DE5020 - 3D Design: Context

This module utilises studio and seminar-based teaching. You will learn via studying the existing approaches and outcomes of contemporary design practice before finessing and consolidating this knowledge through subsequent design projects.

You will use research, writing and presentation skills to analyse, synthesise and describe case studies of professional design practitioners or manufacturers, to better appreciate what they do and why. Given the range of design motivations and outcomes this module explores, these studies might consider the work of large-volume furniture manufacturers, speculative/critical designers , design interventions for the benefit of a local community, or craftspeople working innovatively with new technologies. Group discussions and debates around such subjects will enable you to formulate independent judgements about what furniture and product design could and should be contributing to contemporary life.

You will then engage in design projects inspired by these case studies, enabling you to learn from within a creative process. You will be given chance to rehearse the types of critical and creative thinking associated with various contexts for furniture and product design. You will come to understand the priorities emphasised by different motivations for design practice, be they environmental, societal, ethical, aesthetic, commercial or technological. Presenting your proposals at project critiques will provide opportunities to account for and defend your ideas. And you will be prompted to think reflectively about how your developing skills, knowledge, interests and aspirations can be best directed towards particular types of design practice, in future modules and beyond.

Academic support is given by regularly timetabled tutor facilitated studio sessions that provide multiple opportunities for constructive dialogue around the themes explored in the module. As the teaching is framed around exploring different contexts for design practice, these will be introduced via studio presentations, before you will be supported through exercises, assignments and design briefs conceived to structure and enable your independent exploration of the topics and issues raised. Tutorials following formative submissions will provide you with feedback and opportunities to clarify assessment criteria prior to the presentation of the summatively assessed portfolios.

Tutor-guided independent learning time will help you to make constructive use of feedback received in class, and to take responsibility to direct your own learning. The formal formative assessment points in the module provide you with a means to prioritise and structure this learning and promote personal responsibility in managing your workload. You are also expected to guide a portion of your own independent learning time as part of this module, as you continue to align your learning objectives with personal design interests. Such independent learning may include a range of activities such as; contextual reading; studying artefacts.

The module has a specific virtual learning environment ((eLearning Portal) which acts as resource where you can access all the relevant documentation including module briefs and guides, presentations and assessment requirements. The digital submission of aspects of project work for tutorial guidance and formative assessment allows for expedient communication and the effective review of work, whilst also utilising industry standard practices.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

On successful completion of this module, you should be able to:

Knowledge & Understanding:

? Demonstrate a critical awareness of the motivations, priorities and validity of a variety of contemporary design contexts.

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:

? Demonstrate critical analysis skills in the selection and evaluation of research material.
? Develop and account for thoughtful and appropriate proposals in response to design briefs, thus demonstrating your understanding of contemporary contexts for design practice.

Personal Values Attributes:

? Demonstrate your ability to take greater responsibility for your own learning, and reflect upon and direct your own personal design interests.
? Demonstrate an ability to effectively communicate (in conversation and academic written/visual work) with increasing sophistication.

Teaching and learning is structured around exercises and assignments throughout the module. These activities are formatively assessed as part of the teaching of the module.

Summative assessment of the module is via the submission of a portfolio at the end of block 1 (50%) and a portfolio at the end of block 2 (50%). The portfolios will include assignments completed throughout the respective teaching block. Each portfolio addresses all the MLOs.

Feedback is written and delivered via tutorial review after the submission of each portfolio.

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This module enables students to better understand and evaluate their own practice with reference to the cultural context of contemporary furniture and product design. As a complement to concurrent modules that teach students how to design and make artefacts, this module is for exploring what they could (and should) design, and why. Students will consider the contribution designers can make to contemporary material culture. Through studying the issues surrounding current practice—environmental, societal, ethical, aesthetic, commercial and technological challenges or opportunities—students will begin to identify and appreciate approaches that resonate with their own understanding of what material culture should be like. Eventually, these inspirations should serve as references, both in the self-directed design projects of subsequent modules and beyond, into students’ future careers.