Cycle 1/4: Industrial Design

For this Cycle, you will work through the stages of the Design Process to create unique,
contemporary salt and pepper shakers. In addition to the following tasks, you need to include
your initial observational drawings in your visual diary and ensure it is neat and organised
with clear headings for each page.

Tasks for Assessment:

1. Understanding the stages of the Design Process
2. Research
3. Mind map
4. Generation of Ideas (thumbnails)
5. Refinement (visualisation sketches)
6. Final Design
Task 1

What is the Design Process?

The Design Process is a model used to assist in solving creative problems. Design thinking
skills are applied throughout the Design Process, encouraging you to evaluate and analyse
the progress and direction of your Design concepts. Your process and thoughts can be
made visible through generation and development of ideas, and expressed in written
annotations.

What is the first stage of the Design Process? What does this tell us?

What is the importance of Research? Why do we do it?

Why do we go through different stages before the Final Design is selected?

Task 2

Research
This stage requires you to gather styles, colours, forms, etc. that act as inspiration and allow
you to develop your ideas.

Research:
10 x traditional designs of salt and pepper shakers
10 x contemporary designs of salt and pepper shakers

Annotate EACH of the designs you find. For annotations, you might like to discuss:
 Any distinct physical features (e.g. it looks like a cactus, it’s transparent, it has an
air tight seal, etc.)
 Design Elements & Principles used (e.g. the pepper shaker might be bright red
and the salt shaker might be white which creates contrast and allows each to be
easily identified, etc.)
 Materials used (e.g. wood, plastic, glass, etc.)
 How to use the shaker (e.g. turning it upside down and shaking, twisting the top,
etc.)

*make sure your annotations are not single words (e.g. ‘colour’, ‘yellow’, ‘triangle’, etc.) but
try to be specific and descriptive.

Example:
Task 3

Mind Map
Creating a mind map will allow you to brainstorm ideas for your own unique salt and pepper
shakers.

In your mind map, consider:

 Theme (e.g. modern, unique, animals, spooky, fun, etc.)
 Target Audience (e.g. who do you intend to use this product? Elderly, Gen Z,
gender, people who listen to Triple J, people who watch the Simpsons, etc.)
 Colour (e.g. bright, bold, pale, pastel, yellow, pink, etc.)
 Shape & Form (e.g. prism shaped body)
 Texture (e.g. smooth, rough, geometric pattern, etc.)
 Materials (e.g. painted glass, metal, plastic, etc.)
 Key features (e.g. has the body of a ghost, is shaped like a snow globe, the body is
transparent so you can see the salt and pepper, etc.)
 How to use the shaker (e.g. do you turn it upside down and shake, is there a button
to push, etc.)

Example:
Task 4

Generation of Ideas: Thumbnail Sketches

This stage of the Design Process requires you to take your Research and inspiration to
begin creating potential Designs.

Thumbnail sketches are meant to be quick drawings to help you generate ideas. They
should be:
 Completed using grey lead pencil
 Be moderate (but not overly) detailed so you can understand the basic concepts and
ideas
 Be accompanied by annotations (key features, how it’s used, Elements & Principles,
changes that can be made, things to keep the same, etc.)
 Take you no longer than 5-10 minutes per sketch depending on your design

For this task, you will need to complete 4-6 thumbnail sketches of different designs. DO
NOT draw the same design over and over again.

Example:
Task 5

Refinement: Visualisation Sketches

This is an important stage of the Design Process as it allows you to make changes to your
work to ensure it is meeting the Brief, and becomes a stronger Design.

You will need to choose 2 thumbnail sketches to develop into visualisation sketches. Your
visualisation sketches should contain more detail than your thumbnail sketches, allowing you
to visualise what the product would look like. Make sure you incorporate media other than
grey lead pencil (e.g. coloured pencils, markers, fine liner, etc.) and annotations.

Example sentence starters for annotations:

 The form of my salt and pepper shaker is _______________.
 From my thumbnail sketch, I changed the __________ to create a stronger
design/ensure it is unique and meets the Brief.
 The body of the shaker will be made from ________________.
 The colour of the shaker is _____________.
 For my Final Design, I can change ___________ or I can keep ____________.

Example:
Task 6

Final Design
A Final Design is a Design that has been resolved through a series of stages of development
(i.e. created through following the stages of the Design Process)

Select 1 of your visualisation sketches to resolve into a Final Design. Remember that you
Final Design should:
 Clearly developed from your initial ideas
 Not be quick or rushed like your thumbnail sketches
 Be detailed – so your ideas are clearly communicated
 Use appropriate media based on your ideas (i.e. markers, pencils, fine liner, etc.)
 Be appropriately scaled to fit an A3 page

Example: