DESIGNING MOVEMENT: An Aesthetic Investigation of Motion in Product Design
Coil Puppet
These movies document the development of my method for sketching motion concepts. Initially, I worked exclusively with playing cards as a sketch medium, later moving on to more three-dimensional materials in the “foam sketches.”
I chose to work with playing cards because they are cheap, easy to find, of a uniform size, and have excellent physical qualities. I tore through deck after deck of cards, solely focused on playing. I used tape, glue, elastic, paper hinges, string—anything I could find—trying to illicit some interesting mechanical action. When I found two cards that moved together in some “cool” way, I would recreate that movement in a larger sketch, or combine that moving part with some disparate part and create something new. In this way, I gained facility and confidence sketching motion concepts. Not surprisingly, after a few hundred of these models, I was tired of looking at playing cards, and my designs began to grow a bit repetitive. It was time to move on.
At this point, I began sketching with more diverse materials, including foam, wire, cloth, foam core, plastic, etc. I was still intent on incorporating “play” as a fundamental element of the investigations, but I also started sketching with more concrete formal goals in mind. In some cases, I would begin a sketch by trying to improvise on a specific concept, like “twisting” or “exploding,” while in others I would focus on establishing clear dominance between visual elements. Through this laborious exploration, I slowly gained fluency with a broader range of kinetic concepts.
NOTE: As a shorthand method of describing forms, I used foam rectilinear solids as “place-holders” for volumetric solids. While this lends the sketches a sort of unique minimalist aesthetic quality, my motivation was primarily one of efficiency. I also appreciated how the simple forms allowed me to stay focused specifically on the movement of each sketch without getting distracted by form. When applied to a real design situation, this sketching would obviously necessitate the introduction of more sophisticated formal elements.
