Own little space story!

Travel gives us an opportunity to observe many people. Such people are strangers to us. But by merely observing them we can understand few things about them. Their dressing, body language reveals many details. Similarly residences talk about the people residing in it, workplaces talk about the organisation.

Earlier people had individual residential units. Its layout and design reflected beliefs of the owner family. Now a days with space scarcity people live in apartments. Though the internal layout of apartment blocks is similar, inside space design makes them distinct from each other.

Living room displaying being social nature of owners
Image source  

http://photos.hgtv.com/photo/cozy-family-room-features-two-seating-areas

As we enter a house we can get fair idea about the family living inside, their beliefs and characteristics. The seating arrangement in the living room tells us if the family is introvert or the one indulging in frequent get-togethers. The lighting will tell if the family likes simplicity or ornamentation. Same with the choice of fabric, style of curtains.

Living room displaying introvert nature of owners
Image source  

http://doit-estonia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Cozy-Living-

Room-Decorating-Ideas-cozy-apartment-living-room.jpg

Back in 1980s people used to make their own interiors. Hiring a professional interior designer was a luxury and an expensive affair. Thus houses used to display characteristics of owner family distinctly. Now things have changed and interior designers are hired by most of the people to make up their spaces, residential or commercial.

In case of residential interiors I have observed at many places that the houses designed by some designers fail to display characteristics of the owner family. All houses designed by that designer look alike. They are exhibiting style of that designer than the individual family. Most of the time the style just follows current trends with minor changes in colour or pattern.

When designer understands needs and personalities of users well, it gets reflected in the design, the space gets flavour of the user family and it sets perfect ambience for the activities to be performed there. This is very important factor in any interior space. The spaces and people using those become complementary to each other if it’s designed well. 

Another important factor is proportions. Proportions are basically the relationship of the elements used in the space with each other and with the room space. Let’s see few examples to understand this better. Sometimes we can just sense that the sofa looks too big in the living space or a chandelier hanging above looks too heavy for the room or the cushions are very tiny. These are nothing but the proportions. Thus size of each furniture piece in the room has to be in relation with the overall size of the space.

Some of you might have heard about the term ‘negative space’. It plays important role in balancing the proportions of the space. Negative space is nothing but the remaining space in your room left after space occupied by furniture pieces. It is the empty space other than solid objects in the room. Our brain perceives any solid object in comparison with the empty space around it. And that is why sofa looks bigger in comparison with the empty space left in the room. Designer has to strike this balance and achieve optimum proportions.

Sometimes people are not aware about these design principles and they insist on few designs to be implemented as it is which they have found interesting at some other place. In such cases, I feel, it is role of the designer to make them understand and convince them that it may not be suitable in their case. As getting interiors done is a big investment in terms of time, efforts and money. Once done it will be used at least for 8 to 10 years.

Thus designing interiors or space design is not only about selecting furniture, lights, colours, fabrics etc but it is a celebration of the interactions between the space and the user and the activities going to be performed in that space. Because every space has its own little story!

Some useful links

https://www.houzz.in/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os02K3VP8-I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4Rdf-smeWw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj_BajUoQls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYoF4W6tENE

Note: The writer has no rights on the images used in this article. 

Furnish your space and our earth too!

I am sure each one of you have a cherishing memory of relaxing in a chair with your eyes closed wandering in your own world! This favourite chair of yours could be in your home terrace, at your loving granny’s place or in one of your frequently visited resort. Chair, such a simple product, but not all of them give you the experience that I mentioned in the beginning. What is it that makes that chair special for you? By now you must have guessed it! Bravo, Correct! The ‘Design’. Design of that chair plays an important role in making you feel relaxed and calm. It need not be a rocking or relaxing chair to make you at comfort; it could be a cushioned sofa or a bamboo chair too. It’s the way it has been designed gives you that feeling when you use it; it’s touch, its visual appearance, your posture when you sit in it.

By Marcel Breuer, Year: 1928

Image Source

http://www.vintage-design-point.be/portfolio/6-cesca

-b32-side-chairs-by-marcel-breuer-for-thonet/

By Eero Saarinen, Year: 1955

Image Source: https://www.classicfactory24.com/en/Chairs/

Eero-Saarinen-Tulip-Chair-with-Armrests-Fiberglass.html

I have observed people taking design of furniture for granted; may be because we have been using furniture in our day to day lives and it just goes unnoticed. But as I mentioned earlier simple furniture like chair could be taken to an object of desire through design. Almost every master architect and designer has his/her own famous design of chair.

