Friday 21 October 2011

Transportation Design - Railway

Railway has been around for quite a while now and there are quite a few awesome concepts coming up in the market. Designing railway seemed like making a few wagons with some shapes and its done! This is how it looked before research.
After researching there was a big change of thoughts, and to the previous idea it was a BIG FAT NOOO! That was the day when it felt that things which look easy shouldn't be under estimated. Every product that is designed is a different experience, moreover it helps in learning many aspects for the future.

To know about railways one needs to travel by train on a regular basis to understand and study situations one faces. Apart from all of this the research is equally important.
On the market, there are concepts for different purposes like for airport, for city transfer, metro etc .Out of all such purposes, airport in-transit was chosen. The problem to be solved was to remove the extra vehicles especially directing to specific terminals where their flight is for check in. For example: If an airport has 5-7 terminals and there is a person who lives close to terminal 1 but has a flight to catch at terminal 5 then he has to travel extra for terminal 5, but if a train is designed in the airport premises then that person can enter terminal 1 and travel up to terminal 5 in the train which is free of cost.
This further helps in making it convenient and smooth enough for passengers to travel in the airport premises.





The concept was all about this and the next aspect to think about was to choose the type of material, technology and number of people. After thorough research the material used to built up the train was reflective glass and aluminum. The idea behind choosing the reflective glass was to make the passengers enjoy the view of the airport when they were traveling and as many airports have some shopping areas and some restaurants then it would be interesting to view them and know where to stop. The technology to be used was Magnetic Levitation(Maglev) and the number of people chosen were 10 in one wagon. It was decided to make a twin wagon which is interconnected and in total there will be 20 persons moving in.

The train was inspired from three things, like an egg, a bullet and a rugby ball. These three things helped in understanding the aerodynamics and the shape of the whole body.








Thursday 13 October 2011

Transportation Design - Marine

The first part of every project in product design is to read the brief and know what it demands. After jotting down all to be done on paper, it is time o move forward to get inspired and get started. So, finally the project takes off with a brain map between the lecturer and student. A lot many ideas came on the board. They were kind of whacky, crazy and mad. It always feels stupid in the beginning of projects when it comes down to brain mapping. It is funny as well as interesting to know how the brain works and what limits it can cross to produce such ideas. Sometimes it seems like its not part of the project and people are having fun. But as one dwells in more detail then things start to work and come in place.

A product design student, Rohit Kothari, lately produced a concept for the module marine transportation design. His main source of inspiration was studying the marine culture that includes relevant aspects like the movement of the fishes, the shape of their body and some lines, which helped in aerodynamics. The dolphin and the wale were studied in deep and later became the main source of inspiration.

After all of this, the process had to move forward and the concept had to be finalized.
The brief was all about designing a marine vehicle for leisure and recreational activities. So after great research and studies, the concept narrowed down to:
•    Designing a vehicle for marine
•    Single seater
•    Protection from the sun
•    Speeding on water
•    Go-carting on water or racing
•    Sporty


Later came the time to sketch and finalizing the shape of the vehicle which fits in each and every word of the concept. In this process, there were a lot of sketches produced and many ideas came along and many were criticized. The critic reviews really helped in further developed and the sketch was finalized. This sketch was later taken as a guide in preparing the technical drawing on AutoCAD.


Sunday 9 October 2011

Transportation Design

Transportation design — this is one word which amuses every aspiring product designer. When we see this word flashing somewhere, the first thing that strikes our heads is designing cars, trucks, aerospace, marine and all the automobile stuff we see around. Chris Bangle, automobile designer of BMW, once in an interview said that the designing an automobile is an art, a piece of architecture, and a sculpture all clubbed in one.

So the question now strikes is what is an automobile and after knowing this statement why so?
Automobiles are self-moving things; an elevator, a robot, a car, a bicycle and so on are all part of automobiles. So, don’t mistake yourself by thinking only about cars when you listen to this word. Also why do such things have the characteristics of a sculpture, architecture and art is because each and every part of an automobile has to be thought about. This can be explained better with the help of an example: look at a piece of furniture and then look at a car, these two are part of product design and they do differ from each other because of the way they are designed and thought about. Unlike a car, furniture is not so functional and that is the reason it is easy to produce a piece of furniture in less time but not a car. A car may look simple because of the shape, but if one goes into the details of interiors and exteriors and as well as the functionality, it is like knowing stuff about three worlds.
One of the major challenges faced by an automobile designer as compared to other designers is that they have to work hard on a single idea for long and this can take them more than a year. Whereas, on the other hand, lighting and furniture designers are comparatively faster and as per the changes in time and fashion, people can follow the trends and produce designs with the current pace.
Moreover, all of this stated by now doesn’t mean that transportation design is putting one’s life on stake and is part of a risk-taking job. From a designer’s point of view, this maybe risky but that will not have a bad affect on one’s career. There are millions of designers all around the world and any amount of work produced today does not mean that it HAS to be considered TODAY. As there are changes in the tastes of what people demand then it can work. It is somewhat disheartening to know if things don’t work on time, but one should stay calm and wait for the right moment for it to be approved.
A well thought idea solving each and every problem faced throughout the process of development of a project would work. The best way to know oneself of where they stand in the market is to get it tested with their colleagues and a critic review can help a lot. There are certain rules and processes of working for some particular projects. On the other hand, as designers keep working and have a good experience, they tend to develop their own style of working and make stuff’s work. Designing means freedom, and for designer’s there are no boundaries. It is quite interesting to understand a designer on their style of working and the way they produce their work.
 
For a starter, it is quite challenging to understand the way someone works as he or she has to know the basics of design. Well, as we see design everyday in our life’s is not part of the knowledge. It is simply different from what you see in everyday life.
The basic rule of design is: every design speaks for itself. Moreover the world shouldn't care much about the designer (who made it?), the bottom-line is that it should be functional enough and should solve problems of what it’s made for!
Rohit Kothari