Thinking Design: UJ Industrial Design Alumni Exhibition

Abstract

In August 2013 the Department of Industrial Design in FADA invited five past alumni to exhibit the process of their design thinking in commercial design projects and the results thereof. The exhibition, which I curated, was envisaged as celebrating the process of creativity and design as opposed to offering a display of decontextualized design objects on pedestals. The participating designers, chosen because of their active involvement in the Department of Industrial Design over the last five years as well as their range of professional disciplinary pathways, were Jonathan Fundudis (BTech ID) and David Holgreaves (BTech ID) of Snapp Design (www.snappdesign.com); Peter Harrison (BTech ID) of the freelance design firm called Harrison Design cc (www.harrisondesigns.co.za); and the collaborative team of Trevor Hollard (BTech ID) and Rowan Mardghum (BTech ID) of Maeker Products Pty Ltd (http://maeker.wozaonline.co.za) and amoq furniture (www.amoq.co.za) respectively.

Full text

1
Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture,
University of Johannesburg
Volume 1
2014

Editor Brenda Schmahmann
Art Editor Eugene Hon
Editorial Committee: Leora Farber
Tracy Murinik
Vedant Nanackchand
Graphic design and layout: UJ Graphic Studio
Karien Brink
A journal published by the
Faculty of Art, Design and
Architecture,
University of Johannesburg
Volume 1 (2014)

Table of contents
Editorial 4
Brenda Schmahmann
Curatorial landmarks 6
Taiwan Ceramics Curatorial Coup 6
Reshma Chhiba
Coming of Age: 21 years of Artist Proof Studio 12
Kim Berman
Thinking Design: UJ Industrial Design Alumni Exhibition 16
Angus Campbell
Major one-person exhibitions 19
The Purple Shall Govern: Mary Sibande 20
Leora Farber
Separ(n)ation 22
Alex Opper
…and the ship sails on 26
Eugene Hon
Gordon Froud: A retrospective of 28
exhibitions I never had
David Paton
Collecting the Landscape 30
Landi Raubenheimer
Performances, lms and new kinds of media 32
White Fence 32
Tracy Murinik
The Rhythms of Minutes 34
Mocke J van Veuren
Uncles & Angels 38
Mocke J van Veuren
New creative platforms and spaces 40
Sober & Lonely: On generosity, artist-run platforms 40
and new institutional strategies
Robyn Cook
Phumani Archival Paper Mill 42
Kim Berman
Community-based-research Art Interventions 44
at HaMakuya
Kim Berman
Promoting green solutions 46
Green Week 2014 46
Christa van Zyl
House Jones 49
Ken Stucke
Between classrooms and communities 53
Safety belts, pirates and Slim Shady: 53
Effecting positive social change in our
own neighbourhoods
Robyn Cook
Supporting a community through Graphic Design: 55
Melville, Johannesburg
Christa van Zyl
Assegai Awards 59
Christa van Zyl
Telkom Convergence Competition 62
Clairwyn van der Merwe on behalf of
Telkom Group Communication
Children’s Chair Designs 64
Andrew Gill
Hallmarking Jewellery Design: an emerging 66
UJ brand of excellence
Judy Peter
Recongure: Thuthuka Jewellery Exhibition 69
staff writer
Drawing on the book: Book arts, “bookness” 72
and bloodletting
David Paton

