Reflections of design teaching at the B.Des course

Abstract

First and foremost, vision of design is stated in the programme sheet that is given to the students. Programme sheet should have the ‘introduction’ to the project along with the learning objectives. It should trigger three basic factors of imagination, that are both common to art and scientific skills, as conceive (lay hold of), invent (to light upon) and imagine (visualize). Teaching design is a discovery, a process of unraveling and the teachers are the facilitators. What teachers do as facilitators enable the students to come up with the ideas of design. Design projects are given to stimulate the design process. Design process is a discovery both shared by the teachers and the students. The design process awakens the skills of the students, and their uniqueness in their approaches to design. This paper discusses about certain principles observed, recorded and put into studio experiment in design of neck chains inspired from flowers. Certain design principles, were taken from nature, carefully analyzed and applied in the design of neck chains. In the process, certain commonly known ‘flower forms’ were studied, in their plan forms, sections, and details to understand the principles of design. This paper discusses some important facts that were found out, in the study. The concept formation is the initial development of certain ideas, on which the whole design scheme is based upon. Initial thought processes are generated, depending on the concepts. As the design develops there are various issues come up as technical, philosophical and design issues. Philosophical issues such as the fundamental principles of creations, technical issues of material and technology and the issues related to design & aesthetics. Different characteristics were observed from each of the flowers. These resulted in the uniqueness of each design.