Lecture notes 2020 & earlier – Aesthetics of Design

Last lecture of the semester, although we have two more days of presentations (M,W) next week, plus the Expo on Sunday May 3, 7:30-9:30 pm, as a Zoom event. See Slack for details. Lecture Notes Partial Zoom recording

25 Chairs: Eames Lounge to Monobloc and Beyond. Friday April 17, 2020

April 17, 2020

Today we looked at the evolution of chairs from 1950’s to present, embodied by the Eames Lounge chair and the ubiquitous Monobloc resin chair. We also looked at rendering glossy vs matte surfaces in hand sketching. Lecture Notes Zoom recording

24 Spheres, then Case Study: the Chair

April 15, 2020

We looked at sketching spheres. Shading is the key. Then we did breakout rooms so folks could discuss their projects. Then we looked at the evolution of the modern chair, from Thonet with his bentwood manufacturing innovations up to Charles and Ray Eames. Designers were inspired by both technology and previous designers. Lecture notes Zoom…

23 Anthropomorphic and Geometric Aesthetics

April 13, 2020

Today we finished up content from Universal Principles of Design. Anthropomorphic effects play in to our liking of human shapes, and geometric effects include our love of symmetry and the number 3. Lecture notes

22 Color and Magic Factor of 7. Friday April 10, 2020.

April 12, 2020

In research or design, any time you are doing something new, it will take you 7 times longer than you think it should. Why? The Unkown Unknown; a pandemic for example. We also talked about color; nomenclature (Pantone, color spaces), and ‘aesthetic’ combinations. A bit of physics and human visual perception. Lecture notes

21 Black, White, Red effects and Horizontal Cylinder Sketching

April 8, 2020

We watched videos from Universal Principles of Design on Black, White and Red effects. More on color on Friday. We also sketched horizontal cylinders. Lecture Notes Zoom recording

20 Aesthetics Game Critique

April 6, 2020

Today we critiqued the sketches from Friday’s Aesthetics Game, played with the major 20th century design movements. We also went over the schedule for the rest of the semester, and looked at which current designers to talk about, plus some other resources. Lecture Notes Zoom recording

19 Aesthetics Game Redux Friday 4/3/20

April 3, 2020

Today we played the Aesthetics games using the major 20th Century design movements over Zoom. Students went into breakout rooms in groups of 3, and collaborated on object/aesthetic combinations on a whiteboard. Monday we’ll look at what everybody did. Lecture notes contain the rules and combos. Lecture Notes

18 Pop Art to Present, plus cylinder sketching

April 1, 2020

Today we finished describing the major 20th century design movements, covering the 1960’s to present day post modernism. Then we sketched cylinders in perspective view, including shade and shadow. Lecture notes Unfortunately, I forgot to record the Zoom lecture. I’ve made it automatic, so this won’t happen again.

17 Modern Movements. Monday 3/30/20

March 30, 2020

Today was the second lecture on Zoom. It was better since I could broadcast from my office. We talked about revised due dates (finish your Design Review 1 and 2 ASAP, critiques due Friday) . Behruz will post a spreadsheet showing who still needs to have their DR reports critiqued. Don’t forget to upload the…

16 Bauhaus and Beyond, Zoom lecture 3/20/20

March 23, 2020

Had our first Zoom lecture today. A bit rough; upload speeds from my home are restricted, so in the future I’ll do them from my office. Next week is Spring Break; do enjoy. I’ll be checking in via Slack if anybody needs a consult. Lecture Notes PDF Lecture Video and Transcript

Transition to Online Course

March 15, 2020

Hi Folks. Starting tomorrow Monday 3/16, we will be online. See the Slack #general channel for detailed instructions. Basically, those who still have to do their Design Review Presentations will do them in Zoom this Monday and Wednesday at our usual class meeting time. Your pod facilitator will issue the Zoom meeting invitation in your…

15 Friday 3/6/20 Aesthetics Movement and Art Nouveau

March 6, 2020

Talked a little about Design Review expectations, starting next week. Looked at Aesthetics Movement, then Art Nouveau. Sketch practice of part of a Mucha print. Lecture Notes

