Home
KS4
A2
Opts
Gall
Dates
KS3
Copyright © 2012 M.Kenny. All Rights Reserved
No parts of this website maybe copied or reproduced without permission
Tuts
Research
Specification
Designing
Evaluation
Task Analysis
Making
Carrying out research about your theme or inspiration is one of the easiest research
pages to complete.
- Your design brief may have already given you the theme to research such as ‘design
a lamp based around a design movement of the last 100 years’
- In some cases you will have to make a key decision and decide upon your own theme
from your task analysis research and narrowing down the task research.
Start
Objs
Ass
Ext
Find out your themes “characteristics” by gathering information about:
- Colour - What are the main colours associated with your theme?
- Culture- Show examples of products and images that are associated with your theme.
- Shape - What common shapes appear in your theme?
- Patterns - What patterns appear in your theme?
- Materials - What materials are associated with your theme.
- Key Concepts - e.g. Modernism’s concept was “less is more.” Art deco was “symetrical,
bold and zig zags”
- History - What work has been done in past using the same theme?
To help build a clear picture about your theme don’t just type it into Google and
hope for the best. Look at the following in relation to your theme (these may not
all be relevant to your task and you can add your own headings as well):
- Architecture - Show examples of buildings that have been made from your theme.
- Iconic Design- Show examples of iconic products that have been made from your theme.
- Art/Artist - Show examples of works of art including sculpture produced in your theme.
- Traditional Products - Show products that were made using traditional techniques
related to your theme.
- Religious Imagery - Show how religion has effect your theme. (African tribal masks,
Buddha)
- Environment - show the environment (culture) where your theme is set in or where
it originated from.
- Events - Show how key events in history have effected your theme such as wars, the
moon landing etc
Aesthetic/Theme research is not just about collecting images. You will need to add
your own analysis of the images you find. You will have to write your thoughts and
opinions about those images and how you can use them in your designing.
A example theme layout sheet is shown below. Remember you can use your own headings
relevant to your project. This shows one of the possible ways how you can layout
your sheet if you need help and guidance. It can be downloaded and printed via the
printer icon. Also look at past examples for inspiration. The example below is based
around the design movement ‘Pop Art’ as inspiration for a lamp.
Set up your image table.
- Decide what characteristics of your theme that you want to research.
Possible Characteristics
- Colour
- Shape
- Patterns
- Materials
- Textures
- Key Concepts
- History
- Write these in the table as show.
- Add more or less columns to you table depending on how many characteristics you want
to research.
Below are some past examples of some past theme pages. Click on the pictures below:
As discussed some of the pages in your folder may look different depending which target you are aiming for. You will find which page you should be completing from the front cover of your folder. You can also look at what you need to have in terms of detail on each page from the assessment tab above.
The pages below give an example of the different levelled pages for a theme inspiration research page. Text or writing in grey means that you do not need to complete this. However if you find the task easy you can have a go at these areas to improve your mark. As time goes by you should build your skills in theme research and go up the levels until you are able to complete it completely independently and achieve a high grade.
LEVEL 3-4
Collect images and stick them down onto your page any images that you think will
help inspire your design ideas. Remember to check your design brief or task analysis
to ensure you are collecting images relevant to your project (e.g. iconic buildings,
retro etc).
Annotate what parts of the images you could use in your design ideas.
Opposite you will see the theme inspiration page that you will use in all areas of
technology. Each version has subtle differences so hover over each page and look
carefully. You find out which page to attempt from your targets found on your front
cover of your folder
Vids
Vids
Vids
LEVEL 4-5
Mind-map as many aspects of your chosen theme and its characteristics. Collect images
and stick them down onto your page.
Collect any images that you think will help inspire your design ideas.
Remember to check your design brief or task analysis to ensure you are collecting
images relevant to your project (e.g. iconic buildings, retro etc).
LEVEL 6 and above
Set up your image table.
- Decide what characteristics of your theme that you want to research.
Possible Characteristics
- Colour
- Shape
- Patterns
- Materials
- Textures
- Key Concepts
- History
- Write these in the table as show.
- Add more or less columns to you table depending on how many characteristics you want
to research.
- Add images and analyse them and their key characteristics related to your theme .
A example theme layout sheet is shown below. Remember to research images relevant
to your project. This shows one of the possible ways how you can layout your sheet
if you need help and guidance. It can be downloaded and printed via the printer icon.
Also look at past examples for inspiration.
Discuss what you have found out.
- In this box, analyse the information you have found. Write down what you have found
out about this characteristic of your theme.
- Write down your opinions, weather you like or dislike what you have found.
- Discuss how you think you might use this information when designing.
Discuss how successful your research was and if you are going to use this information.
A example theme layout sheet is shown below. Remember you can use your own mind-map
headings relevant to your project. This shows one of the possible ways how you can
layout your sheet if you need help and guidance. It can be downloaded and printed
via the printer icon. Also look at past examples for inspiration. The example below
is based around ‘nature’ as inspiration for a lamp.
Ext
Ext
Ext
Ext
Ext
Ext
|
|
4-5 mood-board Images/mind-map branches/imag es per table column have been collected
and features have been analysed
|
6-7 mood-board Images/mind-map branches/imag es per table column have been collected
and features have been analysed
|
8+ mood-board Images/mind-map branches/imag es per table column have been collected
and features have been analysed
|
8+ mood-board Images/mind-map branches/imag es per table column have been collected
and features have been thoroughly analysed
|
8+ mood-board Images/mind-map branches/imag es per table column have been collected
and features have been analysed and some consumer opinion sought
|
8+ mood-board Images/mind-map branches/imag es per table column have been collected
and features have been analysed and detailed consumer opinion sought
|
|
Mood-board
|
3
|
4
|
4
|
5
|
5
|
5
|
|
Mood-board (with Analysis)
|
4
|
4
|
5
|
5
|
6
|
6
|
|
Mind-map
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
6
|
7
|
7
|
|
Theme research table.
|
5
|
6
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
8
|
|
Theme research table (consumer opinions sought
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
Excep.
|
Excep.
|
To be able to plan and carry out identified research tasks using the most suitable
methods.
To be able to select and show the most important parts of that research.
To understand how the physical features of design themes can be used to influence
ideas and design innovative products
