Providing there’s a sound methodological case for it, I like to get my researchers designing and making things whenever possible and, because of our undergraduate facilities, we’re fortunate to have the resources to enable this. However, two interesting comments on the contribution and demise of design school workshops have been made by leading designers in the last few weeks.
Bemoaning the experience of his son when he was not allowed to make a prototype at college, in the Sunday Times Magazine of 30 November, James Dyson reported that, “It was an industrial design course, where you weren’t allowed to make what you designed! I never understood that: if you have an idea you need to make a version of it to see if it works. That’s why I built 5127 prototypes of my vacuum cleaner – only then was I happy with it”.
There were parallels with this position when Jonathan Ive, speaking at the Design Museum in London on 12 November, was less than happy with the capabilities of design graduates, commenting that, "So many of the designers that we interview don't know how to make stuff, because workshops in design schools are expensive and computers are cheaper. That's just tragic, that you can spend four years of your life studying the design of three dimensional objects and not make one."
Whilst I accept that not all design schools engage in the design of artefacts, many do, all the way from undergraduate to PhD. In fact, evidence in the UK indicates that graduate design capability combined with a hands-on skill set is not only valued by employers but is increasing in demand as manufacturing and associated R&D continues to go through somewhat of a renaissance. Maybe it’s time to start trading-in rooms full of computers for more benches, band-saws and 3D printers?
Mark
Dr Mark Evans
Reader in Industrial Design
Loughborough Design School
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