14 Weds 3/4/20 Arts and Crafts 2

March 4, 2020

Today we did a quick review of Gothic styling (Mackey Auditorium), then finished sharing Arts and Crafts product examples. Lecture Notes

Lecture 13, 3/2/2020: Arts and Crafts

March 2, 2020

Today we looked at the Arts and Crafts movement in a bit of detail. We did a knowledge construction exercise, where students presented examples of products in the Arts and Crafts style, and analyzed for common elements. Lecture Notes

Lecture 12, Friday Feb 28, 2020 Gothic to Postmodern, plus shadow

February 28, 2020

Today we looked at Gothic styles, mid 1800s, and then briefly at post modern, bookending our review. Next we’ll do them in more detail. Lecture notes

Ways Of Learning: Guest Lecture by Prof. Kate Goodman

February 26, 2020

Guest Lecture Monday Feb 24, 2020 Notes

11 Sketch Viewpoints, and start 20th Century Design Movements

February 26, 2020

Today we went over the schedule, and decided that it’s polite to respond to posted critiques by the following Wednesday. We considered the importance of viewpoint in sketching an object, to show the most important aspects. We started 20th Century Design Movements, looking at a timeline showing the movements compared to other influences such as…

10 Supernormal Stimuli and Shade/Shadow sketching

February 25, 2020

We looked at a video from Universal Principles of Design on supernormal stimuli: how you can get a big response by tapping into subconscious instincts. Then we did a bit of shade and shadow sketching. Lecture Notes

Guest Lecture: ‘Inspired by Objects’ by Hope Saska

February 14, 2020

February 5, 2020 Slides

09 Cubes and Contour Bias

February 14, 2020

Admin Sketching cubes Universal Principles of Design: Contour Bias Admin: Final (Exam) Expo will be Sunday May 3, 7:30-10 pm in the Idea Forge. Snacks, open to the public. Invite your friends and family. Great projects, and informative reports. However NO CREDIT WITHOUT FEATURED IMAGE. Use Worktrade to get help, or see me or Behruz…

Pods for Presentations

January 31, 2020

Here are the pods for presentations. You’ll be in the same pod all semester, meeting in the same location on presentation days. I’m expecting the graduate students to volunteer as facilitators for two or three of the presentation days (we have a total of 10 presentation days this semester, and 4 grad students per pod).…

08 Upcycle Specs, 1,2, and 3 Point Perspectives

January 31, 2020

Today we went over the specifications and due dates for the Upcycle Project. We talked about the critique method we’ll be using for the presentations: Lerman, Liz. Critical Response Process: A Method for Getting Useful Feedback on Anything You Make, from Dance to Dessert. EBook., 2002. Then we looked briefly at the difference between traditional…

Four representations of design processes, such as a flowchart

07 Process and sketching

January 29, 2020

Today we reflected on real vs ideal design processes, then looked at the plethora of types of sketches used in industrial design. Lecture notes

06 Ideation Techniques

January 27, 2020

Talked about various techniques for generating ideas; what students already had experience with, plus linear techniques ‘False Faces’ and ‘SCAMPER’. Then we did a guided visualization as an example of an intuitive method. Lecture Notes

05 Upcycle examples and Aesthetics Tour

January 27, 2020

We looked at a few examples of upcycling, including Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers, and didn’t have much time for the Aesthetics Tour, so please see the rest of the tour in the Lecture Notes

04 Aesthetics Tour

January 22, 2020

Today we practiced drawing circles, then started the Aesthetics Tour, discussing the aesthetics of Tim Burton’s work, Industrial Chic, Harleys vs Japanese motorcycles, Yakuza vs feminine speech patterns, manga, steampunk, religion and angels, red, white and blue, colonial furniture, and corporate logos. Lecture Notes

Four images illustrating major art theories

03 Definitions of Aesthetics 2

January 21, 2020

We reviewed theories of art, and then went over various definitions of aesthetics. At the end we listed hallmarks of current aesthetics that most folks could identify: Minimalism and Hipster. Lecture Notes

02 Resources and Art definition

January 15, 2020

Today we went over ITLL and Idea Forge resources, heard from Mo Woods in the Project Depo, and talked about major art theories. Andy Goldsworthy as an example of Formalism. Lecture notes.

