when it rains, it pours…

I just got back from the IDSA portfolio review, and I don’t think it could have been worse. I don’t really know where to begin… I’m just starting to put together a new portfolio, and I’m not completely done. I do have two projects in it now, and I made sure to tell people that it’s just a work in progress. I just wanted some general feedback and advice. Apparently, that advice is just that I suck and should probably give up. Someone literally said to me that out of ten people, they wouldn’t hire me, and I should spend every single day from now until graduation trying to get better at sketching. Actually, that last comment was prefaced by looking at a page which had some sketches on it, asking me what year I am, and then telling me that I suck at sketching…probably in the meanest way possible. I mean, I feel like that review went beyond “critique” and more into the “attack” category. I don’t know if it’s just because I’m so tired from staying up all night so much working on projects, or if it was just that bad, but I did go cry in the bathroom after that review. It’s a little shameful to admit it, but I did. I mean, I’ve been struggling with some of this stuff for so long that I feel like I won’t ever be able to get it right. A few posts ago, I was questioning whether or not I’m really cut out to be a designer–maybe this evening was a definitive “No, you’re not.”

I don’t want this to hurt my progress on the current project. I’ve just got to keep pushing for another week, and then I’ll have a little rest. I don’t want to let this evening stand in the way of finishing the project I’ve worked SO hard on for the past few weeks. I just don’t know how to deal with this. It would be nice to have a job where I can actually tell whether or not I’m doing a good job and not have to rely solely on someone else’s opinion. I mean, I seriously thought I had some solid work to show in the portfolio review, but I got ripped apart in a whole new way.

I hate everything right now.

so much to do…

I’ve started getting a reputation for always being in studio. That’s a first for me. My typical approach is to get things done as quickly and efficiently as possible, meeting the minimum requirements. This project is going much differently—I’ve been up all night in studio, just trying to start bringing some things together. I feel like I’ve probably inhaled at least a few ounces of pink foam.

It’s finally starting to come together, but there’s still so much to do! I think it’s because I’m designing three products, each of which has more than one function. That’s a lot to tackle, and I don’t want it to be a crappy project. It would be so easy to just half-heartedly crank some stuff out, but I want this project to be really solid. I need something that can really make my portfolio, and at this point, this has to be it. None of my other projects are at this level. Stressful, anyone?

This afternoon, I took a trip to look at some other kitchen appliances. I wanted to do some benchmarking—see how my concepts stack up to the competition. I looked at interfaces and little mechanical details that will help make my concepts seem more realistic. At the risk of identifying myself as the creepy person taking pictures in Target for an hour, I’m going to share some of what I saw…

I’ve got some big plans and lots of things I want to have done by Friday, so I’m off!

oww….

Guy Uses Laser-Etch Machine to Tattoo Himself

That’s insane…and probably really, really painful.

so much for knocking…

…opportunity is pretty much beating down my door. Yesterday, I got some fantastic news–the College of Architecture at Georgia Tech is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and there will be a big celebration/bonanza/party at the end of the semester. For the event, Tristan Al Haddad will be creating another installation for the Architecture building, and my furniture design class will be designing, fabricating, and installing the seating for the event!  The overall focus of the class is to design parametrically, so that a design can be easily adapted and customized while maintaining design intent, and the installation will be focused on reactivity, kinetic motion, how the body exists in space, and “first spaces.”

Some questions to drive our design:

How can one systematize not so that the design becomes fixed but so it becomes flexible?

How can we define structure? Structure is simply parts and the relationships between them.

I feel like this opportunity is a once-in-a-lifetime deal–also like our studio trip to New York. I never imagined how rich this semester would be… I might not sleep much between now and April, but I feel like these next few months are going to be some of the most rewarding ones of my life!
Over the weekend, I need to work on building a portfolio, finalize the form for my kitchen appliances, develop the interface for the appliances, create a mood board for the furniture project, finish up my Alias project, and study for the materials exam. I better get to work!

building blocks

What’s most important in design? It isn’t creativity alone. It is creativity and knowledge…knowledge of the materials, the structures, and the processes. Design is not just about knowing what something will look like. It’s about knowing how it will get there. It’s not just the result; it’s the process.