https://www.gq.com/story/the-12-most-iconic-chairs-of-all-time

Details by Team7 design
Image Source
https://www.team7-design.com/en/

 Though all chairs serve the purpose of a seat, chairs used in different environment have different requirements from each other. A chair used in an office by a person who is working on desktop machine for almost 6 to 8 hours has different demands than a chair used in a restaurant or in a waiting area of a railway station. Designer takes into consideration all these aspects. Furniture designer focuses on how to make it as per human measurements, what materials to be used, what kind of joineries can be worked out, how to assemble etc. Since furniture pieces are not very complex in terms of technological functions like electronic gadgets, the challenge lies in material exploration and the detailing. As perceived by many people good design need not be only about ornamentation; a simple piece of furniture can look beautiful through it’s proportions and detailing.
https://www.team7-design.com/en/

 Traditionally heavy ornamentation was integral part of furniture in India as it was used only by the Royal families. Our Indian lifestyle hardly needed any furnishing in their daily spaces. Most of the actions like cooking, eating, sleeping, sitting etc were done on floor. Storage was in built in the walls. With foreign invasions there was Portuguese, French, Dutch and English influence on the furniture crafted by Indian craftspeople. Also, there was change in the lifestyle of common people and slowly they stared using furniture.

Considering the global scenario, wooden furniture used by common people was less ornamented to save time, efforts and money as it used to be hand crafted. Post industrialisation furniture was mass produced and traditional material wood was replaced by new materials like steel and plastic. The style also became simple with almost no ornamentation. Designers explored new materials and manufacturing technology.

Today, some designers use traditional craft processes in contemporary ways in their furniture to revive the forgotten local heritage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1t_AWW5o7w

http://www.designsponge.com/2015/10/ancient-indian-crafts-in-modern-design.html

  

In today’s context space saving, multifunctional furniture is need of the hour. Designers creatively come up with innovative furniture solutions to maximise space usage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQjBrt9LriY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UVYO4niGsA

Furniture design is a specialized design course offered in many design universities, sometimes under a branch of industrial design discipline. I feel the challenge for designers today is to design furniture to aid our earlier ‘frugal’ Indian lifestyle to make it more sustainable!

Some links which you may find intersting. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziGSnavgO1A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFo7fqkLt7M

Note:

The writer has no rights on the images used in this article. 

Vroom Vroom Vroom.... !!!

© image 1  All rights reserved

Travel is an inseparable part of our lives and so are the vehicles. Invention of the wheel was one of the most influencing inventions in the history! It added new dimension to the transport. Motorised (Auto) vehicles reduced the time taken for travel considerably. We are witnessing incredible technological innovations in all type of transportation; land, water and air, both for personal and public use.

I have grown up seeing almost 90% of male population around simply being crazy about vehicles, cars and motorbikes especially. It’s performance, speed, comfort and beauty! While performance and speed are taken care by automobile engineers; comfort and beauty is where designers contribute.

In vehicle design, there is broadly two courses available namely automotive design and transportation or mobility design. Many a times it is one of the disciplines offered under Industrial design department. Let’s see the difference between these two. In transportation design course a student deals design of different type of transportation on land, water and air. It could be for public or personal use, whereas automotive design course focuses more on design of land vehicles.

Like product designers, automotive designers too are constantly working to strike the balance between technology and art. Compared to other consumer products vehicles/ cars are very complex. A team of designers is at work in any automotive organisation. The teams are further divided into exterior design, interior design and colour and trim design.

Image source :
https://www.formtrends.com/design-story-porsche-mission-e-concept/ 

As the name suggests exterior designers work on the exterior of the vehicle. They visualise the exterior look of the car on the basic package designed by engineering team as per the design brief considering which market the car is being designed for. Aerodynamic and visually pleasing exterior form of the vehicle is crafted by this team.

The beauty of car is as much as from inside as it is from the outside. Interior designers focus on the interior cabins of the vehicles; the seats, doors, dash board etc. Very minute detail like door handle, storage utility, speedometer graphics, air conditioning vents are designed by them. A team of interaction designers work on the navigation system display, parking assistance etc.

Image source : https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/mercedes-benz/design/
mercedes-benz-design/models/next-level-interior-design-for-the-future-e-class/

The leather and fabric used inside the cabin for seats and doors are designed by colour and trim design team. The colours for exterior and interior elements are developed by this team in coordination with paint experts to go well with the design theme.

Image source : https://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/
ff_chevybolt-making_model.jpg

All teams are working together in coordination with each other and other teams like digital modeling, clay modelling, hard modeling, engineering, marketing, sales etc. The whole process design that is from a sketch on paper to the final tangible car is a lot of hard work!

