Exploring Materials

Materials are like words. The richer your design vocabulary, the more distinctive the design solutions you can express. Sketching ideas with a pencil or rendering them with computer software are useful experiences, but there is no substitute for confronting physical forms and materials directly. Exploring Materials is an action-oriented, accessible guide to design thinking that addresses both the "how" and "why" of product design. In place of the abstraction of pure forms or the whimsy of virtual objects, it encourages designers to make and test real objects in a studio environment. Best-selling author Ellen Lupton (Thinking with Type) and her colleague Inna Alesina examine materials from several points of view, including traditional uses, experimental uses, techniques and directions for prototyping with everyday objects, and environmental implications. Student exercises and inspiring examples from the world of contemporary product design show readers how to use materials as tools for thinking and making. The book opens with two extensive studies: one for a place for sitting and one for a method for carrying. By considering what is needed instead of what specific product can be made, designers examine the methodology of designing. The core of the book is a visual glossary of thirty-two materialsfrom corrugated cardboard to molded felt to plastic film. It highlights the materials' behaviors and propertieswhich suggest different types of structure, surface, and connectionand it shows experimental uses of these materials, demonstrating how designers from around the world have exploited their characteristics in inventive ways. The book concludes with a section on making it real, moving beyond the prototype to create a product that can be manufactured and marketed. Exploring Materials contains everything designers need not only to jump-start their design process, but also to follow a project through from idea to prototype to finished object.

ISBN 1568987684   Pages 208 ISBN13 9781568987682 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Princeton Architectural Press   Weight (grammes) 644 Imprint Princeton Architectural Press   Published in New York Format Paperback   Height (mm) 229 Publication date 11 Jun 2010   Width (mm) 203 Library of Congress 2008032530   Spine width (mm) 14 DEWEY 741.6   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

Introduction		How to Use This Book		4
		Unlock Ideas: Using Materials for Inspiration		6
		Study, Prototype, Test: Journey through the Design Process		18
		Know Your Values: Why Design?		42
		Think with Materials: Everyday Uses and Inspiring Experiments		56
		Make It Real: From Prototype to Product		192
		Acknowledgments		206
		Bibliography		206
		Index		207

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