Lesson #6: Transforming sketches into a proposal-part 3

Part of the unit: Two-Dimensional Furniture Design |

Goals

Students will be able to:
Understand that industrial design drawings help the viewers and makers of prototypes understand the specifics in a design
Understand that careful choices in composition of images and/or text creates an informative and effective proposal in a design
Create an effective composition of their proposal by cutting out and arranging their chair drawings with added drawings, informational text, and measurements
Materials
Scissors, glue, the same selection of drawing materials used in previous lessons; all student drawings, models, and materials; and paper large enough to accommodate collaging of these design drawings and materials, as well as additional text.
Resources
A selection of proposal drawings and brochures. i.e. from:
  • Design for Life-Drawing of Henry Dreyfuss design of Polaroid Automatic 100,Seat for Electra 100 airplane;
  • Eames furniture brochures at www.loc.gov/exhibits/eames/furniture.html,
  • Promo photos of Argentin Batti's Placentero chair.
Keep the drawings, model and selected materials (that the chair will be manufactured in) that were created by the class with you during the prior demonstrations to use as components for demonstrating composing the design proposal.
Motivation: 
View a selection of proposal drawings and brochures. Some examples are: "Design for Life"-Drawing of Henry Dreyfuss design of Polaroid Automatic 100, Seat for Electra 100 airplane; Eames furniture brochures at www.loc.gov/exhibits/eames/furniture.html, and Promo photos of Argentin Batti's Placentero chair. Discuss layout and composition of informational images and text:
  • How do these drawings show the special components in their design?
  • How did they visually alter the informational text and size of images to help guide our eyes through their proposal?
Demonstration: 
1. Demonstrate the different impact that layout can create by arranging, comparing, and contrasting different compositions of the same images. Ask students:
  • How are they different?
  • How does this composition affect the way you envision the product?
2. Explain today's goal and aim: we will complete our proposal drawings by cutting and arranging your chair drawings with additional informational text and images. Some guiding questions to ask (also post these on the board):
  • Where will you place your drawings on the page?
  • What can you add? What can you fix?
  • What other information can you add to give viewers the whole picture of your design?
  • Which drawing material will you use to achieve this?
  • What can you make smaller or larger to create visual impact in your proposal?
  • Will there be a sequence for the viewer's eyes to follow?
1. Distribute students' proposal drawings, models, and materials. Have them begin by cutting out their proposal drawings and experiment with layout of their drawings on larger paper. 2. When students have arrived at a layout that works for them, using collage and a selection of drawing materials, students will complete their design proposals. 3. While they are working, encourage students to treat the entire page like a canvas and "keep the viewer's eyes in mind." Encourage them to use the guiding questions on the board as a checkpoint for themselves and their progress.
View one or two students' completed proposal drawings along with their initial sketches and three-dimensional models. Discuss their thought process and the visual impact that their proposal drawings create.
  • What is the most attractive feature in his/her design? How can you tell?
  • What sort of name can you give your chair to target your audience?
  • What sort of name would match the function and form of your design?
Have students come up with a name for their concept chair. Give them guidelines:
  • Name should be related to their concept, function, and form of their chair.
  • Name should also target the needs of their targeted audience.