It is dream of a designer to work on a concept car/vehicle. Concept vehicle is a vehicle which is futuristic design showcased by makers in auto shows to display their design language, technological advances. Future production vehicles are based on such concept vehicles.

Image Source :http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/motor-shows/frankfurt-motor-show/

100920/best-concept-cars-of-the-2017-frankfurt-motor-show

I find myself fortunate for having opportunity to visit international auto shows and car museums. I must admit that India has a long way to go in terms of design, both ways; for designers to raise their bar internationally and for consumers to appreciate vehicle's beauty beyond just cost effectiveness and the mileage.

Useful links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-t3w5pG81Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbvtRgiedKE

http://daap.uc.edu/academics/design/bs_industrial.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmN_9GWM1RM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs16qhyWqgI

https://www.formtrends.com/design-story-porsche-mission-e-concept/

Note:

The writer has no rights on the images used here except image 1 in this article. 

Product design or Industrial design???

Iconic products by industrial design team at Apple
Image source :http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/28/tech/best-design-
100-years-zaccai/index.html

Now that we have seen how design is contributing in different spheres of our lives, let’s dig into these different design disciplines to know what exactly it deals with. This will give us brief idea about how each discipline is different from the other. Ours is the world of specialisation. We are familiar with different specialist medicine professionals; similarly design also has specialists who focus on a particular area or activity.

I would like to start with product design since that has been my area of focus. I was introduced to product design during my undergraduate course in architecture. We had one elective named product design. One interesting assignment of designing a chair with one adjective intrigued me.  I further followed it, did post graduation in Industrial design and then professional career. Those who have enquired about this course as career in universities must have come across the term ‘industrial design’ as well. So what is it actually? Is it the same thing, product and industrial design?

Technically, role of product designer and industrial designer is more or less the same.

Both the terms are mostly used interchangeably.  

As the name suggests industrial design is about designing for industries, something that is mass manufactured in industries. It is designing of things which are mass produced. If we think of such things around us we can enlist vehicles, furniture, machineries, gadgets etc. Thus industrial design has further subsets such as transportation, automotive, furniture, product, ceramic, packaging and so on.

Product design as the name suggests focuses more on consumer products used in day to day lives like electronic appliances, kitchen and household products, stationary products, tools etc. It is a branch of Industrial design.

So one can say this that all product designers are industrial designers but all industrial designers are not necessarily product designers they could be automotive or packaging designers.

Sketches by designer Verner Panton
Image source :http://designgallerist.com/blog/

panton-the-worlds-first-moulded-plastic-chair/

First injection moulded chair by Verner Panton
Image source :http://designgallerist.com/blog/panton-the-worlds-first-

moulded-plastic-chair/

Role of product designer is to make the product easy to use, good to touch and feel (aesthetically pleasing), comfortable to use, cost effective, easy to mass produce. To achieve this designer works in coordination with different teams. They interacts with sales, product planning and marketing teams to understand what is it that they look for in the next version of the existing product or a new product, what are other benchmark products. Designer interacts with different users, observes them, their environments to find out what users seek from the product. Based on this designer comes up with new sketches and 3d visualisation of the new product using their imagination and creativity. They further work with engineering team to materialise their concept into a real physical product.

It’s an intensive process. It takes around 6 months to 3 years of time for a product to take its shape from designer’s sketch till it reaches in the consumer. The time varies depending on the complexity of the product. A new car takes almost 4 years to run on road from the designer’s sketch book!

One might wonder how come a same designer who is designing a juicer grinder can design a sleek pair of sunglasses. Both these products and their mechanisms are so different. Well, that’s the beauty of the ‘design process’ which is meticulously followed by all good designers! 

Some useful links 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CZw3VMpEtE

http://www.artcenter.edu/academics/undergraduate-degrees/product-design/overview.html 

https://dschool.stanford.edu/our-impact

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/28/tech/best-design-100-years-zaccai/index.html

https://www.vogue.com/article/iconic-industrial-design-products

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqeA_psKn2E

http://willgibbonsdesign.com/blog/industrial-design-vs-product-design

Note:

The writer has no rights on the images used here. 

Life, Design, Action!!!

We get up in the morning and start our day. Throughout the day we are doing number of ‘actions’. Each of this action has some purpose and how we do these actions becomes an experience. ‘Design’ always tries to make this experience an enjoyable one!

If it is not an experience that we like or enjoy we kind of start avoiding it. While reading this your mind must have listed at least 3-4 such examples. For example, if you don’t like writing using a particular pen, you stop using that pen. If you are travelling and find some flaws in the transport system you just hate taking it next time. If you have no choice but to take it, that surely becomes a miserable experience. Whereas there might be few restaurants where food is like any other place but still there is something in the ambience that you like visiting that place often. The point I am trying to make here is that an effective design can make your life experiences really enjoyable and a failure in design can make it miserable too!

