinctive formal features previously identified. ?
13.03.19 The Form Giving Exercise
Studio group work on understanding and analyzing formal features of a chosen product.
20.03.19 Midterm Assignment Presentations
Discussions on inspirational motives.
03.04.19 Design process: Inspiration
Discussions on inspirational motives. Where does the spark comes from? What is the difference between influence, reference, inspiration? How to deal with sparks?
03.04.19 Form Giving Approaches
Organic, geometric, abstract, figurative, narrative, symbolic, iconic.
A sketching exercise on abstraction and achieving a 3D form.
10.04.19 The Form Giving Exercise studio work
17.04.19 Transforming abstract concepts to concrete form
The Form Giving Exercise to the Non-Obvious
For this exercise, students will obtain different desserts and required to design a packaging expressing the various tastes through color and form.
The detailed project brief will be announced.
24.04.19 The Form Giving Exercise to the Non-Obvious
Studio work and critiques.
08.05.19 The Form Giving Exercise to the Non-Obvious
Studio work and critiques.
15.05.19 Final Project Presentations
***Final Project schedule subject to change. |