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An approach to computer-aided styling

Article  in  Design Studies · January 1995

DOI: 10.1016/0142-694X(95)90646-W

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An approach to computer-aided styling
Hunghsiang Wang, Department of Industrial Design, Tatung Institute of
Technology, 4(J Chungshan N. Rd. Sec. 3, Taipei, 10451, Taiwan

This'paper discerns aspects of geometric algorithms in styfing, and

investigates their automation. An approach to computer-aided styling,
including morphology, geometric transJk)rmation, and interpolation, is
presented and implemented in the design of a toolkit Jor car emergencies.
The results" reflect that this"approach is us@d Jbr generating a great number
of alternate shapes in conjunction with geometric algorithms, though it is
still highly dependent on the designer's heuristic decision-making.

Keywords: computer-aided styling, morphology, interpolation, geometric

transformation

epresentation of objects in a space is a central issue in design,

1 Simon, A H The setonces of

the artificial MIT Press, Cam-
bridge, MA, USA (1969)
R since much of design is concerned with objects or their arrange-
ments in real two- or three-dimensional space ~. For industrial
designers, such representation often refers to product styling, the process
2 Pules, A Opportunities in in- of imparting a particular type for products concerning form, appearance,
dustrial design careers, United,
New York, USA (1969) or character. Due to Modernism's paradigm about functional problem
3 Hanks, K and Bellisten, L solving and ~form follows function', styling has been relegated to a
Rapid viz: a new method for the
rapid visualization of ideas Wil- necessary evil. However, styling plays a key role in product design. First,
liam Kaufman, Los Altos, CA,
USA (1980) the designer starts with conceptualization, the earlier stage where he tries
4 Graham, K 'Is CAD ready for to explore solutions through a maze with highly selective trial and
designers? An evaluative study'
Innovation Vol 8 (1983) 27-30 error 2 4 Conceptualization contains an iterative cycle of mentally
5 McKim, R H Thinking visually:
a strategy for problem solving
visualizing solutions to a given problem, expressing the mental ideas with
Wadsworth, Inc., Belmont, CA, visual represenlations, and evaluating the representations to choose a
USA (1980)
6 Hotchkiss, E R 'Computer final solution 5'~. Thus, styling is important at the early stages of the
assisted three-dimensional form
development for industrial de-
product design process. Second, the shape and form of a product will
sign' Master's thesis at The Ohio inevitably change with fashion, while aesthetics is a marketable
State University, Columbus, OH,
USA (1987) commodity 7. As styling encompasses a multiplicity of styles, fashions,
"1 Pipes, A Drawing for 3- design changes, redesigns and design variations within a product range
dimensional design, Thames and
Hudson, London, UK (1990) aimed at different market segments, it becomes a strategic tool. In

50 0142-694X/95 $11).1111 l)esign Studies 16 (1995) 511-61

© 1995 Elsevier Science Lid Printed in Great Britain All rights reserved
 particular, styling is a major strategy for product differentiation when an
industry moves into its mature phase 8. This seems similar to Post-
modernism's emphasis on the ideas of design as differentiation, a styling
technique by restoring historic colours, texture and decoration as worthy
qualities of a product. In other words, styling is useful for creating the
visual language of a product.

