Hi Amy,
Great response. Thank you.
You are in territory in which ideas and discussion are easy to get
complicated and confused.
Its just as easy though with a bit of effort to keep all the ideas and
reasoning straight and clean.
First, it's probably really useful to remember that a knitting pattern is a
design ( a design being a set of instructions to make or do something). A
knitting pattern is the exact equivalent of an engineering drawing, or set
of plans and instructions for constructing a building.
In the same sense, a knitwear designer always has two tasks: to envisage
the object to be made and to create the instructions (the design) explaining
how to make it. This is the same as an engine designer has to envisage the
engine to be produced and envisage and create the instructions (the design)
explaining how to manufacture that engine. Creating a design for a building
similarly requires envisaging the building to be constructed and envisaging
and creating the instructions (the design) for how to construct the
building.
Both parts are needed to be a designer and to create designs.
All too often, designers and design researchers overemphasise the first
activity (envisaging the object to be manufactured) and ignore the real
design activity: to create the instructions (the design) from which the
object is manufactured or the process is undertaken.
For a knitwear designer creating patterns, the fact that design comprises
two activities is more obvious than for (say) a graphic designer.
On top of that, the kind of knitting pattern (design) you seem to be
describing also provides some guidance for the knitter using the pattern to
themselves create variants.
In many cases, this may not involve any design activity on their part.
This is in the sense that they may not create any 'instructions (designs) to
make or do whatever they want to do' - they may simply make whatever it is
that they think they want. This latter is art or craft that does not include
design activity.
On the other hand, you may be guiding them in creating their own knitting
patterns (designs) that they (or someone else) will later use to create
knitwear. In this case, the end user will also be designing, as distinct
from craft or creating art
In both cases, your design activity has the two strands of:
a) creating one set of instructions (a product design) to make a knitted
object
b) creating additional instructions (a process design) guiding them how
best to envisage and create variants/additions/modifications and/ or how to
create their own production instructions(designs) so that they or someone
else can manufacture their variants/additions/modifications later.
Best wishes,
Terry
==
Dr Terence Love
Love Design and Research
PO Box 226, Quinns Rocks
Western Australia 6030
[log in to unmask]
+61 (0)4 3497 5848
=
Amy>
Looking at the particular example of knitting, I would be designing
processes that are used by others to produce things. Taking this into your
language:
Knitting version of strand 1:
Where professional designers design processes that can be modified by others
to produce things that fulfil the requirements of the others.
Knitting version of strand 3:
Where professional designers design processes that are used by others to
design and produce new things.
The line between the two seems a little blurry, because they both start with
processes and end up with things, produced by the others. I suppose the
distinction would be about the difference between 'modification' and
'design'.
I'm thinking that an example of strand 1 would be a 'traditional' knitting
pattern (an item to be made from scratch), which has some options for
modification, for example short sleeves/long sleeves, different hems or even
just making your own colour/yarn choice.
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