DT Graphic Product Design Summer Project

Welcome to the course! Hopefully today’s input will help to ensure that you are on the right course and that you are well aware of what you are required to achieve over the next 2 years. DT Product Design has a 60% coursework loading and is noted as a fun course but requiring good levels of effort to attain good grades. We have a proven history of taking on motivated students and enabling them to obtain places at the best universities in the country. If you are self-motivated it is likely that you will enjoy the subject and end up with a good A2 grade. Before starting the course in September you are required to complete the summer project. This will give you a taster of the course to come and show to the teaching staff that you are keen to get on and start improving your design skills. Important! – You should upload your work to edmodo.com. You will have joined the AS Summer work group during pre-enrolment day. You should upload the work prior to the first lessons. Should you not have access to allow you to do this or need to use a scanner before you can, aim to do it at college on the first day. If you can’t do that you’ll need to bring the completed summer project with you on your first day. Students failing to hand in are likely to be removed from the course.

What are you going to do? You are asked to produce a minimum of 3 sheets - maximum of 5 on A3. These pages should be uploaded to edmodo.com. Failing this they can be on a memory stick or printed. Ideally you will produce elements of the work on a PC using PowerPoint, however this is not essential. This is a graphics course so the work will be judged on quality and professional finish. Annotation should be in depth and justified. Rushed, sloppy or incomplete work will be viewed as not meeting the requirements for the summer project. Sheets can be laid out and presented in any way you choose. We are looking for imaginative and professional looking pages but don’t want to tie you down by giving examples.

Sheet 1 – Product analysis For this mini project you are going to focus on a controller. This may be a TV remote or games console controller. Necessary for these sheet(s): written outline and details of the product in use, 3D isometric sketch of your chosen product, a wide range of justified user needs and manufacturer needs and a specification for the controllers production. Written outline: What is the product? How much does it cost? Where was it purchased? Who is the manufacturer? Other relevant details. How is the product used (photos or sketches may help here)? You will need to draw your controller in isometric (see left). You are to produce a high quality rendered (with colour) drawing of your chosen product. You will be marked on the quality of your line work, the quality of your 3D and your addition of colour. Sketches should be detailed and neat. It is important that the sketch is an accurate representation of the product (similar to the PDA) and not a cartoon (like the robot).

Sheet 1 – continued A wide range of needs for both the user and the manufacturer in terms of what the product will need to do/be. It may be the way it looks, the size, the life span, the cost etc etc. These points should be justified – to do so you should say ‘how’ it will be something, ‘why’ it was done that way and give ‘examples’ of similar products/solutions where ever possible. What were the key specification points (minimum of 12) used to design the product? These must be justified as above. – Good example: “The product shell will be manufactured using injection moulding. This will be moulded in two parts to allow components to be placed within the controller. Each mould will be two part and fairly simplistic to reduce costs. Due to the product being mass produced these moulds will be used in the region of 500,000 times, as such they will need to be made from tool steel to prevent degradation over time.” – Bad example: “The product will be safe. It has rounded corners.”

Sheet 2 – Injection moulding Necessary for these sheet(s): detailed description of the processes, an outline of pro’s and con’s, materials and products that are often produced using the process. For this sheet you are required to do some research. It should be noted that the internet is rarely the best source of information and that staff are well aware of the content in wikipedia. We also have ‘plagiarism’ software which will quickly and easily identify text that has been copied and pasted. Explain how the process works by using mages and clear explanation. Include details on moulds, plant, human input, relative costs, limitations, products suited the process and materials. Be specific when referring to suitable materials and giving examples of the sorts of products that can be manufactured – terms such as ‘plastic’ or ‘metal’ are not specific and should be avoided. Any data that you include should be analysed and include your justified opinion regarding its relevance.

Sheet 3 – Strengths and weakness Accurately draw two more controllers in 3D using inked line drawing only (in the style of the sit on mower to the right). These could be other game controllers but don’t have to be, related products which have some similar elements or functions are appropriate. In a table compare the products in relation to each other. Best examples of this are where students identify and discuss the differences between the products and justify why one is a better design solution than the other. The areas that should be analysed are: Function, Materials, Manufacturing, Ergonomics, Aesthetics and Cost. You should outline the pro’s and con’s of each product in detail and then compare them to your original product. If you are unsure of what the terms above refer to you will need to research them to ensure you analyse the product correctly.

Have a good summer!