Design Homework
Objectives
1. Articulate the relationship between cultural context and design innovation and
expression;
2. Research designers from historic periods and familiarize yourself with their signature
works;
3. Use the structure of comparison to highlight the similarities and differences between
two different types of designed products (buildings, products, graphics and services and
systems);
4. Articulate the relationship between cultural context and design innovation and
expression;
5. Practice your editing! Convey details in a concise and well-structured story.
Understanding more about the people who have contributed to the establishment of the design
disciplines is an important step toward being knowledgeable about design processes and
practices. And as design practices have become more actively entwined with people in general,
using well-told stories to communicate messages has become a critical design skill.
Evaluation Criteria:
Comparison of designers’ works is articulate and imaginative 10 points
Background information contextualizes key points 4 points
Ability of image to illustrate critical comparative point 3 points
Format and citations are correct and complete 3 points
Assignment:
Understanding more about the people who have contributed to the establishment of the design
disciplines is an important step toward being knowledgeable about design processes and
practices. And as design practices have become more actively entwined with people in general,
using well-told stories to communicate messages has become a critical design skill.
Use this opportunity to learn about two designers by comparing one to another and
demonstrate your awareness of how some particular aspect of their design process or a wellknown
design project for which they have been credited can be explained through an
imaginative story you create. In this spirit, imagine that you take two of the designers you have
investigated to lunch. Describe where the lunch occurs…what would make sense, given the
personalities involved? What would they eat? Include an image of a significant design associated
with each of the designers in your essay and use references to it to inform your creative
decisions about the plot.
In your story, one of the designers should engage the other by one of the following three ways:
1. Telling him/her about how his/her work has been a positive influence on the younger
designer (and why);
2. Making the point that times have changed, and that new times require exciting new
approaches to design (and why);
3. Making the point that what is new can never live up to the quality of what was done in
the past (and why).
Frank Lloyd Wright- Architect, Spatial Design/Architecture
http://www.biography.com/people/frank-lloyd-wright-9537511
Michael Graves (1934-2015) USA- Industrial Design
http://www.world-architects.com/architecture-news/headlines/Michael_Graves_1934_2015_2664
I would like you to write about these to designers