Holidays numbered

If you read the article I posted not long ago about the ways to being the best designer in the world, then you will know that you will need to invest approximately 14,600 hours of practice or training to get there. It is not quite simple isn’t it? This means spending about 4 hours per day (no weekends or holidays) for about 10 years of consistent training. WOW! That’s like a lot of discipline and hard work!!! Maybe if I spend an hour per day practicing, then I’ll need 40 years to become the best designer. That’s an even bigger WOW.

WOW!!!

GOSH!!!

My holidays are being numbered as my intern training is just around the corner so I’ve been practicing on my drawing. In designing, I’m good at developing concepts and planning stuff, but when it comes to drawing, it’s really absolutely tough for me. So now I’m trying my best to draw products everyday but when drawing for only about half an hour feels like its taking 4 hours! I wonder if drawing products alone is enough to improve my drawing skills. I’ve no idea. Someone tell me please. Let’s just see how it goes and hopefully I won’t embarrass myself during my intern with my drawing skills. How nice if I can project out the image in my mind onto a paper and print it out? Come on inventors! Invent me this I beg you!!! By the way, I want it now! This is a now generation! LOL… (from black eyed peas, awesome song, go listen!)

Industrial Design

Whenever I tell people I’m doing Industrial Design, here are some of the reactions:

“huh?! Oh! It’s something like graphic design isit…..”

Or

“Industrial? Means? Factory ah?”

Ahyoyo, Nvm… Then I’ll tell them, it’s Product Design, so here we go again:

“Oh, (Blur) > _<”

Or

“(Not so blur) -_- What kind of products?”

Industrial Design? As some of you may ask. If you haven’t already known, Industrial Design is also known as Product Design. Basically we design 3D items such as furniture and many kinds of products such as electrical appliances, house whole items and many more….

Career Options includes Product Design Consultant, Industrial Designer, Industrial Design Consultant, Transportation Design Consultant, Furniture Designer, Electronic & Electrical Designer, Home Appliances & Houseware Consultant, Prototype Maker, Model Maker, Draughtsman and Mold Designer.

Hope you are now clear of what is Industrial Design all about. It really relates a lot to the consumer needs and is a process where aesthetics should not just be an afterthought but a significant element together with the function.

I’ve completed my Industrial Design 2 Subject recently, so here are 2 of the products that I’ve created.

Click here for more details

Click here for more details

No Future?

It saddens me whenever I get to know that someone's parents are forcing them to do a particular subject which they are not interested in. What on earth are these parents thinking? Do doctors, engineers, lawyers and accountants only be accounted as professions with a future? So those stall venders who have a passion for grilling burgers and are earning tons of money, but is said to have no future?

Scenario 1:

Child wants to take design, parents say no future. So now the child studies business. When the child is being ask why not do what she wants? She says because parents are paying for her college. Her solution plan to get what she wants: graduate from her business course and work till she gets enough money to study what she wants.

So whatever the parents has forced the child to do, the child won’t end up doing it, so what’s the point when close minded parents decide for their child a career with ‘future’ and end up wasting their money because of letting them study what they wouldn’t end up doing?

If you who know nothing of the design field and can say that it has no future, are you the best person to be giving advice to them? Isn’t the thinking that the design field has no future shallow?

Scenario 2: Conversation between A and B

A: I want to change course to fashion design but is it a good industry? I heard that people can’t really get a good job here in Malaysia.

B: I think you should do some research about that industry here in Malaysia. If it is promising then go ahead, if otherwise, then you have to think of other options

A: I think fashion is the only thing I’m interested in.

So what is the solution that best suits A?

It is not the field of study that will determine your success, but it is you that is in control of your success. You are the only driver in your own journey of life. I think that no matter what fields of study you go into, you are responsible to create a future for yourself. Future here means success. Success of course means money. For example if a fashion graduate here in Malaysia is unable to get a decent job, then that person have to find ways with whatever knowledge he has to make ends meet. It could be starting own business or venturing into other related industries. Use the passion and drive in what you have and go ahead and create success of your own. Now that sounds rather not too complicated right? So why afraid to study what your heart really longs for all these while?

So isn’t the thinking of “unconventional professions = no future” simply just shallow? For example some people may look up to doctors and too often many will dream that their offspring will become one, but a painter may be looked at as just someone who does strokes with his brush. If both of them are earning the same amount of money every month, so which of them has chosen a career with a “future”?

Hard work, determination, having the right attitude, time management, etc…………

Needless to say those are the key to a future!

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Design Woes

Never would I imagine that design would be so tough!

Here’s the scenario:

There’s a product design competition with the theme safety. My classmates and I are entering this competition and this will be also be our one and only assignment for our Industrial subject for this sem.

Who to impress?

Judges?

Subject lecturer?

Public?

Well, we have to impress all! And they all have different opinion of what would be a good design. So what the judges see is brilliant does mean it’ll be useful or even good in design terms to the public and likewise. What one of our lecturers wants is us to create something to catch the eye of the judges and that everyone can relate to. This means that the judges also care more on the outer look and design, and function second, which totally goes against the principal of industrial design – form follow function.

So how do we go about this?

I’m about 70% done with my assignment, and I just got the “people can’t relate to” opinion from one of them. I can’t turn back now. One of my friend, RACH! always told me that you got to filter what people say and judge yourself what is best. I’ve got to do some thinking of my own on to which is the best way to go about this. So I’ve got to take in all the advice given and make it work! I can’t let all these opinion ruin my motivation to complete this. I’ve got to believe in my own product, believe in its concept, believe in the innovativeness it brings and work it out! Yes, Work it out! Hmm.. I feel motivated now! Got to continue my sketches...

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Taking Design Seriously

Since beginning college in May 2007, it has been an interesting and satisfying journey of discovery for me in the creative arts field. I realized becoming a designer requires so much more than just an aptitude for art and drawing.

PJ College of Art and design chief executive David Liew says that traditionally, people who opt for art and design courses are perceived as firstly, not good at anything else; secondly did not do well in their SPM exams and thirdly, good in drawing. Why the perception of “good in drawing” does come in third place? There is no denying that the first two perceptions that were mentioned by David Liew are true. As I have observed, this is sadly the case of some of the students in my college. So what separates a good designer from a bad one?

Liew emphasizes that being good in drawing does not mean you’re good in design. Designers are problem solvers who need to use both their creative and analytical faculties, that is, both their left and right brains. “A designer is actually a fusion of creative skill and business sense.” he says.

It is not talent alone that will get designers ahead in the game. Liew says the power of language is very important in design. If u can design well but you cannot sell your design, it is useless.

Other factors that would make a good design student is being discipline and responsible. This means spending enough time working on assignments and handing it up on time. A good designer will always respect the given datelines. A good creative idea takes time to develop, and some designs need a good amount of research and survey, so starting to work on your assignment at the eleventh hour is never a good idea.

Aspiring designers have to ask themselves whether they are willing to put in the effort to think long and hard to come up with something innovative or will they just settle for a satisfying design. “Designing is all about changing perception to make the world a more pleasant place” says Liew.