01 First class meeting

January 13, 2020

In our first class meeting (Monday 1/13/20) we started with the Strandbeest bicycle video and did a little critique of it. The walking mechanism was derived from Theo Jansen’s work. Then we went over the syllabus and the initial assignments. Here’s an example of upcycling that I didn’t get to show. t’s a giant ball…

Final Assignments

April 22, 2019

Hi. I’ll try to collect all of the end-of-semester details here, in rough chronological order. Make a post for Monday 4/22 with your project name and your name as the title. This will be a placeholder so your pod can comment on your presentation regardless of the state of your final blog posts or…

Final Presentation logistics

April 19, 2019

You will have a 15 minute slot for your final presentation. Your content should cover the two written final report blog posts: What and How, Why and What Next? Introduce your project, then present design drawings, budget, and details of the assembly process. Talk about what your original goals were, and what you achieved. YOU…

30 Design Awards

April 19, 2019

Today we looked at a few of the many international design awards. Students selected some interesting winners to look at. Lecture notes: 30 Design Awards

29: Current designers – Hadid, Pagani, Jobs and Ive

April 17, 2019

29 Current Designers Hadid, Pagani, Jobs and Ive

28 Current Designers

April 15, 2019

We did sketching of metal, talked about schedule and final assignments, and looked at current designers: Virgil Abloh, Renzo Piano, Martha Stewart, Karim Rashid, Ross Lovegrove and Yves Béhar. 28 Current Designers

27 Current Designers: Starck, Precht, Burtt

April 12, 2019

Today we did sketching of glass (look for distortions, shadows, reflections) and talked about the final blog post requirements: Blog posts: April 24 Final Project Report I: What and How. Overall description and photos, then details of what you have made: CAD drawings, fabrication description, costs vs budget, etc. May 1 Final Project Report II:…

26 Chairs: Eames Lounge vs Monobloc

April 11, 2019

We did sketching of spheres, and material surfaces; glossy vs matte. We looked at the Eames Lounge chair, how integrated the design was with the manufacturing process, hence the ‘organic’ aspect of the aesthetic. This was compared to the ubiquitous Monobloc white plastic chair. 26 Chairs Eames Lounge, Monobloc, and Beyond

25 Golden Ratio, then Chairs

April 8, 2019

Today we went over shade and shadows during sketching practice. We finished discussion of Geometric Aesthetics looking at the Golden Ratio, including a video about John Edmark. Then we started looking at chairs as a case study. Chairs have evolved along with other furnishings, and their history is well documented (Chippendale anyone?). We saw some…

24 Anthropomorphic and Geometric Aesthetics

April 5, 2019

Registration for the ATLAS or Engineering Expo is encouraged but optional. Be sure to post images of your main project (design sketches or work-in-progress photos) that I can use for our final show flyer. We did sketching of horizontal cylinders. Shading helps. Then we talked about Baby Face Bias and gender stereotypes in product design.…

23 Magic Factor of 7, Color and Anthropomorphic Effects

April 4, 2019

When planning you have knowns, known unknowns, unknown knowns and unknown unknowns. The last one bites, and makes tasks take 7 times longer than they should. Then we did sketching of upright cylinders using ellipses. We also talked about color spaces (RGB vs CMYK and HSB) and Pantone Color of the Year. Then we started…

22 Color

April 1, 2019

Today we discussed upcoming topics, and looked at Universal Principles of Design topics on color: Black Effects, Red Effects and some color nomenclature. 22 Stuff and ColorDownload

20: Modern Design Movements

March 20, 2019

Today we looked over the schedule for the rest of the semester, had a little team time, and then went through Modern design movements with lightning speed: Art Deco, Organic Design, Streamlining, Post-War/Mid Century Modern, Pop, Radical Design, High Tech/Matt Black, and back to Post Modernism. Whew! Now everybody is ready to play the Aesthetics…

