The Design Journey
For each prompt below print out an image or images and paste into your sketchbook. Consider each prompt to cover a 2-page spread. Include annotations. If you don't have access to a printer, draw images to document your design journey. You should spend about 2 hours doing the research and 2 hours making the journal pages. Expect to fill 12 to15 2-page spreads.
- Look at a design website, Pinterest or Google images. Choose a 3D project/artwork/object that you find inspiring. This is the starting point of your design journey. Identify the following:
- Where did you find it (web address)?
- Who made it?
- When was it made?
- Are there any additional views or similar works by the same designer?
- What inspired the artwork? If the designer doesn't say, make your best guess.
- What materials and tools would you need to make something similar? What techniques or processes would you need to learn? What alternative materials could you use?
- Can you find any tutorials or instructions related to these processes?
- Are there any designers making similar work? How are they different? What variations does this suggest?
- Is the object or technique scalable? If you made it bigger or smaller what would you get?
- Show a few examples of the same concept recreated on a different scale. (use additional pages as necessary.)
- How were these examples used?
- At this point, other possibilities should have presented themselves to you. Research something related but different from your starting point. (Example: My starting point was "The Floating City", my initial search was "cardboard city". Some examples included light so my second search was "cardboard lanterns") Document and annotate the results.
- Finally, did your search turn up anything unexpected which at first glance might not seem related to your starting point? (Example: While researching "Cardboard city" I found paintings of cities on cardboard and cardboard boxes with miniature windows, balconies and fire escapes).