Industrial design is not only an appearance design, but also the design and expression of the shape, positional relationship between features, materials, colors, and surface treatment methods of industrial products, and more importantly, the expression of aesthetics. Industrial supplies, handicrafts, daily necessities and other industries. A truly outstanding industrial designer, in addition to the creative skills in aesthetics, should also understand and be familiar with the working principle, function realization method, internal structure, product realization process, manufacturing method, and mold realization method of the designed product. Wait, only in this way, the designed appearance is “reliable” and can be realized by the product, otherwise it can only be a joke, it can only be a piece of waste paper.
Designers need design inspiration and ideas. Inspiration is the most important spiritual work for industrial design. Only works full of spirituality can move people’s hearts. In addition to inspiration, industrial design must also have professional knowledge and ability. When talking with customers, it must not only reflect its own design professional level and accomplishment, but also highlight its own design creativity and ideas.
Philip Stark said that design comes from life and is an interpretation of life. There are two key words in this sentence, one is life, the other is interpretation, life needless to say, everyone is experiencing, if you have a life, I don’t have a life. What is interpretation, interpretation of life, to put it bluntly, is actually observing life, and asking questions and thinking from it.
Every industrial designer may have such a question. Why didn’t I think of such a good creative thinking? Why didn’t I think of this solution? So today we are going to talk about how to get this “light flash”.
- Material accumulation
The material is very important to novice designers. It allows novice designers to learn a lot of knowledge, improve their aesthetics, and pave the way for future design. Therefore, the accumulation of materials is one of the most basic and effective ways for a designer to accumulate design inspiration.
The hard disk of any design master is full of various design materials, but it should be noted that collecting materials is not about downloading and throwing aside the materials you want when you see them on the Internet, but you need to think carefully. So especially novice designers, might as well set a day to come out a week to figure out the material.
- Conversion of creative thinking
To put it simply is actually a reference. Many people think that this is plagiarism. It is wrong. It is called plagiarism if it is copied completely. It is unthinking. The real reference is a kind of learning. In the process of learning, we continue to accumulate and summarize, and thoroughly research a good product: Why does this product do this, and why does the indicator light have to be placed like this? Why use such a color scheme? What is the purpose of such a design? Is this design really good? What if I do it myself?
Everyone has a different aesthetic for design. Even the master’s work is unreasonable. Ask yourself why, so that you will grow up quickly.
- Inspired by books and hobbies
Basic writing skills is a compulsory course for designers. Basic writing skills can only be learned from all kinds of books. Reading some books on design, art, literature, poetry, and philosophy, while reading these books, not only accumulates own knowledge but also Will inspire your inspiration. When you read a certain poem, the artistic conception in the poem may be your creative inspiration.
Many good designers tend to have many hobbies, which also shows that inspiration often comes from inadvertently. It may be in your favorite two-dimensional element, it may be in your favorite food, it may be in your sport today…While doing your hobbies, you might as well think about it. Can I use these things in the design?
- Imagine carefully and compare repeatedly
Make more comparisons, design more colors, materials, surface treatments, etc., find out their advantages from these, and then combine them to make the work better. In this process, you will find out where you are successful, you will also find out where you are not good, and you will have a good plan in the end. So it is very important to think about comparison in many ways.
- Learn to think backwards
Many designers look for the general idea in life is nothing more than finding problems from the product. To put it bluntly, it is to observe. Observe vigorously and observe with milk. After observing for a long time, they still haven’t found the problem. They can only shook their heads and sighed. It seems that this design is very mature and does not need to be improved.
So what if the problem is pushed back to the product? This method does not require a product, or even paper and pen. Just bring your mind to imagine. The first step is to imagine a problem; the second step is to find the product based on these problems; the third step, Find a solution. Have you found it? Once you push from the problem to the product, many things you take for granted will have new changes.
They all say “a flash of inspiration”, but inspiration is really not a momentary thing. This “aura” comes from your accumulation, from your previous design thinking, and it is a cumulative development process.
In addition, rather than saying that inspiration is an idea and creativity, it is better to say that it is the beauty waiting to be discovered by you. See more, try more, think more, and you will find these inadvertent “beauties”. So as an industrial designer, you have to know how to appreciate good works and start from the highlights of others.
In general, there are three aspects to get inspiration: one is the accumulation of knowledge, all kinds of knowledge are needed; the other is to link life with design, and to discover the beauty of design in life; finally, to use this knowledge and design Go to your design.