Design Creativity

For the last 8 weeks I have been in a design creativity class that was a lot of fun. Homework ranged from categorizing Halloween costumes to making a woman's purse out of material from Home Depot... it has been a blast. The main concept of the class is that we push our minds to the limit and then some. I would compare this class to what Remy's brother said... "You know, if you can sorta' muscle your way past the gagging reflex, all kinds of food possibilities open up"(Emile, "Ratatouille"). We were given really odd assignments that many might think are a waste of time or utterly ridiculous, but as Emile said, "All kinds of [design] possibilities open up." Designers must push creativity beyond the common mindset of ordinary thinkers. Here are a few of my favorite projects I did in that class.

Our first major assignment was to improve Cup Noodles with a new prototype that would still meet their guidelines (cheap, easy to prepare/eat, etc.). While most students in the class changed the shape of the cup and lid to enhance form and function, I decided to add value to the product. I simply added a word search and Sudoku game to the inside of the cardboard. I also thought of adding trivia questions and random noodle facts but I figured the word and number games were sufficient for a prototype.
The 3 main purposes of industrial design are improving form, function, and value. Form is how it looks and feels (aesthetics), function is how well it performs, and last and definitely not least is value; value is a bit harder to understand compared to the other two. Value is not necessarily how much it costs or is worth, it is more like emotional or sentimental value. Make sense? So with the Cup Noodles prototype I designed I gave more meaning to the product. (Now people will buy it because they enjoy the games as much or more than the fact that it is cheap and easy.) Apparently my professor liked it and it was ranked 4th in the class. It made me feel good!

My favorite assignment of the class was to recycle something that is typically thrown away and give it new life and more value. I came up with a new crayon container design which I will probably use when we have kids. Instead of storing crayons in the flimsy box or a zip-lock bag, keep them in an empty deodorant stick which prevents them from breaking, and if they do break you just twist the nob to raise them or lower them (now you don't have to dig for them in the box nor do you have to worry about breaking them when they get thrown in the diaper bag). (Jason gave me the idea of making one giant crayon so I did. I melted all the blue and purple crayons to make a giant deodorant stick crayon which will probably never break or wear out. I have yet to receive a ranking on this assignment...whatever it is I think this was my favorite and best concept idea of the class. (If you want to make your own giant crayon, give me a call 'cuz there are a few tricks you need to know so that you don't break the twisting mechanism in your deodorant case.)