Subject report Specialism in an Interdisciplinary World-Maria Morales

May 2021 MFA Product Design making

Subject Report Design Specialism in an Interdisciplinary World

María Morales Die

INTRODUCTION This report showcases the evidence of the skills acquired in different specialism outside of my own, product design, that were obtained during this academic year, and how they apply to this learning block, context, of the Design Specialism in an Interdisciplinary world module of the masters.

Context This block is composed of the Making as thinking blocks, the blocks of complimentary learning acquired during the first term, that in this case belongs to the Design Interaction Specialism, in which I completed the two firsts blocks, Intangible and Tangible Interactions, and also the trimester 2 early project shadow and shade.

Applied Skills

Making as Thinking The Making as Thinking block includes a wide variety of smaller projects with different requirements. The general focus for the block was to experiment with making techniques that belong mostly to the Product Design discipline. From all the projects I can point out the development of a template of a library of materials in which they are classified by type and characteristics. This is the project that is most different from the others in the same block and required the use of other skills that have less to do with manufacturing techniques and more to do with graphic design. In my case, I focused on the navigation structure of the document and on creating a template for an example material for each category. The document was created using Adobe InDesign which allowed me to create an interactive document with a table of contents and a menu that takes you to the start of the document or any of the categories of materials, I was able to do this thanks to my previous experience in an art direction course in graphic design.

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Another project that highlights the use of different skills in the construction of a lamp using components. This project required the construction of a functional lamp using the available elements. To complete the project it was useful to have some prior knowledge of electrical components such as LED lights due to my previous studies in industrial design. We also applied a technique that we learned in that same project that pertains to electronics related skills such as soldering of wires, battery and LED. At the end of the project, it had a functional lamp with two LED lights soldered in parallel to the battery.

Tangible and Intangible Interactions These are the blocks I attended to complement my learning with skills from other specialities. In the first block Intangible Interactions, we were introduced to programming through Processing which allowed us to carry out different weekly projects, four in my case, in which digital applications are made using different functions learned in the course of the block and using resources and programmes available online.

In the tangible interactions block, we were introduced to electronic components and the Arduino device and its software. We carried out another series of projects which in this case required the assembly of physical circuits as well as programming applications for the circuit to carry out. We were introduced to different types of components such as sensors, regulators and motors. In this section, I could see more clearly how these skills could enrich my projects in product design and the versatility that this kind of element offers to other projects. I think I enjoyed these blocks because, although not much, I had interacted with programming and Arduino before the course, and although I didn't remember too much I think it made it easier for me to understand what I was doing and rather what I had to do to achieve my goal in each of the projects.

Shadow and Shade This project required the design of a light source that would produce interesting shapes by playing with shadows and different materials. Another requirement of the project was for the final product to be distributed flat and to be assembled by the end-user. Due to the nature of this project, it is already necessary to combine skills from different specialities, mainly product design with lighting design. Especially in the early stages of experimentation, it was necessary to use references and concepts related to lighting design to find out why certain projections worked or not and the type of ambience generated by applying colour filters.

The skills acquired in the blocks of the interaction design discipline were used in the development of the final model of this project and also during the prototyping process thanks to the experience of programming with LEDs. This made it possible to use different coloured light sources without having to use filters and to determine which of them produced the best effect.

Also the design of the packaging and the instructions for use that were required in the brief needed skills related to graphic design and synthesising information to be carried out effectively and engagingly.

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Conclusion In short, in the processes followed to complete the projects that make up this block of the module, skills belonging to other design disciplines had to be used, demonstrating the usefulness and versatility that interdisciplinarity brings to design projects. In this particular case, the skills included, apart from those related to the discipline itself, were: programming and electronics skills, lighting design skills and graphic design skills, among others.

Given that I have an interest in other areas of design beyond product design, it has been very enlightening to be able to work applying other skills and previous knowledge and to see how the combination of different knowledge gave rise to a more complete, cohesive and innovative result in the different areas this block covered.

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