19 Bauhaus and Beyond, plus Critical Design Review criteria and logistics

March 8, 2019

Yesterday’s post on constraints MUST HAVE sketches showing your current plans. ESPECIALLY to illustrate your aesthetic. Critical Design Presentations starting Monday. Same pods. Prototypes please! Must show aesthetic design. Does not need to function. Small scale is fine. The goal of this milestone is to force everybody to decide on what they are making and…

18 Guest Lecture: Adam Agee

March 6, 2019

Adam Agee trained at the Rhode Island School of Design. He got us drawing freely with sketching exercises. 18 Adam Agee guest lectureDownload

17 Aesthetic Movement and Art Nouveau

March 4, 2019

Today we finished listing the elements of Arts and Crafts, and moved on through the Aesthetic Movement and Art Nouveau, ending with a whiplash curve sketching exercise. 17 Aesthetic movement and Art NouveauDownload

16 Arts and Crafts Movement

March 1, 2019

Groups of students analyzed images of Arts and Crafts styled products to determine what design elements form this aesthetic. When critiquing this week’s blog post about Main Project Inspirations, look for enough information to do this type of analysis on the proposed aesthetic. In other words, did the author describe what are the important style…

15: 20th Century Timeline

February 27, 2019

If you are having trouble deciding on your project, choose an aesthetic to start, then think of an artifact that defines that aesthetic. Choose a random one if you have to! Today we started talking about historic design movements, so that our postmodern references will be understood. Had trouble with a video link, so please…

14 Rhino demo and Sketching

February 22, 2019

Andres Gruber gave a demonstration of Rhino, Grasshopper and Slicer (Fusion 360). We briefly looked at cube sketching tweaks. 14 Rhino Demo and SketchingDownload

13 Supernormal Stimuli

February 20, 2019

Today we went over the schedule for the rest of the semester, then takeaways from the Upcycle project, saw a short UPD video on Supernormal Stimuli, and did a bit more cube sketching Lecture 13 Supernormal StimuliDownload

11 Contour Bias vs Cubes

February 8, 2019

Today we went over Upcycle Presentation logistics (look for a separate post on that), and then continued with sketching practice, specifically cubes, extending to a blocky chair. In contrast, we also started talking about Universal Principles of Design; specifically Contour Bias. Humans react to pointy things with fear and attention, while rounder objects are more…

10 Aesthetics Game

February 6, 2019

Today the teams played the Aesthetics Game. The names of artifacts and aesthetics were drawn at random from a hat, and teams then sketch versions of the resulting mashup. For examples of what happened see https://www.aesdes.org/category/student-work/2016/aesthetics-game/ The popular favorite was the Disney Princess Flathead Screwdriver Lecture notes: 10 Aesthetics GameDownload

09 Upcycle Specs and Perspective Sketching

February 4, 2019

Today we went over the explicit expectations for final documentation of the Upcycle project: presentations and next week’s blog post. Then we went over basic use of vanishing points in 1, 2 and 3 point perspective, starting with cubes, of course. 09 Upcycle specs, Perspective sketching

08 Teams

February 1, 2019

We listened to my favorite wisdom on teamwork, from This American Life, and then the teams all met for the first time. The TAL episode focused on the work of Will Felps, now a professor of business at the University of New South Wales. During his PhD thesis in 2006 or so, he found ‘bad…

07 Process and Sketching

January 30, 2019

We talked a bit more about individual design processes, and looked at traditional industrial design sketches; how they vary through the design process. Ended with a bit of sketch practice, starting with straight lines, circles and ellipses. 07 Process and sketching lecture notesDownload

06 Ideation and Process

January 28, 2019

Since a good fraction of you are still unsure of your Upcycle project, we practiced a couple of ideation techniques, and then talked about the design process. 06 Ideation and Process lecture notesDownload

04 Aesthetics Tour 2

January 23, 2019

Today we shared design notebooks and ideas for tonight’s first post on aesthetics. Then we looked at a few specific design aesthetics: Industrial Chic, Biker Culture, Japanese motorcycles, Yakuza tatoos and speech patterns, Manga, Steampunk and more. Lastly we looked at a few examples of upcycling in preparation for the warm-up project. PDF of lecture…

