What Do I Know?

 During todays class, we looked at how well we know our subject area. We were given a set of four questions to answer to see how well we know our progression route. 

What should I be doing in my subject area?

 The primary source of inspiration for product design was Marc Newson. I randomly stumbled across Marc Newson about 5 years ago as I was doing a project on furniture for my design and technology class. Ever since then, I have been consistently following his work and admiring it along the way. 

This made me very passionate about furniture design and how thoughts can be combined to form a product that solves a specific problem. I have encountered problems such as lack of space or productivity and I was always very enticed by the concept of creating a piece of furniture that can increase quality of life by solving a problem that a designer can also relate to. 

I am aiming to create products that will benefit and stand out in the market over the years. My goal is to create products that will make a difference in the quality of life of the individuals using them. Dizz concept was a company that made me passionate about conservation of space, sustainability and innovation. Through their designs I picked up on new techniques and how simple things can make drastic differences. I am definitely keen on designing furniture as I am fascinated by the way research and innovation can impact one design. 

Even though I am very keen on designing furniture, my biggest passion is to design products for disabled people. I am hesitant on working on such a product in my foundation year as I feel like there is not enough time to complete proper research and development for such a major problem. However, I am definitely planning on creating products that will solve such problems in the future. 

What skills and knowledge do I need for my subject area?

Properly filtering and evaluating information regarding research is a very important aspect of product design. An individual should be able to successfully research, analyse and point out the features in the design that could be inspiring to them. 

Additionally, I feel like a product designer should be able to approach a situation being unbiased so they can develop it correctly when it comes to user requirements. 

A product designer needs to be able to have an equal creative and hands on approach and a technical approach. They need to be able to work on software and design complex things to visually understand how their design would look in real life. They need to be able to replicate their idea to the screen. 

Being aware of the materials and processes you have available is a crucial factor. You need to be able to know the properties of materials to see which one is more suitable for your own design. 

You need to be able to spot a solution and then creatively develop a project for that. Simultaneously, you need to spot out your competitors in the market and see how your product will be different and stand out from theirs. 

What jobs can I get by studying in this subject?

Product design is a vast field that enables you to be involved in various aspects of the design industry. I was not aware by the amount of jobs you can get with product design as I was only interested in designing products. However, after some research I realised that there are opportunities such as advertising art director, automotive engineer, graphics design, product manager, production designer for theatre/ television or film, CAD technician etc. 

This made me realise that with my degree, I have the opportunity to branch out and try various other aspects of the design industry. Although this was exciting, the only thing that entices me at the moment is designing products. I wanna work for companies such as Dizz Concept and work with known product designers that have similar goals to what I do. I want to eventually see my products making a difference in the market and inspiring people. I am aware that this will not come in the near future, which only makes me more dedicated to my studies and absorbing as much knowledge as possible. I always try to put in 100% of my effort in assignments and projects in order to reflect my capabilities and make sure that I benefit from these as much as possible.

In the long run, I am hoping to see myself working alongside other designer, or perhaps even starting my own company. Starting my own design company that includes architects, interior and product designers, graphics designers and engineers is the ultimate goal. I would be able to combine forces with various other people from different aspect of the same field to create effective and efficient products that would make a difference in terms of sustainability, aesthetics and functions. 

If I scored myself out of ten, with ten being the highest, how well do I think I know my own subject area?

I would score myself a 3 out of 10. Scoring myself any higher than that would be unrealistic. I do know my subject area in a good depth, however, I am nowhere near as good as I could potentially get. My software skills are not the best as I am still trying to improve that drastically. I do know the process of designing a product, however, after doing a task on my book review I realised how many of the technical definitions I am not aware of. I found out many interesting things and definitions from that book which I was not aware of. It would be extremely helpful to continue reading that book as I gained a lot from the short section I read. 

Even though I am happy with the progress I am making, I still believe that there is loads of room for improvement. I need to be more involved with the marketing and business side of a product in order to be aware of how it operates.

I need to be more aware of the costs in the process. Additionally, I need to start working on multiple things simultaneously to ensure that everything is being covered at the same time. I need improved sketches and more accurate descriptions of my product. I need to start using software more to increase those skills. 

Additionally, I need to dedicate more time to prototyping and testing. In my previous project for the last term, I did a bit of testing which was extremely beneficial. I need to test more aspects and ensure that the product will be effective. 

Taking Marc Newson as an example, he is a 10. Comparing myself to Marc Newson, I am no where near to his level. This is expected as I am still young and have a lot to learn along the way. However, this makes me realise how much work and effort it takes to become an expert in the field. 

We were then assigned to answer a few more questions:

What do you think would be useful for you to start learning now to enhance your work at DMUIC in your subject area? 

I need to improve in all aspects of product design, however, I feel like a made a large improvement on research. This term, I want to focus more on software skills, analysing skills, development skills, prototyping and creating more professional design boards. 

Additionally, I need to dig deeper into materials and the cost of everything. I am not very good at estimating or pointing out suitable materials for a product which is a skill vital to acquire for the future. 

I need to learn how to form a better connection with my target market and always refer back to them when I need assistance. Third party feedback is always beneficial as it helps you understand if you're headed in the right direction.

One thing that I did not do a lot last term was to link other artists work with my own. I started doing this in this term as I always see what is positive in one design and how I can implement it in my own. I have noticed that there is a drastic difference to the amount of ideas I have as I am constantly thinking of how I can manipulate features from one designers work and make them into something unique.

Last term, due to the lack of time, I did not complete enough research on design boards. My design board were not as professional as I did not get the opportunity to play around with the layout and filter the content. This term, I need to focus on researching my design boards and ensuring that they are at a high standard to support my work.

What would be particularly useful to the project you are carrying out now?

It would be extremely valuable to develop my software skills and rendering skills. Last term, the execution of my design on software took up a lot more time than what I was expecting which made me run out of time eventually. I need to also learn how to use adobe illustrator in more depth as I will be designing my design boards on it. 

Additionally, I want to focus more on developing my work as I did not have sufficient development last term. I think I already covered most of the things that I want to improve in my term, however, my priority is software skills. This is the primary reason as to why I chose to design all 6 items on software and not by hand. 

What could you do to challenge yourself?

I feel like the goals for this term are already challenging enough. I have to design and develop all my ideas and then design 6 items on software. I find this to be very challenging as we are already in week 5 and I have not started to develop them yet. 

I also have to create design boards for all my items which will be very time consuming and challenging. I think the work for this term can be a lot to handle, but I love challenging myself as I enjoy watching my hard work pay off at the end. 

What 2D skills do you need to enhance? 

I need to start dedicating more time to my sketches to ensure that they are more accurate and resemble the real life outcome. I need to work on my illustrator skills to have maximum, professional outcomes. My technical drawing and perspectives need some enhancing to be more precise. Additionally, orthographic drawings, renderings need to be more high quality and I need to find good software for this. 

In conclusion, I feel like this was a very valuable task. It made me sit down and organise my thoughts when it comes to product design. Rating myself a 3 out of 10 was definitely very motivating as I like setting a challenge to improve every day. I wrote down my goals for the term and I am dedicated to work hard to achieve them.