It has been a while since I have looked at any conceptual design but today after I had exhausted the internet of motivational posters, LOL cats and ‘hilarious’ web comics, I decided I would use the internet as an educational tool (I know weird hey?)
I am still very interested in product design and am ashamed to say that since graduating do not follow it as closely as I use to. Researching new designs and products can be a fantastically interesting, informative and inspiring. It can also be a method of torture especially when you come across a genius piece of design and hate yourself because you never thought of something that brilliant either that or you just end up wanting a lot of beautiful overpriced gadgets that you will never be able to own!
There are a few schools of thought how to define conceptual design for example
For a design to be a true conceptual design it should not be practical
To
A conceptual design should be a representation of the final design as a whole.
Then there are people who believe that is and can be in-between.
The word concept is design world speak for idea - so you don’t sketch down an idea you create a concept via the medium of sketch. In my opinion it is all about the wording.
The way I would try and explain it is
Design concept an idea that is portrayed either by being sketched on paper, created on computer software or made into a scale model or prototype.
conceptual design a non-practical idea/concept that may be presented as a sketch or a non-working model prototype and could have aspects of it taken to form a working product. Such as Archigram’s 1960’s walking city.
Anyway…I mooched about gizmodo and found that they had a concepts section. Which basically means that the people of the internet had done the hard work for me and packed loads of conceptual designs in one place yey! I did find that the articles and designs in concepts section of the website (links below) do vary between design concepts and conceptual designs.
In the concept section I found this neat little design (so technically this is a re-re post Links to original articles at the bottom of the page ) that was dubbed “this is a toolbox with far too many uses”. I would disagree that it has far too many uses, but it does have a great designers take on the traditional tool box.
I do not think that they are available for sale but I would be interested to get hold of the prototype to feel the weight of it before you put the tools. I wander if you would need to take out all your tools to use the bench and stool as well.
It is a nice design, I do not see it competing with the lighter plastic tool boxes and bags on the market and can see it being more successful if marketed towards the hobby craftsman.
Overall I would say it is a lovely piece and a clever idea and would be a lovely addition to a home garage workshop or hobby craftsman.
If this has sparked your interest I would recommend visiting some of the links below.
*note it is the article that is called “ a tool box with far to many uses” the actual design is called ‘peera’ and is designed by Marlon darbeau
http://gizmodo.com/tag/concepts/ - concept design section of gizmodo
http://www.designboom.com/eng/ - website dedicated to all thing design related
http://gizmodo.com/5714497/this-is-a-toolbox-with-far-too-many-uses - article i read
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/12569/marlon-darbeau-peera.html - more information about the designer including pics of design process from concept sketches.
http://designmuseum.org/__entry/4509?style=design_image_popup - example of Archigram’s walking city
No comments:
Post a Comment