Designers in SPACE

A great example of design operating in space and utilizing that space to it's fullest are the entrance corrals to the rides at Disneyland. Here is a picture of the Indiana Jones ride entrance maze, where you walk through an ancient temple courtyard on your way into the forbidden pyramid. A designer had to come up with a creative way to pack as many people as possible into this area as they wait in line, and utilizing space to it's fullest not only accomplishes this, but also keeps the guests entertained because they have something interesting to look at. For example, the pillars in the middle that have snakes twisting up their sides have the big wide top sections that are all the same height, giving the feeling that there is a roof or a limit to the area and that it does not go on forever. Another is how the props that line the outsides of the set, like the bunch of barrels on the left, are far enough away from the guests that they may look to be real. If they were right up close where you could get a good look at them you might not be as convinced of their authenticity. My favorite is the facade of the temple because from any point in this area it is going to look massive because it is much bigger then anything else in sight. Since you can not see any of the other attractions of Disneyland due to the large jungle canopy this is what you have to scale objects to, and it is pretty big.

Hey, are those new?

Here is a great example of how a product's tone and color, on this Troy Lee Designs Air Glove, operate to fulfill the user's, a motocross or bicycle rider, needs. If we first analyze tone in this example, the glove from the top has a very light middle section that is bordered by darker tones, defining it's edges. I have always like white gloves because they look classy when they are clean, and a big part of riding is style. If a rider feels confident in the way they appear, it adds to their confidence when they ride and lets them feel more comfortable.The darker tones are patterned on the thumb and pinkie occupy the whole finger section, while the ring and index finger have the darker tones inset in the light middle section. The palm of the glove is completely dark, giving it the opposite look as the top. Having a dark palm is necessary on a riding glove because if it were light it would show all the dirt that is constantly being rubbed into it. I think that there is a great integration of the light tone of the strip that lines the inside of the fingers that directs the eye from it's beginning at the tip of the index finger and moves to the pit and back to the tip of each finger. When looking at color, I think the first way I would describe it would be like a fun house. The colors all have a soft feel, with their hues being complementary. These types of colors work well for a rider because they are going to do a couple of things, the first is not being too vibrant. There is a point that color can cross when being worn by a racer where it starts to talk a little bit louder then they can, which can be a bummer. These colors can be seen, but are not so bright that you would be seen in the dark. I think that the color of the red and blue shapes on the fingers work well because they break up the big white area where the fingers are and flow well with the direction of the hand.
http://www.troyleedesigns.com/product.php?cat=61&id=19736

Product Designer

SHAPE:

The base for every design is rooted in the basic shapes, and being able to utilize their characteristics for what each of them have to offer. In this example of a rapid viz sketch for a new wood clamp design, it is clear that the designer has started with the basic circle, square, and triangle, and exaggerated their form to fit the function of the wood clamp. The handle is made of two semi circles for ergonomics, the clamping mouth has a square profile to make the bite more effective, and the hinge is made of two over lapping triangles. Without a grasp of the form of each of the basic shapes, a product designer will be unable to apply the user's needs to the reality of a tangible product.

SCALE:

For a product designer, scale is very important to the design process because it will fully effect the success of the end product. If you get the size of elements of the design out of proportion to others, the product will not have a consistent design language and the user will not be able to read it. One of the spectacular new advantages available to product designers today are rapid prototyping machines like 3D printers, which can produce design prototypes of an scale, smaller then the end product and even up to full sized components. This tool is amazing for a product designer because they are able to produce their designs into tangible objects at a fraction of the time it would take with traditional methods. With the ability to create each component of the design to full scale, a designer today should never have the problem of producing something that just doesn't fit.

LINE:

Starting at the beginning of every design are lines, that are connected to make shapes. This process, as it may sound easy in the previous statement, is very difficult to visualize without the proper understanding of how individual lines will be able to construct a solid object. The image above is a CAD drawing that I made for the Intro to Computer Drafting class and I believe that it is a great example of how line is used in the design process for a product. To start this drawing I had to join lines at their endpoints perpendicular to each other in order to form the square shape. I also had to utilize parallel lines to project the top view of the component to the front view.