Since ‘Design’ is associated with ‘actions’ that we do, it has application almost everywhere. If we start listing down few actions we can get an idea about different design disciplines. Some of the actions could be living, eating, playing, travelling, reading, shopping etc.

Let’s start with action ‘Living’. What are the different design disciplines that can help in designing the space we are living in and make our ‘living’ action an enjoyable experience? Architects design the spaces for the purpose it is meant for. They are responsible for how the spaces will be externally and internally. Interior space designer further furnishes how interior spaces should be. Furniture designed by furniture designers, lighting elements by lighting designer make action of ‘Living’ even more meaningful. Textile designers offer different textures, patterns on the fabrics to be used in furniture, bed linen, curtains etc.

In case of ‘Eating’ action, design plays role in designing the cookware, plates, cutlery, and various appliances. Thus ceramic designer and product designer contribute there. Confectionery designers design attractive food items.

‘Playing action’- If it’s a sport, the accessories required are designed by product designers. Toy and game designers come up with new creative, engaging, educative toys and games. Animation design is used in digital games and entertainment industry. Interface designers and user experience (UX) designers contribute in the digital and virtual reality games.

In case of, ‘travelling action’, vehicles are designed by automotive designers; transport system is designed by transport designers/ planners, system designers. The signage used to guide the way is designed by communication designer.

Let’s see ‘reading action’,Visual designers work on designing the print media, graphics and illustrations. Story telling is also part of visual design.

When we are doing ‘Shopping action’, the retail display is designed by retail designers or in case of online shopping the application is designed by the team of user interface, user experience designers. We shop clothes and accessories designed by apparel, accessory designers.

The list is never ending. Thus ‘Design’ is contributing in all different spheres of our lives and it has wide applications.

Let's take a tour through these different design disciplines in my future posts.

Below are links that might interest you. 

https://www.dezeen.com/tag/toys/

https://www.designboom.com/ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58kfFYrj-L0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_tcAp25zCU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu1kMVkUjFA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwHENrvfEXw

Designer WHO?

Back in 2001, when I got into the top design school in India, Industrial Design Centre (IDC) IIT BOMBAY for my masters course in product design, people around me hardly understood what exactly I will be doing there and afterwards. I used to enthusiastically explain them role of a product designer. Now in 2017 when I tell people that I am a product designer, I can still notice a BIG question mark on their face 
'What exactly is product design ???'. 
Some of them care to ask more while some just say okay.

One more incident I would like to share. Few years ago when I was visiting my Sister, her domestic help asked me, “Didi aap kya karate ho?” (What do you do?) When I replied that I am a product designer. She said, “Oh, Kapda banate ho?”(Oh, you make clothes) Design is so much synonymous with Fashion. In our society design is either Fashion or graphic or architecture.

I think, we product designers deal with designing wide range of products used in our day to day life, but we have failed to create awareness in the society about what is our role. What do we do when we say that we design products?

My First Design in Market 12 years
ago (Godrej Washing Machine)

But I am glad that our young generation is keeping pace with the world. I receive many calls from parents, whose children want to pursue career in different design streams like product, user interface, automotive, toy, furniture, interior, accessories. 
They are concerned about what would be the scope in future?

Better late than never, here I am using this platform to connect with more people in our society sharing some of my experiences about my profession and ‘Design’ in general. I will be happy to answer your queries regarding ‘Design’. I feel Design is making changes in things around to make world a better place. Like an architect designs a building as per need of the client, available construction technology, climate of the site, budget etc; product designer designs the product keeping in mind the end user, ease of use and maintenance, available manufacturing processes and materials, budget etc. The design process is almost similar. The most important tool that designers use is ‘Visualisation’.

Concept Sketching basic of Visualisation technique

While architecture firms design different spaces like residential, commercial or public spaces; product design consultancy can offer services for wide variety of products right from consumer products to huge industrial equipments. During my industry experience I got opportunity to work on small products like soaps, packaging for shampoo, medicines to medical equipments like patient monitor, dental x ray machine. Many companies have their in-house design department, where a team of designers is dedicated to constantly improve user experience of their product range.

The design team is involved since inception of the product like deciding requirements of the product till the actual manufacturing of the product begins. There are many stages involved during the whole process which I would be talking about in detail later on. During the whole process the design team needs to interact with many other teams like end user, marketing team, engineering team, model making team, manufacturing team etc.

I hope that now you get some idea about what product design is… 
Please post your comments and queries.