By definition, styling also means the visual language that says to a culture
that it is grouping itself into fertile patterns of life 9, but this paper
attempts to focus on the area related to conceptualization. Since styling
contributes to conceptualization, product differentiation, and aesthetic
value, it is useful to evaluate the visual quality of a design. A successful
representation requires good externalization of ideas, strong persuasion
enabling the clients and those responsible for the design and development
8 Walsh, V. el al Winning by
to accept the idea, as well as adequate communication which conveys
design, Blackwell, Oxford, UK complete information to them 7. Therefore, all designers are required to
(1992)
9 Dormer, P The meanings of become skillful at drawing, including sketching rapidly and accurately.
modern design, Thames and
Hudson Inc. New York (1990)
10 Mitchell, W J Computer- Some design experts argue that styling is two-fold l°'11. One requires some
aided architectural design Van
Nostrand Reinhold, New York kind of search of the solutions, with a certain amount of trial-and-error.
(1977) The designer is intent on generating as many solutions as possible,
1 1 Tovey, M 'Drawing and CAD
in industrial design' Design Stu- whether or not they are satisfactory to the design problem. Another is
dies Vol 10 No 1 (1989) 24-39
12 Heath, T F 'The algorithmic
concerned with analytical procedures without any trial-and-error explora-
nature of the design process' in tion, leading with complete certainty to an appropriate solution so that it
Emerging methods in environ-
mental design and planning G T can be seen as a procedure with highly algorithmic properties. Therefore,
Moore (Ed) MIT Press, Cam- the latter aspect of styling can be done by computers, because computers
bridge, MA, USA (1970)
13 Malone, L 'Beyond geomet- can process information based on rules or algorithms written by someone
ry: the promise of the future' In-
novation Vol 8 (1989) 54-56 for a specific purpose 12. For instance, many geometric algorithms have
14 Wang, H 'Strategy of compu- been developed for helping the designer's visual representations 13'14. The
ter assisted industrial design'
Proceedings of Symposium on issues on styling have already been given attention in the area of
Industrial Design Ming Chi Insti-
tute of Technology Taiwan (De-
computer-aided design (CAD); however, there is still a lack of specific
cember 1991) pp 55-61 approaches to computer-aided styling (CAS). Thus, it is the intention of
15 Zwicky, F 'The morphologic-
al approach to discovery, inven- this paper to discern certain characteristics of algorithms in styling to
tion, research and construction' introduce an approach to CAS and its application.
in New methods of thought and
procedure F Zwlcky and A G
Wilson (Eds) Springer-Verlag,
New York (1967) 1 Background review
16 Banharn, R Theory and de-
sign in the first machine age
Praeger, New York (1960) 1.1 Morphologyfor styling
17 Summerson, J The classical Morphology, a classical approach used by the designer, can be found in
language of architetcure MIT
Press, Cambridge, MA, USA the textbooks of the l~cole Polytechnique and the l~cole des Beaux-Arts
(1963)
18 Hernandez, A 'J N J during the 19th century. By definition, morphology means structure and
Durand's architecture theory' calls for identifying the structural dimensions of a problem and analysing
Perspecta Vol 12 (1969) 153-
160 the relationships among them 15-1s. The objective is to find some new

Computer-aided styling 51
 ALTE~R NAT,'vE S
i 1
Figure 1 Example of product styling by means of morphology
19 Jones, J C Design methods
Van Nostrsnd Reinhold, New
York (1992)
2 0 Tejlve, E A short course in
industrial design Butterworth,
London, UK (1976)
21 Sheu, F H 'Methods used in
form design' Tatung Journal Vol
14 (1984) 119-131 (in Chinese)
52
2 3 4
©<z
[22 -i2~Uk
5 7
4Z3
tz3
10 11 12
combinations by means of systematic exploration. Figure 1 shows a simple
example using morphology, in which a product consists of three basic
elements. Since each element has two or three alternatives, there are at
least twelve types of combinations, without considering the relationship's
among these elements.
Nevertheless, it would be a tough challenge to the designer to depict all
possible combinations, if the number of alternate elements is fairly large.
Thus, experts suggest quantified structure variations to decide the infinite
elements of a problem 19-2j. These methods assume that the shape,
structure and dimension are the basic properties of a product. In creating
a product, the designer can start with the determination of the structure.
First, the designer distinguishes main functions and subfunctions of the
product. Then, he examines possible means of realizing the subfunctions,
and combines these into a basic structure. Finally, he optimizes critical
parameters, learns the relationships of the elements, and specifies the
main functions of the product. Unless the designer can quickly present
most of the combinations, the quantified structure approach is still
extremely labour-intensive. As long as there are many more variables and
alternatives, it becomes useful to use the computer to create and list the
representations. Although the computer system that uses morphology to
automatically generate various combinations may not be available in the
marketplace, the designer can apply such computer-aided design and
drafting ( C A D D ) systems as A u t o C A D TM, developed by A u t o d e s k ® ,
Inc., to styling.
Design Studies Vol 16 No 1 January 1995
 1.2 Geometric transformation for styling
In D'Arcy Thompson's book entitled On growth and form, published in
1917, transformation of co-ordinate systems were used to depict creatures'
shapes and to study evolutions and development of the shapes. Similar
work can also be found in such styles of drawing as Anamorphosis, and in
Escher's art pieces 22. These approaches fall into the area of an alternative
but equivalent type of geometric transformation, and are named co-
ordinate transformation. By definition, co-ordinate transformation shows
the change of co-ordinates of the objects instead of the geometric
dimensions of the objects themselves. This technique is useful when
various objects, each defined in its own local co-ordinate system, are
combined 23. Since a product is usually a combination of multiple objects,
co-ordinate transformation becomes a most significant application of
geometric transformation to styling. However, co-ordinate transforma-
tion has its limits. First of all, relatively slow algorithms for both
transforming co-ordinates and complicated shapes could make this
method a time-consuming task. As a result, the method becomes limited
and of less utility 24. Moreover, without appropriate treatment for trans-
forming the co-ordinates, this technique can produce few meaningful
results.

