I went to a workshop last week titled ‘HOW TO INVENT! Pink Diggers, Rude Signs and Driving on the Wrong Side’, given by Professor Tom Barker from the London Royal College of Art (RCA). The blurb form the workshop flyer:

As companies increasingly compete in giant global markets, innovation and design is gaining greater value than ever before. The role of the designer has become pivotal not just to a company’s success, but also in terms of social responsibility, ethics and sustainability. Good design gives competitive advantage and builds brand value. However, the process of designing truly innovative products that succeed has always been a difficult and risky task. How can the designer respond to these new challenges? Why is experimental design and research so important in all of this? What is the contemporary role of design academia?

Tom described how products and design ideas go through a “constant path of evolution” and a highly productive way of working involves “colloborative non-disciplinary” partnerships. In his presentation Tom showed a table that outlined the incubation of future design ideas for marketable products which he called “bottom draw technology”:

5 years - Products that are available now but are generally expensive and not working well.
10 years - Held in the research and development departments of commercial companies.
15 years - University research

He stressed that design briefs need to be “stretched and tested into something else.” The term “experimental design” was used to describe design that is informed by a “creative, artistic process”. The results of these experiments are recorded and reviewed with the idea of working out how they may be used.

In regards to University research he is reluctant to get caught up in pure consultancy work that does not allow for costs to have “time to think.” The paperwork can overwhelm the research. An ideal industry link allows for “process; research and innovation”.

“Project Migration” involves re-packaging research projects to test industry interest.

In the presentation of RCA student work I was intrigued by the way video was used to document design projects - Tom talked about the need for designers to understand how to use narrative in this documentation. A lot of animation, maps, sketches and illustrations where used by students to explain the design process.

References:

http://www.smartslab.co.uk/