Product Design

Evolution of Product Design

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 Learning objectives
Learning objectives

To learn about the role of product designers and

how product design evolves over time in
response to market trends and technological
developments.
To understand the difference between
evolutionary change and revolutionary change.
To learn how manufacturing processes have
developed over time.
To appreciate that society and design are
interrelated.
To learn about different designers and design
movements.

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What is product design?

Product designers spend their time developing solutions to

design problems.
Product designers must meet people’s genuine needs,
wants and desires if their products are to be successful.
Product design is the process by which designers explore
needs and develop a solution within a timescale and
budget.
Most products develop in an evolutionary way. They slowly
change into new forms over time, as designers produce
variations on existing designs.
However, some products develop in a revolutionary way.
An innovation results in a wholly new and original product
that can have a big effect on society.

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Evolution or revolution?

Abacus Mechanical
calculator

Copyright 1997-2005
Is each stage an evolution or a
revolution in calculator design?

Electronic
calculator

Copyright 1997-2005
Modern scientific
calculator
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Evolution of product design

Products are developed in response to two main influences:

Market pull
A need or desire emerges
in society. This prompts
designers to search for a
solution to this ‘gap in the
market’.
For example, the
increase in RSI
(repetitive strain
injuries) led to a
need for padded mouse mats.

Technological push For example, new

New developments in technology has
technology or improvements in led to mp3 players
knowledge stimulate new replacing personal
solutions to existing problems. CD players.

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Evolution of product design

Market pull often causes products to develop in an

evolutionary way.
Consumers create the demand.
Products usually evolve gradually from one form to another.
The technology driving the product usually exists already.
Products created from a market demand are often re-styled
versions of older products.
Technological push tends to cause revolutionary development.
A new technology becomes available.
This technology offers new ways to solve problems, and
creates opportunities to make wholly new products.
New products are made which were not possible before
the technological advancement.

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Evolution of product design

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Evolution of product design

Developments in manufacturing processes

Steam power. Industrial revolution.

Simple hand tools.
One-off products Factories using
One-off products.
made easier. powered machinery.

Electronics
High tech CAM. invented. Increasing automation.
Flexible machinery. Specialist Production lines in use.
manufacturing Products made in
equipment. volume.
Mass production.

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Evolution of product design

Social impact
Technology and society are closely linked.
Fashion and trends often inspire changes
in product design. For example, artistic
movements such as pop art in the 1960s
can lead to innovative new designs.
The Egg chair by Peter Ghyczy.
Since fast food restaurants became popular in the early
1980s, many common products have become disposable.
Because fashion changes so quickly, we like to be able to
change the look of a product without changing the function.
For example, changeable casings can be bought for
many mobile phones.
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Design movements

On the following slides, you will learn about some

famous designers and design movements.

Think about what inspired each movement or designer.

Was it society, technology or new materials?

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Design movements

The Arts and Crafts Movement (mid 19th Century)

Some Victorian designers, led by William Morris,
rejected the ideas of the industrial revolution.
They believed that automation and mass production
separated designers from their products, and that the
crafts and workmanship of the past were dying out.
These designers preferred to design and make
products that were original and hand-crafted.
The Arts and Crafts Movement produced designs
based on forms in nature, such as animals and plants.
Making the designs required highly skilled workers, so
most of the products were too expensive for the
average person to buy.

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Design movements

"Have nothing in
your houses that
you do not know to
be useful, or
believe to be
beautiful."

William Morris,
'The Beauty of Life'
1880.

©NTPL/Andreas von Einsiedel

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Design movements

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928)

Mackintosh trained as an architect and interior designer in
Glasgow, Scotland.
He didn’t like the fussy and over-decorated Victorian style
that dominated the early Arts and Craft Movement.
Mackintosh preferred to incorporate
geometric shapes into his design.
Much of his work is based around
contrasting monochrome colours and
the creative use of empty space.
He developed what is known as the
‘Glasgow Style’.
Jewellery based on Mackintosh’s designs
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Design movements

Bauhaus
The Bauhaus was a German art and architecture school
which existed from 1919 to 1933. It was founded by Walter
Gropius, a German architect.
The Bauhaus wanted to design and manufacture products,
architecture and print that was functional, cheap and
compatible with mass production techniques.
They believed strongly in honesty of materials and that a
product’s function should be reflected in its aesthetic
qualities.
New materials and manufacturing processes provided a
catalyst for much of their work.

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Design movements

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969)

Mies van der Rohe was the director
at the Bauhaus in its final years.
He was trained as a stone carver
and worked under many successful
designers and architects before
settling at the Bauhaus. Copyright Bonbon Trading 2005.

In 1937, he moved to Chicago where he designed many

modern buildings and became a successful and world
renowned architect and interior designer.
He experimented with materials to create new designs but
he held strong to his functional Bauhaus roots.

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Designers

James Dyson (1947–)

James Dyson is a modern designer and inventor.
He designed and developed several products in the
1970s, but he is most famous for his innovative re-design
of the vacuum cleaner.
Dyson found that the filters in his factory spray room kept
clogging up. He began to experiment with cyclone suction
technology and then went on to apply what he had learned
to vacuum cleaners.
James Dyson believes strongly in physical modelling at an
early stage of a product’s development – he made over
5000 prototypes before the first DC01 came off the
production line.

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Designers

The Ballbarrow was one

of Dyson’s early designs.

In 1983, Dyson launched his first

vacuum cleaner – the G-Force.
It was priced at $2,000!

The DC01 was launched in

Britain in 1993. It was the
fastest selling vacuum
cleaner ever made in the UK.

Dyson has continued to develop

his designs – his latest vacuum,
The Ball, has an 8-cyclone
system and rests on a plastic ball,
making it more manoeuvrable.
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Design quiz

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Key points

Designers respond to the needs of society.

Evolutionary changes in product design happen
Key points

slowly, and are usually driven by market pull.

Revolutionary changes in product design are
sudden and are usually caused by technological
push.
Design and society are closely linked – designers
respond to changes in society, and cause changes
in society with their products.
There have been many important design
movements, designers and inventors.

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