C4 Create innovative and functional designs
As it stands I have marked this section as a '2' aka 'A basic knowledge' this is because during my degree quite a few of the modules set, were marked on how innovating and original the design or product was. Therefore, I do have some basic knowledge as to what this term means however the products that we were designing although they were somewhat innovative, there were only functional on a digital scale and therefore reliant on computers to actually function as a product alone. As a result I need to think deeper and reference this section of the audit to Design and Technology.
____________________________________________________________________
INITIAL understanding of the term 'CREATE INNOVATIVE AND FUNCTIONAL DESIGNS'...
By this term my initial perception is that as a designer you are being able to demonstrate the ability to think outside of the box by using or illustrating new methods, techniques, processes and concepts. Not only are you displaying evidence of this ability within your designs you as a designer are physically fabricating something so that it functions for the required user or targeted market.
____________________________________________________________________
What I have learnt and what I understand now ...
I now have had the opportunity to explore this area of the audit into a lot more detail and I realised that it very nicely goes hand in hand with the Design and Make module. Consequently, I now understand more then what I initially thought I did, so progress is already being made!
I have learnt that with any design that you are proposing you MUST insure that you always refer to who the product is for. The bottom line is, they are going to be using it and it needs to function with their needs in mind not the designers. The function can be innovative, if it fixes a problem you just follow a certain process - you look at a product and analysis it, you attempt to improve it, you then develop a new concept or product. I realised that innovative products are not just to do with function in fact the appearance is also a factor that aids original designs. For instance, this can relate to things like changing or experimenting with, forming and shaping materials, looking at different ways to fix materials together, combining materials or using more than one medium, and considering things like size and the logistics involved with the final product. We have also learnt that factors that undoubtedly facilitate innovation would include things like new technologies and smart and modern materials
So now that I have learnt and understand this new knowledge how have I applied it??
With the Design and Make module SKD02 the person that I was designing for was myself and this made life a lot easier, but that is not to say that I was not able to think in a innovating way. Taking into consideration my new knowledge I really tried to think outside of the box and brain storming helped me to come up with a different way of creating something which is new. I learnt that innovation can be down to shape, form, materials ect. So the reason why my piece is different and unique is because it has used materials (fizzy drink cans) which are not commonly used with furniture. So by learning this knowledge it helped me to look at designing in a different perspective. Below is an example of my cabinet.
____________________________________________________________________
INITIAL understanding of the term 'CREATE INNOVATIVE AND FUNCTIONAL DESIGNS'...
By this term my initial perception is that as a designer you are being able to demonstrate the ability to think outside of the box by using or illustrating new methods, techniques, processes and concepts. Not only are you displaying evidence of this ability within your designs you as a designer are physically fabricating something so that it functions for the required user or targeted market.
____________________________________________________________________
What I have learnt and what I understand now ...
I now have had the opportunity to explore this area of the audit into a lot more detail and I realised that it very nicely goes hand in hand with the Design and Make module. Consequently, I now understand more then what I initially thought I did, so progress is already being made!
I have learnt that with any design that you are proposing you MUST insure that you always refer to who the product is for. The bottom line is, they are going to be using it and it needs to function with their needs in mind not the designers. The function can be innovative, if it fixes a problem you just follow a certain process - you look at a product and analysis it, you attempt to improve it, you then develop a new concept or product. I realised that innovative products are not just to do with function in fact the appearance is also a factor that aids original designs. For instance, this can relate to things like changing or experimenting with, forming and shaping materials, looking at different ways to fix materials together, combining materials or using more than one medium, and considering things like size and the logistics involved with the final product. We have also learnt that factors that undoubtedly facilitate innovation would include things like new technologies and smart and modern materials
So now that I have learnt and understand this new knowledge how have I applied it??
With the Design and Make module SKD02 the person that I was designing for was myself and this made life a lot easier, but that is not to say that I was not able to think in a innovating way. Taking into consideration my new knowledge I really tried to think outside of the box and brain storming helped me to come up with a different way of creating something which is new. I learnt that innovation can be down to shape, form, materials ect. So the reason why my piece is different and unique is because it has used materials (fizzy drink cans) which are not commonly used with furniture. So by learning this knowledge it helped me to look at designing in a different perspective. Below is an example of my cabinet.
___________________________________________________
Analysis of gained knowledge and the next step
Initially I marked this section of the audit as a '2' meaning basic knowledge. Now that I have explored the area further I would say that I have really developed in this area. It has made me think a bit differently in terms of what innovating can mean in terms of function and appearance. It is obviously hard to say that you are designing something completely new because what is original these days? However, just by altering a few factors of a product already existing or changing something slightly in a design can still make it innovating.
