What Inspires Undergraduate Design Students?

Abstract

The importance of design inspiration sources and the way designers utilize them during their designing activities is well documented (Oxman, 1990). For example, the use of nature as a source of inspiration is widespread in a variety of design disciplines (Petroski, 1994), such as the invention of VELCRO in the early 1940s (Wake, 2000). More recently, architectural design firms such as Frank Gehry and the Future Systems Group have received widespread recognition for their creative use of design inspiration sources. Gehry, responsible for the design of the hugely successful Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, lists one of his main sources of design inspiration as ‘fish ‘. The Future Systems Group (1999) on the other hand are well known for their extraordinary range of inspirational sources in their design work such as the use of cross-sectional views of racing yachts in the design of the Lords Media Centre, London. In the realm of product design, inspirational sources are also viewed as a significant factor in the development of unique and innovative objects. For example, the hugely successful Michael Young includes the work of the American conceptual artist Jeff Koons, old tractors and milk bottles in his list of wide-ranging inspiration sources (Payne, 1999). Similarly, the British furniture designer Matthew Hilton has used imagery and inspiration sources in his Wait plastic chair from classic furniture pieces of the 1960s and 1970s including Vico Magistretti's Selene chair and Joe Colombo's Universale chair (McDermott and Dewing, 2000). However, studies into what inspires undergraduate design students, to date, have been neglected. Thus the goals of this paper are firstly to investigate what inspires undergraduate design students and secondly explore any correlation between the formal undergraduate coursework performances of the students and their design inspiration sources.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paul A. Rodgers

BIOGRAPHY

Dr Paul A. Rodgers is a Reader in Design within the School of Design and Media Arts at Napier University, Edinburgh. Prior to joining Napier University, Dr Rodgers was employed at the University of Cambridge's Engineering Design Centre (EDC) as a post-Research Associate between May 1996 and November 1999. Before that, he was a Senior Lecturer in Computer-Aided Product Design at the University of Wolverhampton. Dr Rodgers has a PhD from the University of Westminster in 1995 for his work entitled Product Performance Assessment. His current research interests include the application of Al and KBS design tools to conceptual design, the provision of design knowledge support, the communication and collaboration of designers in dispersed teams and design work via the Internet. In 1990 Dr Rodgers obtained his BEd in Design and Technology, Followed in 1991 by his MA in Computing in Design, both from Middlesex University.

Alex I. Milton

Alex I. Milton is programme leader of the BDes Interdisciplinary Design Programme at Napier University. After obtaining a BA in Industrial Design (Transport) from Coventry University, he worked in a broad range of design disciplines spanning transport, product, graphics, forecasting and illustration. In 1996 he obtained an MA in Design Studies at Central Saint Martin's where he subsequently taught. He is currently undertaking a part-time doctorate at Coventry University entitled Reinventing the Wheel, all analysis of automotive aesthetics in the wake of Modernism.