22 ,in, P C 'The feasibility of In effect, geometric transformation involves many calculations, which can
applications of coordinate trans- be quickly and accurately executed by computers. To simplify the
formation to form design' Indust-
rial Design Magazine (Ming Chih calculations, matrix algebra is a useful mathematical tool. This implies
Institute of Technology, Taiwan)
Vol 19 (1989) 208-215 (in that the approaches can also be automated. Lin 24 has developed an
Chinese) experimental program to simulate transformation of co-ordinates in the
23 Foley, J O e t al. Computer
graphics: principles and practice AutoCAD TM environment. Lin employs such functions as Block and
Addison-Wesley, New York
(1987)
Insert in AutoCAD TM to conduct linear co-ordinate transformation.
2 4 Un, R 'A study on forms Other functions in A u t o C A D TM, such as Stretch, may improve the
generated with coordinate trans-
formation', Industrial Design results. Figure 3 illustrates the various shapes of a virtual reality toy that
Magazine (Ming Chi Institute of can be developed by means of Stretch and other transformation functions
Technology, Taiwan) Vol 19
(1990) 31--35 (in Chinese) in A u t o C A D TM. Similar functions could also be found in many other
25 Coates, D 'Understanding
aesthetics: from o4d shoes to a systems. Nevertheless, it is still problematic to establish the appropriate
teacup' Industrial Dessgn Maga- transformation matrix and to efficiently transform an entire shape or parts
zine (1979) 32-35
26 Chert, S 'A computer of a product.
assisted approach to shape aver-
aging and its application to in-
dustrial design' Master's Thesis,
Ohio State University, Columbus, 1.3 Interpolation for styling
OH, USA (1986) Some authors assert that the aesthetic aspects in industrial design should
27 Don==, E A 'A methodology
for the generation of visual be quantified and analysed similarly to other functional aspects. An
metaphors to be used in the de-
sign of 3-dimensional objects' approach to extract a styling stereotype, a mental image representing a
Master's Thesis at The Ohio type of objects, has been proposed by Coates 25-27. This approach is one
State University, Columbus, OH,
USA (1986) p 14 type of interpolation or shape averaging. It shows as a process of

Computer-aided styling 53
figure 2 "Desert Lion'. a
truck developed by means ¢~/'
interpolation (designed hv
DCC, Uhn. Germany. Re-
drawn J?om ReJerence 2 7)

searching for a typical shape that appropriately represents a group of

shapes. Conventionally, interpolation is a black-box function processed
inside the designer's brain. The designer's talent for visualization and
personal interpretations about how the input should be interpolated
would figure out the output generated. The approach still remains limited.
Firstly, interpolation cannot be used by itself to develop shape. There
must be at least two shapes that have been generated in another way
before interpolation can be performed. Secondly, the approach strongly
depends on the designer's skills in visualization, as suggested. For
instance, to interpolate two shapes, the designer must have the capability
of solid drawing. This may be the reason why most beginners are required
to learn to draw as quickly and fluently as possible. Both combining
shapes and maintaining original characteristics of the shapes are the
primary activities of interpolation. Consequently, this approach can be
described in quantitative and geometric algorithms. Figure 2 is an
example, in which a new truck is designed by merging images of a lion and
a typical truck.

Interpolation can be automated for its nature of calculation. For example,

Chen 2~ developed an experimental CAS system using interpolation for
styling, named Averageshape. This system provides the designer with
functions for modelling, selecting corresponding points to be averaged,
and calculating interpolation as well as representing the results, to extract
a typical representation from a group of shapes. The system can be
applied to product design in various aspects such as to combine a teardrop
and a car to obtain an ideal aerodynamic car shape. Similar features can
be found in many animation systems, such as Animator TM, a

Figure 3 S(vling ]br a virtual

realitv by using functions
such as Stretch. Scale, Move
and Rotate in Auto('A DT M

54 Design Studies Vol 16 No l January 1995

 microcomputer-based, two-dimensional animation system developed by
Autodesk®. Animator TM can produce shapes on in-between frames by
interpolating the shapes on each two extreme frames a8"29. The designer
can specify the number of keyframes to go in-between, and then the
computer takes the extremes to produce as many in-betweens. It is very
likely that the designer can apply such interpolation as in-between
functions to effectively explore and analyse shapes, which he might not
even think of.

