Developing Ideas Exercise: The mountain valley

During the previous term, we completed an in class task where we were required to develop our ideas using a specific method. 

I tend to be very overwhelmed at the beginning of the term with the overflow of ideas and I noticed that this exercise was one of the most beneficial exercises for me. It helped me gather my thoughts on paper and also allowed me to further generate some more. I started noting down many ideas in previous blog posts, so I wanted to add my top ideas on this exercise. 

This task is called the mountain valley: where you look at your ideas and rank them from best to worst (top of the mountain to the bottom).

This was my mountain:

At the bottom of the mountain is the idea of including 5 products only related to the stone era. Even though my concept is inspired by that era, I would love to add a modern twist to this and create something more broad and unique which matches the modern aesthetics. 

The next idea moving upwards was to create a collection of 5 different products. I find this idea very basic as I completed it in previous terms. Exploring 5 different products can also be very tricky as the research behind it can be very brief. Last term, I barely had any research for the steps of my designs or the ergonomics and anthropometrics. 

The next ideas was to create high end furniture. Considering my target market (20-35 years old), most people would not be able to afford it. I do not want to restrict my target market, therefore, I want to use sustainable and affordable materials. 

The next idea was the one that generated all the above. The idea to create a collection of 5 same products with different aesthetics. I was not satisfied with the research behind some products last term as I did not have sufficient time to explore them in depth. Therefore, this idea came to mind, where I would have the opportunity to explore the function and ergonomics of one product which will apply to the rest too. 

The difference between the previous suggestion and the next one was that the previous one would have products that have the same style. To elaborate on that point, if I end up creating a lamp, I would create 5 desk lamps with different aesthetics. However, adding different styles of lamps (desk lamp, ceiling lamp, wall lamp, stand lamp) would increase the functions of the collection and make it more broad and unique. I do not want to explore the same style of product, I want to create a diverse collection of various functions. 

In between the previous idea and my favourite one there is a box saying 'modern twist products'. This shows that I am very intrigued to combine stone era aesthetics and modern era aesthetics to produce something very original. Combining these two eras together can mean that I can possibly consider combining stone (stone era) with a material that is used for modern products (glass for example.) This will be further examined in future blog posts.

 The last idea was to create 5 variations of one product that show an evolutionary process. To elaborate on this point, I could perhaps take different eras in time and create a progressively more modern collection. This will allow me to explore more eras and develop more outcomes with a variation of colours and materials.

Conclusion: I really enjoyed this exercise. I really like the final idea and I will start brainstorming ways to accomplish this.