16
UJ Industrial Design Alumni Exhibition

17
In August 2013 the Department of Industrial Design in FADA invited ve past alumni to exhibit
the process of their design thinking in commercial design projects and the results thereof. The
exhibition, which I curated, was envisaged as celebrating the process of creativity and design as
opposed to offering a display of decontextualized design objects on pedestals. The participating
designers, chosen because of their active involvement in the Department of Industrial Design over
the last ve years as well as their range of professional disciplinary pathways, were Jonathan
Fundudis (BTech ID) and David Holgreaves (BTech ID) of Snapp Design (www.snappdesign.
com); Peter Harrison (BTech ID) of the freelance design rm called Harrison Design cc (www.
harrisondesigns.co.za); and the collaborative team of Trevor Hollard (BTech ID) and Rowan
Mardghum (BTech ID) of Maeker Products Pty Ltd (http://maeker.wozaonline.co.za) and amoq
furniture (www.amoq.co.za) respectively.
The inversion of ‘design thinking’ in the title of the
exhibition accentuated my intention to highlight the
thinking behind design – in the case of Industrial
Design, the physical evidence of thinking in the
process of design or problem solving. ‘Design
thinking’ generally focuses on making the process
of problem-solving explicit in design practice and
is now promoted as a holistic approach to problem-
solving in various business pursuits (Brown 2008).
In 2010 Donald Norman was highly criticized (see
Moggridge 2010) for describing ‘design thinking’ as
a myth, and suggesting that the term was not some
mystical process but rather described something
that all designers do in order to come to any design
solution. However, in 2013, Norman revised his
earlier opinion after extensive personal experience of
designers, business people and engineers “who jump
to solutions and fail to question assumptions” (Norman
2013). Norman’s experience of many mindless design
solutions has led him to believe that not all designers
inherently follow such a considered approach
to design problems; in order to negate mindless
solutions, ‘design thinking’ is an important skill to teach
and encourage in design students and designers.
Norman describes ‘design thinking’ as a way to limit
narrowly conceived design solutions by broadly
exploring initial design problems through an iterative
process until the real problem is identied: a range of
solutions are then explored before a nal convergent
solution is proposed.
The Opening of Thinking Design
(Photos by KGBrand)

18
There are many interpretations
of ‘design thinking’ as a
process that have been
conceptualised by design
organisations. IDEO’s Human
Centered Design (HCD) toolkit
proposes a process of Hear >
Create > Deliver (IDEO 2009)
to describe the explorative and
observational, then creative
and nally evaluative process
of design thinking. The d.school
at Stanford University presents
their process as sequential:
empathize > dene > ideate
> prototype > test (Stanford
d.school 2011). In contrast
Richard Buchanan (1992: 5)
highlights how “design eludes
reduction and remains a
surprisingly exible discipline”.
He also explores the complexity
of wicked problems (as dened
by Horst Rittel in 1972), in the
attempt to nd ‘solutions’ to
problems that are so complex
in their embedded context that
nding a solution is almost like
a dog chasing its tail.
What is ultimately important,
however, is to make the process
of design and problem-solving
more overt and, in the case of
this exhibition, to document
and celebrate the process of
arriving at a design ‘solution’.
References
Brown, T. 2008. Design Thinking.
Harvard Business Review. June: 84-92.
Buchanan, R. 1992. Wicked Problems
in Design Thinking. Design Issues 8
(2): 5-21.
IDEO, 2009. Human-centered design
toolkit. Available:
http://www.ideo.com/work/human-
centered-design-toolkit/
Accessed 10 Jan 2010
Moggridge, B. 2010. Design Thinking:
Dear Don… Available: http://www.
core77.com/blog/columns/design_
thinking_dear_don__17042.asp
Accessed 10 Dec 2012
Norman, D. 2013. Rethinking Design
Thinking. Available:
http://www.core77.com/blog/columns/
rethinking_design_thinking_24579.asp
Accessed 20 Apr 2013
Norman, D. 2010. Design Thinking: A
Useful Myth. Available:
http://www.core77.com/blog/columns/
design_thinking_a_useful_myth_16790.
asp Accessed 10 Dec 2012
Stanford d.school. 2011. Bootcamp
bootleg. Available:
http://dschool.stanford.edu/
wp-content/uploads/2011/03/
BootcampBootleg-2010v2SLIM.pdf
Accessed 20 Nov 2012
snapp designs (Photos by KGBrand)
The Opening of
Thinking Design
(Photos by KGBrand)

A journal published by the
Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture,
University of Johannesburg