Copyright (c) 2009 Sheffield Hallam University All rights reserved. http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session8/track_c Recent Events in Design Disciplines and Digital Production en-us Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:28:39 PDT 3600 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session8/track_c/3 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session8/track_c/3 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:00:00 PDT This project expands future applied-design capabilities for textiles as a function of inkjet deposition technology. The project investigates 3D inkjet rapid-production tools' potential, focusing on creative gaps in the developing technology in its application to the textile design process. As such, the research investigates future design possibilities for inkjet printing technology in the creation of 3D textile structures and surfaces. The research "demonstrates how tacit knowledge can be employed, observed and created in a methodical way, with new artefacts playing a role in provoking insights based on tacit understanding" [with a ] focus on developing and employing tacit insights that would not be revealed in situations where nothing has been changed." (Rust, 2007) As inkjet textile technology evolves past a rapid prototyping tool into a series of responsive manufacturing techniques for textile products, designers, textile technology developers and soft goods industries will be able to use the results of this research to maximize their creative development. By developing and employing modified 2D/3D textile design processes with the technology future creators will be assisted to conceptualise and manufacture locally, creatively and with more accessible technologies. Keywords: 3D textiles, surface design, technology-driven design process, inkjet printing, fused deposition modelling, novel textile design J.R. Campbell http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session8/track_c/2 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session8/track_c/2 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:30:00 PDT Consumers are changing the way in which they create, experience and consume media. User Generated Content (UGC) marks a shift in the way in which ordinary people are now able to contribute to the creation of media. They have become active citizens in what is now a two way conversation. The advent of UGC has created new challenges for communication designers who now need to take on the role of a facilitator in this process. The challenge for communication design is not only to identify appropriate methods for communication, but to understand how best to facilitate connections between users such that they create structures that they can inhabit. This paper explores the changing role of design in UGC rich media communication and presents a Decision Making Framework (DMF) that engages designers in the consideration of the user in the development process. In-depth interviews with leading industry proponents ensure currency of the insights gained. Keywords: Design Process, User Generated Content, Communication Design, Fraimwork Leon Cruickshank http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session8/track_c/1 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session8/track_c/1 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:30:00 PDT Post Industrial Manufacturing Systems (PIMS) is a research program with the overarching aim to explore the impact of emerging technologies in Rapid Prototyping, Direct Digital Manufacture, Parametric Modelling and Generative Design software on the design process. The initial research project within PIMS involved an industrial designer working with a CAD programming expert in developing a software system that allowed the user to view various products or designed forms, which were continually randomly mutating in real time. The user could not affect the form itself or the mutation in any way, but could decide at which moment they wanted to 'freeze' the constantly changing form to create a unique, one-off item. The user could then purchase the product, at which point the relevant stl files were created by the computer and exported to a rapid prototyping machine to be manufactured. As this work progressed, various approaches were tried, including the random placement of a selection of predetermined elements within specified space envelopes. At this point, a second project was started involving a craft practitioner with the express notion of exploring the differences in approach between practitioners of different disciplines. This work has produced a system in which individual building block units are randomly assembled together within three-dimensional mesh forms that can be manipulated in various ways. When the process is complete the resulting object can be digitally manufactured. This paper will describe these different approaches to random generative design and discuss the implications for the disciplines of design and craft, their interpretation and meaning raised by this research. The experience of using these systems potentially opens the floodgates for amateur design and craft in ways previously unimagined. Developments such as these are clearly harbingers of a new era for design and craft and an example of the reshaping of disciplines. Keywords: Rapid Prototyping, Direct Digital Manufacture, Parametric Modelling, Generative Design Paul Atkinson