During my second year at university I think I have improved my skills as a product designer in many ways, from my CAD skills to my layout and prestation design.  I think this was due to the range of products I undertook this year.  However I do still have areas which still need work, such as sketching and hand rendering.

CAD Skills – Solidworks

The design for manufacture (DFM) and brand alignmnet project which we had at the start of this year, where were had to choose a mechanical or electronic product and replicate its internals in solidworks and then deisgn a new casing for it, helped me to improve my Solidworks skills significantly.  I was introduced to features which I had not used before and all round gain more experience with using the software.  The storage project later on in the year also helped me to further my CAD skills, as I was again using features I had not used before and doing new things, such a creating moulds for my products.

Rendering Skills – Keyshot

Along with improving my CAD literacy I also think my Keyshot product renders have improved from what they were at start of the year to now, for example my DFM boards.  The first set of boards that I subitted for the DFM project were very basic and not very realistic, however the revised versions of these boards which I submitted recently are far more realistic and of a higher quality.

Ideation Skills – Hand Sketching

For idea and concepet generation I do think my sketching has improved, however I still think I have way to go, as somethimes my proportions and perspective can be off.  This needs work as sketching is a key way of communicating ideas.

Presentation – Layout Design

Spending more time on layouts, has helped make my work a bit more professional, but I do still need to work on this area greatly, as a clear layout will guide someone through my work and idea process.

This year we had two 24 hour projects, one with the airline seat manufacturer Safran and the other with packaging company DS Smith, each working with a mixture of students from different years.

24 Hour Project – Safran

For this porject we had to design a set of buisness class seats suitable to be used inside an Airbus.  This was an intersting breif as it was in an area which I had not designed for or though about in great detail.  In our group we came up with a set of modular pods, with adjustable seats.

24 Hour Project – DS Smith

For this 24 Design task we had to come up with a way of collecting and disposing waste card boxes, we end up designing a program which large shops could facilitate and small shops could sign up to.  Here they would become a drop off point for waste card, where lorries would then at the end of a week or so collect the dropped off card.

Working collabertaively on 24 hour briefs is something which has allowed me to better my teamworking skills, which will be usefull when I go out into a job, as I am able to now work better within a team.

Week 7 – w/c 4/11/19

Soldiworks Model Adjustments

After finalising a Solidworks model exterior casing I went about putting in place the ribs and bosses which would securely hold the internal components in place.

Rendering the Screwdriver Model

I put my Solidworks model into Keyshot and applied the surface textures and finished which were appropriate, replicating what I had found out in my aesthetic research.

Heroboards

I took my Keyshot renders and took them into Illustrator and produce three boards, one heroboard, one features and benefits, and the other an exploded view along with a bill of materials.

Reflection on My Heroboards

When I have to remake my heroboards, I would like to do a new set of Keyshot renders as I feel that the material colour of the casing that I chose was not perfect, and that there should have been a few other accents of colour i.e. red, like there are in Dyson’s vacuums.  Currently only the trigger and direction switcher provide my product with accents of another colour.

Week 6 – w/c 28/10/19

Developing my Solidworks Model

This week a further developed my Solidworks model by making the back of the screwdriver larger than the font end of the design, this allowed me to obtain the sectional and stepped style which can be seen in Dyson’s designs.  I also worked on resizing aspects of the design, such as the front end.

Week 5 – w/c 21/10/19

Sketch development

This week consisted of developing my designs on paper and with render markers, experimenting with implementing shapes and adding coloured accents to areas in my design like Dyson do with their products.

Week 4 – w/c 14/10/19

Tutorial Feedback

This week was the first week of having tutorials, where I was able to gain feedback and advice on how to further develop my designs in Dyson’s style.

Out of the three models which I had made the main pieces of feedback I was given was to make the overall deign more free flowing and streamline as my current designs had a large amount of harsh sharp edges, which didn’t necessarily fit with Dyson’s aesthetic.  The other feedback I was given was to look into the top of the casing to see if any other forms could be implemented, as there was no feature on the top, so it was just a curved surface.

Week 3 – w/c 7/10/19

DFM Injection Moulding

This week we had another lecture on various things to consider when making a casing for injection moulding on Solidworks.  The thickness of the paint once applied, was a key thing to think about as it would eventually with layers make the model bigger and could result in parts not fitting together.

Solidworks Tutorial

This week we were also given a lecture on how to shell, add ribs and bosses to our designs, making them more accurately replicate an injection moulded part.

This was helpful as I was not full confident with how to actually shell a part without doing an internal cut extrude.

Continuing with Concept Ideation and Development

Along with designing and sketching more concepts for the other casing I also made 3 CAD models of some casings on Solidworks.

Week 2 – w/c 30/9/19

PDS

This week we were made aware of the importance of a PDS, how you can analyse a brand and set out key specification points which your product must fulfil.

Variants of Injection Moulding

Also this week we were give lectures on the different injection moulding processes, it was good to learn the different types of injection moulding, which built on my previous knowledge of the processes from A-level.

Also we were told about about the different types of defects which can be present when injection moulding and how to avoid them, such as making a product wall have a consistent wall thickness, to reduce the risk of sinkage (for both aesthetic and structural purposes).

Brand Research

I started to look in detail at what defines a Dyson product, I did this by looking at their existing products and breaking them up into different areas.  Looking at these sections allowed me to gain an understating of what elements make up their designs.  One key feature included in each of Dyson’s designs was a clear focus on technology, this was either shown through the product having a visible technological element, such a set of cyclones, or the technology being illustrated via their marketing posters/renders.

Ribs and Bosses within the Donor Product

I also started to think about how the internals would be held within my casing and weather I would replicate the existing ribs and bosses and adjust them slightly to fit my casing or start from scratch.  To clearly see the existing ribs and bosses I took photos of each side of the case, the printed them and drew over them.

Concept Ideation

This week I started to produce concepts for my electric screwdriver casing.  In order to ensure that my concepts were viable, in terms of proportions and sizing, I printed out a screenshot of my internals and put it underneath each sheet when sketching.  This meant I was able to see where each part was in relation to each other.

Week 1 – w/c 23/9/19

Briefing

The first week back at University we were briefed on what we would be using our internals that we had made on Solidworks for, which was to design a new exterior casing for our chosen product that is ready to be manufactured with injection moulding.

Internal Inspection

The internals which I had replicated was checked over to see if they were accurate, which they proved to be.  This was a relief as they took quite a bit of time to make as the wires were difficult to get exact.

Initial Ideation

This week I also started initial ideation by drawing 50 basic 2D Designs, here I was able to get some basic forms and shapes on paper and start playing around with elements of Dyson’s style.