WHAT

Semester 1/2007 RMIT Industrial Design

Elective title: By Product

Lecturers: Simone LeAmon and Liam Fennessey

Contact: nplus1@netspace.net.au and liam.fennessy@.rmit.edu.au

Duration and credit points: 13 Weeks / 12 credit points

Room, day and time: room ** 11.C.012 **, Wednesday, 9.30-11.30am

By Product: SCHEDULE

This elective is structured as a micro design studio. Students will be asked to research, develop, design, prototype and set in place a robust business model for new products produced with minimal intervention from industrial waste for the European high design scene. It will be fast paced and pragmatic.

Recycling and repurposing offers significant and creative opportunities for learning about design, material, production and distribution. While this avenue of design activity has strong links with the sustainability movement, DIY Communities, and design for development, it is really about the business end of design and manufacture. It is about designing commercially robust product systems that have a very high consumer value with minimal overheads and inputs. It is about understanding material, the economics of design and branding. Its about making a practical and profitable contribution to solving our desire to consume buy challenging notions of consumption through design. Its about taking design into areas that are either too messy, smelly, to corrupt for the rest to handle.

Key learning objectives

1. Enhance lateral thinking;
2. Develop fast-paced design and entrepreneurial responses to waste material;
3. Appreciate material properties and manufacturing processes;
4. Understand target markets and the demands of servicing high design retailers and distributors;
5. Develop a design-relative, material and business vocabulary;
6. Develop marketing and sales skills;
7. Be informed of the histories, knowledge and theories that support, dominate and frame your product;

You will need to be proactive – conduct work each week and move with the program.

Activities

• Discussion
• Research
• Material ‘play’
• Designing
• Reading
• Writing
• Meeting industry professionals
• Frequenting high design stores

Organise a Project Folder – use it to house and compile ALL relevant material. Keep both a digital and corporeal folder for easy access during classes.

Deliverables

1. Product Idea

2. Business Flow Chart

3. Serial batch production or analysis and feasibility study for production and distribution or service facility

• Expectations: Please arrive to class on time – 2 hours goes very quickly! Bring your material, research and support material each week for analysis and discussion.