Now this is seriously cool. This weekend, some of the country’s most talented artists will fill an empty school down the street from us with works of art that highlight the issues involved in education reform.
RE:FORM is being planned by REDU, a movement powered by people and technology that seeks to rethink, reform, and rebuild US education. If you’re in the New York area, this event can’t be missed. And if not, you can still get involved at letsredu.com.
Sigh… if only we were MIT first-years. Then we’d be able to “Discover Product Design” with this beyond-cool week-long pre-orientation program run by the MIT Ideation Lab, which wrapped up last month. Justin Lai, the mechanical engineering PhD student who organized the project, led students through five days of campus lab tours, visits to design firms, and fun exercises and activities. The students documented their experience through a photo essay project, which is now posted online.
Even if we can’t go back to school this fall — ’cause no matter how fond our memories, who really liked all that homework anyway? — there’s no reason we can’t get back into learning mode. The Ideation Lab’s resource list is an excellent place to start. Here are some other must-visit product design resource destinations from the Quirky Design Staff:
Core77 — “provides a gathering point for designers and enthusiasts alike by producing design competitions, lecture series, parties, and exhibits.” They also publish articles, discussion forums, an extensive event calendar, hosts portfolios, job listings, a database of design firms, schools, vendors and services.
Coroflot — “the largest, most established, most diverse pool of professional creative portfolios in the world.” They also offer groups and an advice blog.
IDSketching — A blog from a group of industrial designers who “love sketching and love helping others.”
IDSA — The big kahuna of industrial design resource sites, IDSA is “the world’s oldest, largest, member-driven society for product design, industrial design, interaction design, human factors, ergonomics, design research, design management, universal design and related design fields.” Their education section is brimming with info.
Enjoy, and don’t hesitate to send us Apples as thanks.
Photos courtesy of the DPD 2010 Flickr feed.
Over the next few weeks, Brian will be telling you about the different types of software used by the Quirky Design Staff to create those shiny vector illustrations and photo-realistic renders. Today, Graphite.
The design department at Quirky uses many types of software. Each one lends itself to its own area of expertise, providing a very specific set of tools to help get the job done. Whether you’re using a two dimensional graphic program laying out a vector illustration or virtually sculpting a CAD model to render out into a photorealistic image, when these applications are used sequentially they act as a software relay-team.
Our design process initially starts with research and hand sketching to establish a general direction. Once a path is established, we will start to introduce software into the mix and begin the transition from sketch to screen.
Graphite is a type of drafting program that we use during this early phase. It allows us to create orthogonal line drawings that assist in understanding layout, proportion, and scale. A quick hand sketch can elude to detail but not actually provide enough information for construction, this program helps the user define these elements and become more concrete with their design.
Another benefit of this program is the speed with which you can produce multiple variations around one design concept. Take, for instance, the following tool variations. Can you guess the product?
Producing options to pick from early on most often will yield a better end result. At this point we often jump away from our computers and begin the mock up phase for testing. Since our vellum drawings are mostly done at full scale, we can print them out to use as guidelines to cut the form out of foam, cardboard, wood, metal etc.
Hey folks,
So we realize from the comments on last week’s Cloak prototyping video blog post that there may be a little bit of confusion about what a prototype IS, exactly. Now we know that some of our community members are fluent in the language of product development, but we also know that there are countless more who aren’t. We’re happy to educate, with help from the fine folks at Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototype
Basic prototype categories
Proof-of-Principle Prototype (Model) (also called a breadboard). This type of prototype is used to test some aspect of the intended design without attempting to exactly simulate the visual appearance, choice of materials or intended manufacturing process. Such prototypes can be used to “prove” out a potential design approach such as range of motion, mechanics, sensors, architecture, etc. …
Form Study Prototype (Model). This type of prototype will allow designers to explore the basic size, look and feel of a product without simulating the actual function or exact visual appearance of the product. They can help assess ergonomic factors and provide insight into visual aspects of the product’s final form. Form Study Prototypes are often hand-carved or machined models from easily sculpted, inexpensive materials (e.g., urethane foam), without representing the intended color, finish, or texture …
Visual Prototype (Model) will capture the intended design aesthetic and simulate the appearance, color and surface textures of the intended product but will not actually embody the function(s) of the final product. These models will be suitable for use in market research, executive reviews and approval, packaging mock-ups, and photo shoots for sales literature.
Functional Prototype (Model) (also called a working prototype) will, to the greatest extent practical, attempt to simulate the final design, aesthetics, materials and functionality of the intended design. The functional prototype may be reduced in size (scaled down) in order to reduce costs. The construction of a fully working full-scale prototype and the ultimate test of concept, is the engineers’ final check for design flaws and allows last-minute improvements to be made before larger production runs are ordered.
Differences between a prototype and a production design
In general, prototypes will differ from the final production variant in three fundamental ways:
Materials. Production materials may require manufacturing processes involving higher capital costs than what is practical for prototyping. Instead, engineers or prototyping specialists will attempt to substitute materials with properties that simulate the intended final material.
Processes. Often expensive and time consuming unique tooling is required to fabricate a custom design. Prototypes will often compromise by using more flexible processes.
Lower fidelity. Final production designs often require extensive effort to capture high volume manufacturing detail. Such detail is generally unwarranted for prototypes as some refinement to the design is to be expected. Often prototypes are built using very limited engineering detail as compared to final production intent.
The Cloak prototype Ben tooled around with in the video is a Functional Prototype, which is our “final check” on the product’s workability. To be clear: it’s not the final product! Just wanted to clear that up. =)
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