Design 21: Social Design Network

I have been thinking of becoming industrial (transportation) designer since I entered New School. And I have not given up on my dream. There were two motivations that made me to do industrial design. One, my father used to be car mechanic when I was young therefore I got to see many different types of car at my father’s work and I naturally got interested in cars and scribbled cars everywhere. Two, one day my parents bought me a car design book, the first thing that came to my sight was drawing. The drawing on the book was fabulous that inspired me the most to become a designer.

At the last year at high school, I had to do senior project. While I was thoroughly thinking of the project and suddenly my grandfather came up to head. At the time he was struggling in using wheel chair, therefore I decided to design a wheel chair for olds. The proposal was rejected by the school council for insufficient information about the project. When I was about to give up on the project, my art studio teacher offered me to design a wheel chair for the lady, who have disabled leg. I thought it was going to be interesting project and the proposal was automatically passed by the school council. At the time that I set at my desk to start I could think of nothing. I was blank and did not know where to start, so I interviewed the disabled lady first. When I met the lady, she was younger and had a baby. She laid out many problems to using wheel chair and come up with the solution of her thought. The major problem was she was having difficult using wheel chair and stroller at the same time. I focused in this major problem, however the project got over with not much of accomplishment or solving the problem. I was stalemate after the interview. After finding my lack of knowledge, I decided to go to professional college to upgrade my skill. It is one of reason that I decided to do product design.

I think the ‘idea’ is important to the designer is very important, because all the solution comes from the idea. However, ‘drawing skill’ is also necessary for designer. Rather than 100 words to explain the solution, one piece of drawing can worth more than 100 words. In my opinion if the designer does not have ability to draw than one is rather an idea thinker. When one look at top designers their concept sketches are also world top. This is one of reason why respect car designers, because one can not become car designers unless one is crazy good at drawing skill. People usually find inspiration from the outer source however one could also find motivation from the drawing. I am still working on to improve my drawing skill.