—Andres Cavieres

Yesterday I was fortunate to hear a lecture from one of the researchers at the AWPL (Advanced Wood Products Laboratory), Andres Cavieres. He’s working on parametric modeling software for buildings and masonry…really interesting stuff. So, the basic idea is that architects are somewhat limited in their design because it costs more to build a really “different” looking building since the components need to be custom-made. Some architects, like Frank Gehry, do make really different buildings, but the form of the building isn’t structural—it’s just a veneer. So, what’s the point? Yes, it’s an interesting looking building, but it’s artificial, and it’s quite expensive. By creating a modeling software based on parametrics, the idea is that an architect could have more freedom in the design. The software is “smart,” so it’s been programmed with data about structural load requirements, dimensions of standard building components, etc. An architect would be able to create a rudimentary CAD model of a building in any program, then import it into the parametrics program and have a CAD model which could potentially go directly into construction. I don’t know too much about architecture, but it seems pretty freaking cool to me.

Obviously, this idea isn’t strictly limited to architecture. It could easily translate into design: furniture, medical devices, electronics. Designers would have so much more power if they were able to have an intelligent piece of software that could provide the size requirements of the motor for a blender, or the load-bearing requirements and material capabilities of a bent wood chair. With a tool like this, designers could have so much control over the design process—we could take our designs to an engineer and not have to make major alterations because we didn’t understand the space allocation requirements the first time around. It could be pretty powerful.

I feel pretty inspired.

a little soul-searching

I stayed up all night sketching forms for my three concepts. I’m tired. I was going to just post this picture and say goodnight, but I’ve got some more serious things weighing on my mind right now.

I just don’t feel right. I don’t know if I’m really cut out to be a designer. I feel like I just go through the motions without ever really reaching a satisfying outcome. I know the drill: I sketch, model, sketch, model, render, present. I pull all nighters. I spend a lot of time trying to meet the deliverables and satisfy the requirements of the projects. What else is there? I feel like I put a lot of effort into pleasing my professors. So, I’m a good student, but what happens when I’m not in school anymore? I’m not going to be a student for that much longer, so it’s really time for me to figure some stuff out. Where do I fit into the realm of industrial design? I like technical details. I love getting down into the nitty gritty so much that I’m a little disinterested in the bigger picture. I also feel like I just don’t achieve desirable forms 90% of the time. Am I just not capable, or is going to take me a little longer to develop that skill? If that’s the case, I’ll put forth the effort to make it happen. I’ve been working hard on producing better sketches, and I’m starting to see some results from that. Is it likewise possible to improve on form development?
I just want to be able to figure out where I’m going with design. I want to be able to objectively assess my strengths and weaknesses and find out what careers are best suited for me. I wish I were an awesome designer, but I just don’t think I’m ever going to get there. Maybe it’s time to get realistic and figure out what I actually can achieve.

This is exactly the reason why I want to go to New York. I want to meet a bunch of real designers and see what they do every day. It’s so hard to get a real perspective on what design is really all about from inside the school walls. It’s time to make this trip happen.

Too many design students, not enough jobs? Depends on your definition.

I think reading this is going to help me sleep a little more soundly. I thought I’d share…from Coroflot’s Creative Seeds Blog:

A smart and jarring post last week on Unbeige bluntly states: ‘Prepare to Find Another Line of Work’ Say Working Designers to Design Students. The sentiment is reasonable. In light of the current economic downturn, this sort of tough-love, meted out the previous day by designer Ian Cochrane and “branding guru” Michael Peters, seems entirely appropriate. “There is too big a supply of young designers and far too many people doing mediocre work,” Peters concludes, and legions of young design school graduates presumably hang their heads in shame, contrite for ever having nurtured such a frivolous collective dream as doing the things for which they were trained.

While some hard realism in an ailing economy is certainly appropriate, it seems like a slightly overwrought response, what with Cochrane suggesting design school students go work in restaurants rather than try to get jobs designing them. I say overwrought because it comes from a deeply polarized view: either you do precisely the sort of real design job that school convinces you is appropriate to your ideals, or you ditch the whole thing and go bus tables. No discussion of the variances within the design economy as a whole. No suggestions of less obvious fields for which design training is highly applicable. Just “pack it up, you’re not good enough.”

