This Wednesday the lecture was focused on Product Design, in parallel to our project of the week. The speakers where Michael Boylan, Industrial Designer and Spencer Lin, recent Parsons graduate.
For me, it was the most interesting, and this week in its whole. I am really thankful for the opportunity I had to come to the program. Specially because I am graduating in november and had no clue what I would pursue as a career, whether it was architecture, fashion design, engineering, etc. But since the beginnig of the course I’ve been inclining my works towards a more “product design” aspect, even when they where fashion-related
Also, the fact that we had John Gerard giving us a hand during the long weekend was an incredible experience for me because I finally got to be closer, have an insight into the career of an industrial designer. In a sense it made get to know the career I have heard so much of, but didn’t really know what industrial designers would work of, for eg. John briefly taught me how they have to function or the importance of experimenting and getting to know materials. And with that I realized how much I see myself doing this because it reunites a more cientifical aspect such as architecture does with physics but emphasizing in the design process that I enjoy so much.
Coming back to the lecture, I strongly considered both of them inspiring. Firstly, Michael showed us one of his designs, Central Park’s trash bins, which happened to have strike my attention the week before. For this, he presented part of the process that his creation involved: sketching every idea (no matter how crazy) and prototyping the best ones, materializing some, receiving feedback, investigating the situation, the problems and possible solutions, etc.
Later on, Spencer (doctor and designer) displayed his final portfolio for graduation. It consisted of a pill container aimed for the elderly which again, was a result of a very thorough plan. Writing the mission statement, brainstorming, prototyping, analyzing similar products and their defects, interviewing the public, and more.
In summary, I thought it was important to highlight all of this because not only did it lift a huge weight of my back (the anxiety of not having a field which I am completely passionate about), but also because it is at most, what enriched me from the program.
What I mean is that, before coming here I knew there was a design process, that you are suppose to documment everything and follow certain steps. But I didn’t really do that because I was told how to do it, the theory but I never saw it in action, so as to actually understand it and be able to take it into practice. So due to this, it would be harder to come up with original ideas, I would be blank every time I had a white paper in front of me. Instead, I now feel what everyone talks about when it comes to design, such as being constantly concious of the sorroundings as a media for inspiration.
