Week 1 Design Principles Essay

Okay, so this next post is a little different to what I’ve been doing so far with this blog. As part of my course I have to do a 300-500 word essay giving a critical commentary on 2 of the 5 key principles covered in my Tuesday lecture, and post it on my blog. It looks like this is going to be a weekly thing too. Not the direction that I was expecting to be going with this blog, and my essay skills are a bit rusty, but we’ll see how we go. It could be interesting. Here’s the essay:

The first principle that I’m looking at is the idea of working by hand, and thinking on the page. Simply put, this is the process of getting my ideas down in hand-drawn images, rather than text or digital form. That is not to say that I have to draw with a conventional drawing tool such as a pen or pencil – I could use collage for example – but the key is that it is by hand. This process gives you a physical connection between your hand, eye, and creative right brain, which in turn allows the latter to operate more efficiently. This in turn results in a better environment for creativity and therefore idea generation.

There are several ideas here, and unfortunately I'm not sure what all of them are, but included is his idea for a flying machine.

A good example of an artist that thinks with images is Leonardo da Vinci. He has filled hundreds of sketchbooks with his drawings of ideas that he's had. There is certainly text in there too, but they are his notes to himself about parts of the ideas he's drawn. He was incredibly creative, and had scientific ideas that were centuries ahead of their time. While this obviously cannot be attributed merely to drawing by hand, he does nevertheless make a prime example of someone that follows this first principle.

The second principle that I’m looking at stems from the first: the idea of drawing as a visual language. This is more to do with the communication of my ideas than the generation of them, however. Visual language enables us to convey both greater quantities and more complex information far more effectively than with text. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. This may or may not be exactly true, but a picture is certainly much better at explaining complex ideas in ways that make them easier to understand. As a visual practitioner, this is especially important when communicating my ideas to others, as it is the best way of explaining short of giving a tour my mind. It is also important for my own reference, as it means I can recreate earlier experiences in my mind far more easily.

There are many examples of ways in which this principle is used. Probably the most prevalent is in instruction manuals. It would be a very lengthy process to describe (without images) the stages in completing a Lego kit.

Imagine trying to follow a step saying 'Attach the flat grey 2-by-12 brick to the top of the flat grey 2-by-2 brick with the nozzles on the sides so that the 2-by-2 brick is as far to one end as possible without the knobs being exposed and the nozzles are perpendicular to the 2-by-12 brick'.