I found the television series Design for Life interesting but a little frustrating. The most valuable part of the series for me was watching the complete cycle of development of the student’s products. What I found frustrating was at the beginning of the series the students faced difficulties in understanding the projects briefs and coming up with good ideas in restricted periods of time. I related to these difficulties and understood the pressure that they were under to produce good ideas.
From watching this process unfold and also experiencing similar situations in my current course I have come to realise that experience is a defining factor of many successful designers. Understanding design philosophies and being able to apply them to your own projects is something that I think comes with time. There is no scientific formula or right or wrong answers when developing these ideas; I think that it just takes time, effort and experience.
As an Industrial Design student I thought Design for Life was entertaining and educational. Watching the students present their ideas and having Philippe Starke critique them provided insight into the way a great designer thinks. When the students present their ideas I realised that successful communication and presentation of design/product ideas is an important part of my future career and that this is a skill that I should develop and not neglect.
Watching the student’s ideas be developed with great model makers also showed valuable lessons in the cycle of product development. I found that watching this process unfold reiterated how good designs go through many trial and error phases and that the model making process is important to realise actual form.
I thought both of the final products were insightful and good products. I was concerned that the products had not been put through any human testing and therefore was not sure how well they would actually perform.
Design for life is a good series that shows the process industrial designers go through in their development of new products.
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