I haven't realized how much I love designing toys and gimmicky objects of desire until about 5-or-so years ago. Even during undergrad, it never occured to me that this could be a legitimate industry that I could pursue. In the same way as I have never imagined industrial design to be a legitimate career path in high school.
Since industrial design is traditionally a function and ergonomic-centric industry -- that is to say, I had a very strange idea that industrial design dealt with the creatively vasectomized spectrum of spoons and kitchen faucets -- I've never really considered toys to be in the same level of prestige as the umpteenth chair design.
'Oh, an elegant reclaimed lumber seating! How posh! How quaint! '
And yet, I've always had a knack in designing kinda quirky, not-so-functional designs and sketches. Function was always a bit of an after-thought that comes after I've made the said pieces. But alas, these are the things that was first to be hammered down as I trudged begrudgingly through my undergraduate years. But that was my own undoing (and a little bit of the false pretense on the way industrial design was taught -- yes, I'm pinning some blame on the school).
For the past few years, I've been going through an epoch I would like to name 'The Great Unlearning ', the process of sorting through the mental library of things I've learned in design school and tossing out stuff that was either of little use or detrimental to my creative process.
A big part of that is the actual design sketching process touted by the esteemed marker and gouache renderers of old. Luckily, I've always managed to somehow scrape by and come out as rather average in that area, so there's not too much I need to unlearn.
Another great area to bin into the hellfire inferno of your mind is the needlessly redundant design thinking ideologies. It's superfluous, because people that make things naturally do the stuff talked about in the theory. It's made specifically for peasants that are in the 'not so creative' field to be like the righteous, glorious, sinless designers with their million-dollar startup idea. I think that it's basically a ploy to inject industrial designers into research sectors or alternative roles such as UX design, since industrial design positions are quickly drying up. It's a desperate attempt to keep the diminishing schools of industrial design alive without lowering the enrollment rate or change the curriculum too much in an industry with very low demand.
Some things that was most definitely necessary
Since industrial design is traditionally a function and ergonomic-centric industry -- that is to say, I had a very strange idea that industrial design dealt with the creatively vasectomized spectrum of spoons and kitchen faucets -- I've never really considered toys to be in the same level of prestige as the umpteenth chair design.
'Oh, an elegant reclaimed lumber seating! How posh! How quaint! '
And yet, I've always had a knack in designing kinda quirky, not-so-functional designs and sketches. Function was always a bit of an after-thought that comes after I've made the said pieces. But alas, these are the things that was first to be hammered down as I trudged begrudgingly through my undergraduate years. But that was my own undoing (and a little bit of the false pretense on the way industrial design was taught -- yes, I'm pinning some blame on the school).
For the past few years, I've been going through an epoch I would like to name 'The Great Unlearning ', the process of sorting through the mental library of things I've learned in design school and tossing out stuff that was either of little use or detrimental to my creative process.
A big part of that is the actual design sketching process touted by the esteemed marker and gouache renderers of old. Luckily, I've always managed to somehow scrape by and come out as rather average in that area, so there's not too much I need to unlearn.
Another great area to bin into the hellfire inferno of your mind is the needlessly redundant design thinking ideologies. It's superfluous, because people that make things naturally do the stuff talked about in the theory. It's made specifically for peasants that are in the 'not so creative' field to be like the righteous, glorious, sinless designers with their million-dollar startup idea. I think that it's basically a ploy to inject industrial designers into research sectors or alternative roles such as UX design, since industrial design positions are quickly drying up. It's a desperate attempt to keep the diminishing schools of industrial design alive without lowering the enrollment rate or change the curriculum too much in an industry with very low demand.
Some things that was most definitely necessary
RSS Feed