Design Ideas
What you need to do
You should present a range of a minimum of 12 feasible design ideas with several design ideas on a sheet (3 to 5 ideas per sheet / slide). If you use an A3 marker sheet for the blue pencil sketch work this would give you the right size paper and layout. If you are working digitally (Procreate, Sketchbook, Fresco) then you need to remember the scale and proportions of A3 paper (420mm x 297mm).
Your ideas must relate to your Design Specification otherwise you cannot achieve a level 4 mark (highest), so ensure your Design Specification and Design Brief are accessible so that you can see what you have stated. You need to annotate / evaluate your design ideas matching what you have stated.
Mark scheme from Cambridge International Assessment Examinations
Student example
Student example 2
How to start
Starting initial design ideas can sometimes be a very daunting task. One way in which designers’ approach this starting point is using their Inspiration / Mood / Client boards as a starting point. You should use your Concept ideas / Thumbnail / doodle ideas sheet to reference and get you going. Other starting points for ideas could be:
What things do you like?
What shapes, forms, colours etc. do you like?
Look at nature. Natural forms – look around you at nature, animals, trees and plants, clouds etc.
Look at mathematical or geometric patterns.
Look at existing products and conceptual products that you like.
Look at what your user group likes
Use your inspiration boards to inspire you when you design – have them out in front of you. Pick out some of the shapes, forms, colours, patterns, details to help you start to come up with initials sketches.
Look at the work of other designers or a design movement, e.g. Starck, Bauhaus, Newsom, Rams, Ive, Hadid etc.
Look at Influences from music, films, media or current trends.
Look at new technological developments e.g. new materials / processes, electronic developments etc.
Look at the use of AI (midjourney, dreamstudio) to help you generate conceptual ideas.
Also, your research, must of course be used and referenced!
Remember after generating an initial sketch you have the opportunity to develop it thoroughly so don’t think that every sketch has to be perfect or a completely developed solution.
How to present your ideas
You should try to produce sketched ideas, preferably in 3D, along with 2D sketches. You should be considering colour, shape, form, texture, finish, and materials in your sketches. This can be done through the addition of thorough annotation of all of your sketches with reference to the materials, finish, texture etc., and use of a high level of Design & Technology specific literacy – correct terminology. Add annotation to the unfinished design sheet below
Sketching techniques
https://sites.google.com/rugbyschool.ac.th/rstdt-usb-lifestyle-hub/sketching-techniques-skills
You will need to select the most appropriate sketching strategy / technique(s) when generating design ideas. Whatever works best for you!
Many designers use blue pencil sketching as a starting point on a design sheet as it can break up the ‘daunting white space’ that a design sheet can sometimes be. Initial quick ideas and thumbnail sketches can be added as a layer that will then be sketched over (but not traced!). This adds another dimension to sketched ideas as it gives the sheet different layers and details that the eye notices when focusing in on aspects.
Childrens Play Park - initial blue pencil sketches
Air Purifier - initial blue pencil sketches
Bedside Lamp - initial blue pencil sketches x 3 sheets
The use of a black fine line pen cannot be underestimated in the communication of a design idea. There are many techniques that can be utilised using a fine black pen such as cross hatching, thick and thin outlines, and sketching.
Techniques such as Thick and Thin lines are often used to make an idea stand out more clearly on a page. It is a technique that is best employed on a 3D sketch. The trick with thick and thin lines is to ensure that the outer edge of a design idea is a thicker black line, and the inner lines are thin. This enhances the sketch and ‘lifts’ it off the page, drawing the eye to the idea.
Insert Hand Held hand whisks advanced example
Use of CAD or Models
All of your design ideas do not have to be sketched. You can use a range of techniques that you learnt in E block which could include quick CAD modelling (Onshape, SketchUp), card or foam models, and digital manipulation using Procreate. You can use foam models to convey 3D forms and then sketch over the photographs of the 3D foam model to add more detail, colour, texture etc. etc.