2 Research objective
To summarize, approaches such as morphology, interpolation, and
geometric transformation have been used in styling. Some of them are
automated to a certain degree, though there are limits related to the
designer's heuristic decision-making in conceptualization. Applications of
morphology, interpolation, and geometrical transformation to styling
could be classified into two aspects. The first aspect refers to the
calculation process, involving calculations of permutation and combina-
tion, interpolation, and geometric transformation. The process can easily
be automated, and is available in many computer graphics systems. The
second aspect contains the heuristic decision-making process, concerning
how to decide relationships among objects, how to select shapes and
corresponding points to be interpolated, and how to decide co-ordinate
systems and transformation as well. The latter are now still difficult to
automate, and would be the secret of design as an artificial science.
Therefore, this study intends to clarify these two aspects to automate
styling to a certain extent. The objective is to integrate morphology,
geometric transformation and interpolation with CAS.

2.1 Method
This study is exploratory in nature. On the basis of the three styling
approaches discussed, this study uses Animator TM and AutoCAD TM.
These systems have the capability of simulating an integrated application
of morphology, geometric transformation and interpolation. The hypoth-
esis of this study is to describe the CAS procedure as a cycle of the three
approaches (Figure 4). This CAS approach will be applied to a design
project, Car Emergency Toolkit. This toolkit design was carried out by
the author and R C Chen, an undergraduate industrial design student at
Tatung Institute of Technology. The results of the application will be
discussed and analysed.

2 8 Autodesk animator: refer-

ence manual Autodesk, Inc, CA, 3 Application
USA (1990) The styling procedure of the car emergency toolkit is illustrated in Figures
2 9 Autodesk animator: tutorials
Autodesk, Inc, CA, USA (1990) 5 and 6. Firstly the designers defined that the toolkit consists of six basic

Computer-aided styling 55
 HORPHOLOGY

GEOMETRIC INTERPOLATIONS
TRANSFDRMATiONS
Figure 4 CAS cycle of mor-
phology, interpolation and
geometric transformation

components, including a lamp, a pump, a control panel, a power driver

and a battery. Beginning with using commands such as Move, Rotate and
Array in A u t o C A D TM,they assembled the shapes of the toolkit in various
ways. Meanwhile, the shapes were geometrically transformed by means of
Stretch and Scale commands. Figure 5 displays some results generated by
integrating these two approaches. The shapes using morphology were
suggested in the horizontal direction, and that using geometric trans-
formation in the vertical direction. Interactions of these two approaches
helped the designers generate many styles. Secondly, interpolation was
applied. One of the shapes developed was selected to be combined with
another shape. To represent a feeling of speed, an abstract contour of a
running rabbit was chosen to be interpolated with the selected toolkit
contour. The designers used the Spline command to trace the original
toolkit contour and set it onto the first frame. Then they inserted some
extra frames and employed the Tween command, a subfunction of Spline
and other in-betweenable commands to modify the toolkit contour into
the rabbit contour, which was set onto the end frame. The computer could
automatically generate the in-betweens on each frame that was specified.
Figure 6 displays nine in-betweens generated in this way. The results of
this application revealed that the integrated approach is useful in develop-
ing sufficient shapes. The final shape selected for this project is illustrated

56 Design Studies Vol 16 No 1 January 1995

 I "HORPHOLOGY ....>

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Dc]O C]DO Oo0
o-~ :~ o~
0o0
:::~ o ~:~
Oc2)
~-~
Z o%
C3
O~ oED
5-

0 O~ 0o0 ~0 0c~°~
h
Z
tv
I---

C)
oi

W
Z
W
L~

Figure 5 Shapes of toolkit

V
developed simultaneously by
means of morphology and
geometric transformation

in Figures 7 and 8. This CAS approach begins with an interaction of

morphology and geometric transformation, and ends with interpolation.
The computer helps the designer deal with the geometric algorithms and
create many shapes. In addition, the final design of the toolkit won the
1992 Outstanding award for Machine and Tool in the Young Designers
Exhibition, sponsored by the China External Trade Department Council
(CETRA), Taiwan, Republic of China.

