Industrial Design
Where Fine Arts and Engineering Meet
According to Time magazine, one of the 15 hottest professions in terms of job growth and compensation is industrial design—a field responsible for turning knowledge and ideas into products for the mass market. The Industrial Designers Society of America says the design process combines knowledge of engineering and technology with skills in the visual arts and an understanding of people.
Patrick Walker, an industrial designer with Priority Designs in Columbus and an Ohio Arts Council Artist in Residence, recently shared his thoughts on the value of arts learning in preparing students for design careers.
The Art and Science of Design Thinking
"The goal in designing any object is to give users the most beneficial, simple, enjoyable experience possible with that object," says Walker. "In pursuing that goal, designers often draw inspiration from the fine arts and use thought processes similar to those used in making art."
He describes the typical design team as a mix of talents: "Creative free thinkers are essential," he says. "They put wild, creative ideas out there, and often the engineers—who know the nuts and bolts—will say 'That's cool. I want to find a way to make it work.'"
Walker often plays another important role in team projects—the generalist who connects the aesthetics and human factors of a product to the realities of materials, manufacturing and costs and to the concepts involved in a client's business model and brand.
His talent began developing around fourth grade with his interest in taking toys apart to see how they worked and his love of drawing aircraft and Transformer robots. In high school, he benefited from advanced courses in math and science, as well as visual arts, drafting and design classes. Student work that required "looking at problems from different angles and thinking in different ways" was most helpful, he says.
Design in the Classroom
Walker enjoys sharing his design skills in K-12 classrooms. After completing his degree at the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, he made a practice of visiting his aunt's elementary school art classroom once a week to sketch with students during lunch period. He would give them challenges like designing toys or shoes. He says children usually find design projects exciting and often generate interesting ideas.
"Kids don't have a paradigm of what is and what can be," he says. "They just know what they want to do."
Today, as one of the Ohio Arts Council's artists in residence, he has begun to bring the challenges of design to more Ohio classrooms.
Students at Queen of Angels Montessori in Cincinnati experienced the mathematical and human challenges of architecture and design during a residency with OAC artists Janet Cotner and Patrick Walker. The challenge: Design a space for your favorite activity. Photos by Janet Cotner and Patrick Walker.
In his first OAC artist residency experience, he assisted architect Janet Cotner at Queen of Angels Montessori School in Cincinnati. Cotner gave students the task of designing a space that was perfectly suited for a favorite activity. Walker helped students design furniture and other items for their environments.
Using sketches and then clay, students ages 9-12 were free to think innovatively, but they had to demonstrate their understanding of scale, as well as other curriculum content.
The following May, Walker led a residency in the Hamilton City School District with Cotner assuming the support role. Students worked on design concepts for "the classroom of the future."
Go to www.idsa.org and select "About ID" for more information on industrial design.
This article was published in April 2008, Volume 4, Issue 2.