When designing this product I think I was successful purely because I tried to use a material that is not really used much with furniture. I think this is really why my product is different to other storage cabinets. To get to this point, I just applied the knowledge that I digested from many of the taught sessions, we were told to think outside the box, experiment with materials, just by doing things like this and brain storming I feel that it has helped me to be successful. The downside to this is that because I was working with a new and foreign materiel, I could have done a few more tests and trails to save some time because I was not sure how it was going to be manipulated whether it was going to react to the glue and which way looked better. I think perhaps that is down to time management though.
My next step would now to dig deeper into the term innovative design, maybe what could help me is being up to date with new technologies, smart and modern materials and perhaps even generating a portfolio of design websites and magazines this will aid me to be more innovating with my designs. So the next step will be to hopefully display further projects but also examples of sources that have helped me to get inspiration and to explore with the function of a existing product, perhaps looking at how it can be better and changed to fit its purpose and make more functional for the user.
____________________________________________________________________
Analysis of gained knowledge and the next step
Initially I marked this section of the audit as a '2' meaning basic knowledge. Now that I have explored the area further I would say that I have really developed in this area. It has made me think a bit differently in terms of what innovating can mean in terms of function and appearance. It is obviously hard to say that you are designing something completely new because what is original these days? However, just by altering a few factors of a product already existing or changing something slightly in a design can still make it innovating.
When designing this product I think I was successful purely because I tried to use a material that is not really used much with furniture. I think this is really why my product is different to other storage cabinets. To get to this point, I just applied the knowledge that I digested from many of the taught sessions, we were told to think outside the box, experiment with materials, just by doing things like this and brain storming I feel that it has helped me to be successful. The downside to this is that because I was working with a new and foreign materiel, I could have done a few more tests and trails to save some time because I was not sure how it was going to be manipulated whether it was going to react to the glue and which way looked better. I think perhaps that is down to time management though.
My next step would now to dig deeper into the term innovative design, maybe what could help me is being up to date with new technologies, smart and modern materials and perhaps even generating a portfolio of design websites and magazines this will aid me to be more innovating with my designs. So the next step will be to hopefully display further projects but also examples of sources that have helped me to get inspiration and to explore with the function of a existing product, perhaps looking at how it can be better and changed to fit its purpose and make more functional for the user.
____________________________________________________________________
Further development in this area
In all honesty, I personally found that being INNOVATIVE as a designer was initially quite difficult. However for our new module 'DESIGN INNOVATION' Bhav taught us a really useful exercise to aid innovative ideas. Below are some examples of the task.
Generally I found this really interesting and it made me think about the term innovation in a different way. I discovered that the most important thing when being a innovative designer is not to just create a great new product with new materials, or a new manufacturing process that is out of this world, but actually is to concentrate on a genuine need and coming up with a solution.
At first I felt that as a designer trying to be innovative was really hard, I also struggled in being imaginative and creative straight away but I have learnt and realised that it is not that Eureka moment or principle that gets you a concept, its actually you as a designer looking at problems or genuine needs, things that really frustrate you as a user or consumer and in turn being able to think and create something that can make it better.
What I felt quite helpful during the early stages of the design innovation module was to just look at sites for inspiration they helped me to get my mind thinking about ideas for my own project. I have decided to just document them here because they might be useful for me to refer back to at a later date in my career.
At first I felt that as a designer trying to be innovative was really hard, I also struggled in being imaginative and creative straight away but I have learnt and realised that it is not that Eureka moment or principle that gets you a concept, its actually you as a designer looking at problems or genuine needs, things that really frustrate you as a user or consumer and in turn being able to think and create something that can make it better.
What I felt quite helpful during the early stages of the design innovation module was to just look at sites for inspiration they helped me to get my mind thinking about ideas for my own project. I have decided to just document them here because they might be useful for me to refer back to at a later date in my career.
- http://www.designswan.com/archives/10-innovative-products-working-without-electricity.html
- http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/
- http://designmuseum.org/
- http://www.designspotter.com/products
- http://www.funzug.com/index.php/informative-zone/inventions-that-make-our-life-easier.html
Below is a image of my design innovation project. I think that it is quite a unique piece of furniture and hopefully demonstrates that I can create designs with a innovative approach.
Professional Year Further Development
I found this really nice website today which helped me to draw together some ideas for my teaching aid in systems and control. I wanted to store the link here because personally I think that some of these designs are innovative and may like to refer to this at a later point. Here is the link! http://www.instructables.com/