Insert Sam Palmer sheet - sketching over foam models or my Radio example
Putting it all together
When communicating and presenting design ideas you should try and use a range of media, skills and techniques to help you although you should use the ones which you can use to best effect. Try not to perfectly ‘lay-out’ your designs on a page. Sketch naturally and if an idea goes over the top of another idea, then don’t worry about this. Design ideas are supposed to be quick sketches - not perfect, precious final designs. The use of Procreate is a perfect way to be able to present your design ideas, particularly if you use CAD and models alongside sketches. This gives an integrated approach to presenting your design intent and is considered the highest level of communication.
Bedside Lamp - initial sketches x 3 sheets
Annotation (Analysis) of Initial Design Ideas / Concept Generation
Annotation is used to Describe, Explain, Evaluate and Discuss (DEED) a design idea to improve your communication. It can express a lot of your design intent and is considered very important in the communication of an idea. Often a sketch does not show all your design intent, and this is where discussing your idea, on paper, can help your communication to the examiner. You can draw particular attention to a part of a design idea. When describing your design idea think about its shape and form. Does it resemble anything familiar i.e. a known shape (an ellipse, a rectangle with rounded edges etc.), another product, a famous building, something from nature etc.?
Ideally annotation should be completed using a fine black 0.5 pen or using the Text function in Procreate.
When you are explaining an idea, you could mention what materials you are thinking it could be made from; what type or kind of finish it might have; how might the materials be joined together; why you have designed certain features such as rounded corners, holes or grooves. You should also make positive, negative or critical comments about your ideas to identify an evaluation of what you have presented. Imagine discussing your design idea with a friend, a family member, or your user group. What would you say?
You could also use a SWOT analysis to aid the annotation of your design ideas (generation of further ideas). For example:
Strengths:
What advantages does your design proposal have? What will it do better than alternatives? What is the unique selling point of your product?
What do users see as your proposal’s strengths?
Weaknesses:
What could you improve? What should you avoid? What are users likely to see as weaknesses?
Opportunities:
A useful approach to looking at opportunities is to look at your strengths and ask whether these open up any opportunities. Alternatively, look at your weaknesses and ask yourself whether you could open up opportunities by eliminating them. Where and how big is your market?
What are the trends relating to your product or market that you are aware of?
Useful opportunities can come from such things as:
Changes in technology and markets on both a broad and narrow scale.
Changes in government policy related to your product, i.e. WEEE legislation may be an opportunity to redesign a product to meet the new requirements.
Changes in social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle changes, etc.
Threats:
What obstacles do you face in both the proposal, design and prototyping stages? What is the competition? Include images and you could use the results of a patent search. Will the required specifications for your product change? Is upcoming or changing technology threatening your design? Could any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your design feasibility? Will users want / use it? In order to show it is worthwhile, you need to talk to potential users.
Asthma inhaler for artifical sports pitches - 3 sheets fully annotated
The gym equipment design ideas below use digital photographs integrated with sketched design ideas to give a context to the ideas.
Additional text added in PowerPoint to highlight points from the Design Specification
You should generate your sketched ideas using appropriate media and should try to demonstrate skills & techniques using that media i.e.
Blue pencil sketching, 2D sketching, 3D sketching, fine line pen, Thick and Thin lines, markers, Procreate digital sketching etc. https://sites.google.com/rugbyschool.ac.th/rstdt-usb-lifestyle-hub/sketching-techniques-skills .
Your ideas should be produced quickly, and they should communicate clearly, through sketching and annotation, what it is you are designing i.e. the design outcome should be recognisable.
You should also show evidence of the influence of research on your design ideas, which should not be a problem, as this should come naturally from the Design Specification, which is based upon research and analysis. As you experiment with first ideas and gradually refine your thinking, you should start to think about the possible materials or processes you could use, to work out if your ideas are feasible. You may also start to play around with combinations of ideas or work on the fine detail of some of your ideas. Making use of the information you acquired during your research phase should enable you to develop and refine alternative ideas to the stage where you can select one or two that are the most promising to be developed.
Your ideas must relate to your Design Specification otherwise you cannot achieve a level 4 mark (highest), so ensure your Design Specification and Design Brief are accessible so that you can see what you have stated. You need to annotate / evaluate your design ideas matching what you have stated.
