design making
UC Chair Studio 2010
I made a quick visit to University of Cincinnati recently to see the fourth-year industrial design studio’s chair projects. As always, there was a broad range of solutions as the maturing students strive to refine their own points of view on design through this project. The deceptively simple chair allows for myriad possibilities when it comes to aesthetics and materials.
Many students outsourced the production of their chairs this year, possibly mirroring a general shift in design away from artifacts and towards ideas. While a very different experience than building the chair on their own, my take on this outsourcing is that the students learn a valuable skill in managing someone else to execute their vision. Ideally, UC will require some projects to be built by hand and some to be outsourced, since both are great experiences for a student to have. Check out a few of the projects here or visit my Flickr page to see a larger set.
Failsafe: Latest Article for Product Design Hub
My latest article for Product Design Hub is called Failsafe, inspired by a student who took big risks and eventually failed to finish his chair prototype on time. Through his story, my advice to design students is to take these big risks, albeit with some proper planning in advance, so that they will learn from failure, overcome their fear of it, and understand what it sometimes takes to be successful.
Why are some designers afraid of failure? The truth is that designers are more comfortable with failure than most, but the fear is so deeply ingrained in our society that we must work hard to avoid it. Over at The 99 percent, research analyst Michael Schwalbe says it best: “Ultimately, it’s the ones who barrel through the discomfort, are resilient in the face of failure, and master the last 30% of taking risk who reach the highest levels of performance.”
So as not to steal their thunder, I’ll let you read the rest of the article over at their site. If you enjoy it, I hope you’ll comment and share your thoughts with them. Thanks again to Product Design Hub team for publishing my work and to Max Schlachter for sharing his story.
Swiffer WetJet
Swiffer’s new WetJet recently hit the shelves and Kaleidoscope played a big part in the design development. The redesigned device looks purposeful and powerful; and it backs it up through new usability features.. In terms of aesthetics, we gave the design a darker, more professional purple palette and reflective wave detail to create an experience more in line with other Swiffer products. We packed in lots of usability improvements, including tent-pole construction, dual spray heads, new bottle release, stronger handle ergonomics.
From the Kaleidoscope website:
The redesigned WetJet is more marketable, easier to use, and performs better than its predecessor (which was very successful in its own right). The aesthetic improvements and enhanced performance help it win at shelf and delight in the consumer’s home, while the human factors optimizations set WetJet apart from imitators.
Must Read: Becky Bermont on Design
Some of my favorite people to work and interact with are business people who (somehow) find themselves surrounded by designers. In the consulting world, we often call these people “strategists,” but I’m sure there are lots of other names for them. The reason I find them so valuable is that they help me understand how design fits into the rest of the business world, preventing me from being myopic about design. Becky Bermont is one of those people. An MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, Becky now works alongside John Maeda as RISD’s VP of Media + Partners. Check out these two articles published by Harvard Business.
Learning from How Designers Think and Work
It’s interesting how Bermont developed her definition of design in essentially the opposite direction that most designers develop theirs. I remember going to a design strategy conference at IIT and being struck at how similar it felt to market research conferences. I see now that designers are people who can make information emotional and visceral, who can make a bigger impact by thoughtfully marrying form and content. They are “experience perfectionists”…
I like how Bermont peels away at the layers of design here. In my opinion, she’s getting close to the core. Design’s biggest value is using aesthetics (you can call it storytelling if you want) to generate both excitement and investment in a certain product or project. This value comes from a combination of design thinking and design making.
How Artist/Leaders Do Things Differently
I won’t lie — for non-artists like me, working in this leadership paradigm has taken some adjustment. But it’s an essential part of our collective commitment to leading our organization authentically. She doesn’t explicitly call it out, but the principles in this post are the heart of my personal definition of design thinking:
- Passion fuels the work
- Form and content can’t be decoupled
- Iteration is expected
- All failures are opportunities for course correction
Designers, in isolation, don’t always see the value of their process or their skills. At worst, they identify the wrong things as their strengths. Of course, the same goes for any business function; we’re at our best when observing and working together. Thanks to Becky and her peers for helping designers understand their true value!
Chair Studio
UCID Juniors recently finished their highly anticipated spring studio – the chair project. It’s an opportunity for the confident upperclassmen to put their aesthetic stamp on an iconic object. They used a nice range of materials, proportions, processes, and aesthetics, making for a really nice collection of work. For more lots more photos, check out the kydlo photostream.
Sam Amis
Brian Bjelovuk
Jenna Edgemon
David Kennedy
Kyle Lewis presents
Professor Tony Kawanari
The Devil is in the Details
Why does a MacBook feel so sensual while other laptops lack the same emotion? They’re basically the same rounded box, right? The devil is in the details.
This post continues my recent interest in how form communicates meaning. First, Gray Holland wrote about how surfaces can communicate meaning, now Joshua Maruska gets into the details of how to actually do it. Joshua does a nice demo for Alias on how to make a simple, rounded square into a high quality set of surfaces: something that looks geometric, but feels organic.
This approach isn’t always necessary, but we designers need to be aware of when these details matter and when they don’t. For a piece of consumer electronics (where aesthetics are critical), it definitely does.
Check out the rest of the article, Devil in the Details, highly recommended for anyone who knows Alias well but wants to step up their craft.
Computers for Emerging Markets: UC x HP
Last week, University of Cincinnati’s College of DAAP held it’s final critiques. Fourth-year industrial design students sponsored by HP created computer concepts for emerging markets in China, Africa, Brazil, Turkey, and India. I was at the critique and thought everything looked really nice. Here are a few photos from the crit. If you have more pics from the crit, leave a link in the comments section!
Carly Hagins presents to the legendary Tony Kawanari
Tracy Subisak
Ed Mangum
Jacob Nitz
Aaron Ricica
Nick Rudemiller
Design Thinking vs. Design Making
As DAAP defines it, design is made up of two basic components: design thinking and design making. Design thinking requires sharp observation skills, a willingness to learn (and unlearn), sympathetic attitudes, and the ability to work collaboratively. When it comes to design making, one excels by having a strong aesthetic sense, attention to detail, and visualization skills.
(Some designers are great at only one, others are okay at both, and just a few are great at both. Each of these combinations can have value to an organization if leaders know how to use them. But that’s beside the point…)
Historically, design is rooted in the more tactical design making, but design thinking is currently helping designers communicate their strategic value to businesses. Which has more lasting value? In 500 years, will the most valued designers be design thinkers, design makers, or both?
Here’s some food for thought from Dan Saffer, Bruce Nussbaum, Nick Leon, and Tim Leberecht.
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