There’s a touch of egotism here, and I don’t mean on the part of the two very talented professionals to which these quotes are attributed; I mean the design community as a whole. A rigid pecking order tends to get established early on in the creative professions, where a handful of highly desirable job titles are labeled “real design” — the most conceptual ones, typically, with the least amount of logistical encumbrance — and the rest dismissed as a misapplication of our creative prowess. Woe be to those who end up taking a position with “engineering,” “media,” or god forbid “marketing” in the title, for they forsake their true nature. Or something.

The more realistic advice to design students might read more like this:

You’re in a competitive field. If you’re studying automotive design, for example, you’re probably not going to get the job cranking out car renderings for Porsche all day — there just aren’t that many jobs like that out there. Same goes for shoe design. Or magazine cover illustration. Or interior design for high-end boutique hotels. If it’s a prestigious, high-profile job, lots of people want it, and some of them are probably better than you. Sorry.

For every sexy job, though, there are 50 of the more mundane variety that also need your skills. Of your graduating class, one or two of you will be doing the job you currently envision. The rest of you will be managers, marketers, copywriters, trend consultants, researchers, social media specialists, human factors engineers, technologists, etc. etc. etc. You’ll be using skills you learned in design school on a daily basis: branding consultants who sketch communicate their ideas more easily. Iterative problem-solving of the sort they teach you in a design program is good for solving all sorts of non-design problems. And design problems crop up in lots of unsexy places. And provided you put as much effort into finding a good fit from within this other, much larger job pool, you’ll probably be pretty happy.

unstuck

I feel like I hit a wall in the form development stage a few days ago, but I’m working my way out of it now. I just need to keep sketching, and then I need to sketch some more. So, for this occasion, I’m going to choose to sketch rather than to blog.

time for me to fly…

So, I think I’ve got a pretty solid volume of research for all three of my appliances at this point. Now I just have to move into sketching. This is really the part of the process I have the hardest time with. It seems like most people enjoy this part, but it’s really challenging for me. I feel like I need to know all the details before I put pen to paper, but that really limits what I come up with. I have to try to be more loose with my sketches so that I can come up with more interesting ideas. That’s assuming I can come up with ideas, period. I think I just need to get to work. I’ll post my progress as I go.

improvement

I’ve been thinking about my project a lot today. The focus has shifted a little. My “kitchen machine” is a food processor, blender, and mixer all in one, but that’s only one product. The purpose of the assignment is to design three. So… what about the other two? The premise of the kitchen machine is that there is one motor for all the appliances. This one motor powers any kind of activity you’d need to do in the kitchen which is based on a spinning blade, hook, etc. So, what other activities are there that can be shared? There’s water heating: steaming, boiling water for tea, coffee, etc., cooking noodles or rice. There’s also dry heating: toasting, baking, broiling, grilling. I’ve got two very different directions I could go with this.

One–Large Scale. Redesign a range/oven/kitchen machine so that it takes up minimal space. Maybe they could still be one volume. Would that bring me back to the original problem, though? It seems like it could be a good idea. The ultimate kitchen tool. Any other kitchen appliance beyond these would just be a convenience–even a microwave isn’t really necessary if you have a range and an oven.

Two–Standalone. Have separate items, resting on counter or mounted to wall/cabinets/countertop. Each item is a mega-appliance–the boss of its appliance type. You have the kitchen machine, immersion heater, and dry heater. I suppose these would be most likely to result in three separate forms. But my question is, do you really need a toaster oven AND a large oven? Do you really need a water heating vessel other than a pot and stovetop? What if you only need the small ones–that could be an interesting approach.

I’m just not too sure where to go from here. I worked really hard all last week, and now I’m starting to feel like I won’t have anything concrete by tomorrow. I was headed that way, but now I feel like I’ve just hit a wall. Hum.

On a different note, I’ve been watching YouTube tutorials today, too. One of my new goals is to be awesome at sketching. I’m pretty mediocre right now, but if I practice enough, I could probably get pretty good. Marker and pastel renderings look so awesome–I’d really love to be able to do them well. Then again, with 3D computer software, is it still worth learning how to crank out a really hefty sketch?