4 Discussion
This paper has focused on the geometric algorithm aspects of styling and
introduced a CAS approach using morphology, geometric transformation,
and interpolation to styling as shown in Figure 9. Using the CAS
approach, the toolkit project presented a vehicle to explore the feasibility
of integrating the three approaches on computer. The results reveal that
the designer can reduce the labour-intensive algorithms and then put
emphasis on the ideation of shapes, which might not be generated with
traditional approaches.
However, many design problems are not so well-defined that their goals
and ends are already prescribed and apparent. In practice, styling involves
the designer's hierarchical methods, which are principles or procedures
that contribute to a reduction of effort in the search for a satisfactory

Computer-aided styling 57
 / _--
:__~__.~.

a. (!0,'I,0 R + 0/!0 K) b. (9/'0 R+ 1/10 K) c, (8/!0 R+ 2/t,:_~ :i!

(J
d. (7/l,h R ~-, .,"/10_ K} e (r: 1~ i c ~ t/10 K} f. (A,!f: R~ 5 / :{:' i,i: ~

C ..
g. (4/10 g+ 6/10 K} h. (3./10 R+ 7/11) K) i. (2/!0 R+ 8 , / ! f i K}

f
1 \

R: Contour of the
Rabit.

K: Contour of the
O. (i/I0 R+ 9/10 K) k. (0/I0 R+ i0/i0 K) Kit.

Figure 6 Shapes of toolkit developed by means of interpolation

58 Design Studies Vol 16 No 1 January 1995

 ¸ fii!iiiiiii
~ ~i!i!iii~ ¸¸¸¸i!i%!~! ~i~

Figure 7 Final design of tool-

kit (prototype designed and
made by R C Chen)

solution. On the one hand, both the selection of the rabbit's shape as the
image for interpolation and the determination of the elements for
decomposition and recomposition are still highly dependent on the
designer's heuristic decision-making. On the other hand, styling contains
both syntactic factors, structuring the relationship among the elements of
a form, and semantic factors, studying the meaning that the elements
communicate. Nevertheless, the advantages of this CAS approach fall
into syntactics instead of semantics. The above two points require the
designer's intuition and tactile experiences.
As shown in Figure 10, this study proposes a model to highlight how
morphology, geometric transformation, and interpolation could be ap-

Figure8 Operation of toolkit

(prototype designed and
made by R C Chen)

Computer-aided styling 59
 I
Determining and Depicting Basic
Elements of forms in Geometry

+ +
Combining and Permuting I Scaling/Translating/Rot- }
Elements J ating Forms and Elements i
I
)

Generating Structural Variations 1

and Geometric Tansformations
J

r Selecting Extremes and I

Correspondings

i
I InterpolatingExtremes

I GeneratingIn-betweens
of Elements and Combinations

J
Figure 9 Modified CAS cycle integrating morphology, geometri~ tran~jbrmation and interpolation

plied to computer-aided industrial design (CAID) as well as CAD and

computer-aided manufacturing (CAM). This model describes the CAS
approach as a metaphor of a spindle curled by a spiral. It suggests a
computer context for this approach, and provides fundamental informa-
tion for advancing techniques on CAS, especially at the conceptual styling
level. Hopefully it would be useful for the designer to plan and develop

~
DEFINING DEVELOPING SOLUTIONS

CA[]] 0 I ) ? CAD/CAM

t l L_ MORPHOLOGY
Figure 10 Model for CAS i INTERPOLATIONS
approach - - GEOMETRIC TRANSFORMATIONS

60 Design Studies Vol 16 No 1 January 1995

 their own CAS strategy. In a sense, this study has specified the differences
between black-box and glass-box processes in styling and automated some
glass-box functions to a certain degree. Improvements of this approach to
generate new CAS systems are urgently needed, also more comprehen-
sive surveys for other CAS approaches. The discernment of the algorith-
mic aspects in styling would be a seed for the CAS's future. In a word, the
computer is not only a medium representing the designer's thoughts, but
is also a tool enhancing, at least, his algorithmic process in styling.

5 Acknowledgments
The author wishes to thank Tatung Company, Taiwan, for supporting this
project under contract 80-0012. Grants for the author's research work
also come from The National Science Council, Taiwan, Rupblic of
China.

Computer-aided styling 61

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