03 Aesthetics Tour 1

January 18, 2019

Today we went over some more administrative stuff (will it never end?) including a demonstration of how to post to this website. There’s an old post on this from last year on how to post that is still mostly correct. We finished going over art theories, and had a very nice discussion; lots of thoughtful…

02 Definitions of Aesthetics

January 16, 2019

Today we finished going over the syllabus, and then went through the history of art vs science and the invention of aesthetics. We got partway through the big art theories. 02 Definition of Aesthetics

01 Intro

January 14, 2019

Today we went over the initial assignments and started on the syllabus, covering goals and learning objectives. Wendesday we’ll finish syllabus stuff, and get into definitions of aesthetics.

32 Wrapping Up

April 21, 2017

Hi. I’ll try to collect all of the end-of-semester details here, in rough chronological order. Make a post for Monday 4/24 with your project name as the title. This will be a placeholder for your presentation video only, so your pod can comment on your presentation regardless of the state of your final blog…

31 Design Awards

April 21, 2017

Today we finished our discussion of contemporary designers by looking at Steve Jobs and Jonny Ive, and their shared design philosophy. Then we broke into groups to sift through a variety of design competitions, looking at the winners. 31 Design Awards

End-of-Semester Final Portfolio Template

April 20, 2017

Michael Parish

Hello everyone! I would like to provide a written explanation to be used as a reference for creating the final summary portfolio for your project. What you can expect from reading this is how to create portfolio (not a post), apply a template, and some of the available features for customization. This is simply a…

30 Current Designers: Hadid, Pagani, Jobs

April 20, 2017

We are all done with sketching instruction. Now it’s up to you. Notice what you are seeing around you, and practice! Today we looked at the work of Zaha Hadid (‘Queen of Curves’), Horacio Pagani and Steve Jobs. In Jobs’ case we were able to talk about early influences and how they were expressed as…

29 Current Designers: Stewart, Rashid, Lovegrove, Behar

April 20, 2017

Today we looked at how to represent metal in sketches; neutral, desaturated colors and fake reflections, suggesting a photography studio environment. We also looked at the work of a range of current designers: Martha Stewart – what is unique about her work? Organized clutter! Karim Rashid’s biomorphic shapes Ross Lovegrove: Captain Organic. Rejects biomorphism/blobism/consumerism, but…

28 Glass sketching and Phillipe Starck

April 20, 2017

Today we looked at how to represent glass in sketches; show something inside the glass, show its refractive effect, its shadow and glossy surface. Then we started discussing current designers; who comes to mind. Just a few from students: Martha Stewart Dyson Apple; Jonny Ive Elon Musk David Kelly IDEO/Stanford D-school Martha Stewart and Jonny…

27 Chairs: Eames Lounge, Monobloc, and Beyond

April 15, 2017

Did some sketching; how to represent a glossy vs a matte surface. Watched a video about making the Eames lounge chair as an example of organic design that blends the production process with the ‘good host’ chair aesthetic. Contrasted the Eames lounge chair at $5000 with the Monobloc plastic chair at $12. 27 Chairs Eames…

26 Timeline to Chairs

April 10, 2017

Today we did some sketching of spheres, and then looked at the work of Charles and Ray Eames. Above is a video about the Eames lounge chair. 26 Timeline to Chairs

25 Golden Ratio

April 7, 2017

Today we talked about schedule, final expectations and Expo registration. See the notes for full details, but here is the registration link. Deadline is 1 week, next Friday! April 14. We will probably all be grouped in the DLC, so we can have group music. Each student should provide one song for a playlist, no…

24 Anthropomorphic and Geometric Aesthetics

April 5, 2017

Today we talked about the Magic Factor of 7, needed for planning time management. Also covered a bit about sketching horizontal cylinders, and then finished the anthropomorphic aesthetics. Covered the geometric aesthetics except for Golden Ratio; that will be Friday. 24 Anthropomorphic and Geometric Aesthetics

23 Color and Anthropomorphic Effects

April 3, 2017