Lesson video

Hello, thank you for joining me for your design and technology lesson.

My name is Mrs. Conway, and I will be guiding you through your learning today.

So let's start by looking at our lesson outcome.

I can use different sources of inspiration when generating ideas.

So we are really looking at our initial design generation today and how we can inspire ourselves to actually come up with ideas.

These are our keywords, inspiration, stimulus or stimuli, biomorphism and SCAMPER.

We'll be looking at each one of these in turn as we go through the lesson.

Firstly, we're gonna look at sources of inspiration.

So the generation of design ideas can sometimes be quite intimidating, especially when we're working from a blank piece of paper.

And quite often this is the moment that a lot of designers will have just a complete mind blank.

They'll have no ideas and they can't think of anything.

So often designers need inspiration, and this can be in the form of a stimulus.

Now a stimulus is something that encourages activity or change.

Okay, let's just do a quick check for understanding on that.

What is a stimulus? Is it A, a rigid framework that limits creativity during the design process? B, a finished product used to inspire future designs.

Or C, something that encourages activity or change.

Pause the video here just to take a moment to think about that.

And the answer was C.

A stimulus is something that encourages activity or change.

Now, a stimulus can be absolutely anything.

It is very personal to the designer on what inspires them or grabs their attention or gets them thinking and gives them ideas.

Sometimes a stimulus is mistaken for something that you end up copying and that's considered to be cheating.

But a stimulus isn't that.

It's just something that sparks an idea and then leads you to generate designs.

So it is quite rare that a stimulus would be a product that's similar to what you are planning to make, but a stimulus can be something completely and utterly random, anything in life that inspires you.

Now, can you think of things that could inspire your designs? Feel free to pause the video here just to take a moment to think about that or talk about that with your classmates.

So here we've got Jacob, Andeep and Laura, and they've got some suggestions of what they can use to inspire their design ideas.

So Jacob has suggested you could look at nature.

Laura has said, "What about art? And you could also look at architecture." And Andeep has said that "Shapes and patterns could be really interesting to take inspiration from." All of these are great ideas and really it's very personal to Jacob Andeep and Laura.

So whatever it is that inspires you, that can be your source of inspiration and your stimulus.

Now, biomorphism is where shapes and forms are inspired by nature and living things.

A bit like Jacob's suggestion.

Biomorphic designs often look like plants, animals, or natural objects.

Let's just break this word down a little bit.

So the first part of the word is the word bio, and bio means life.

The second part of the word is morphism.

And morphism means form.

Now, our context for this particular unit is nature.

And being inspired by shapes and patterns that occur in nature is called biomorphism as we've just mentioned.

Here is an example of a natural form.

So this is a growing fern.

Just look at the shapes in this image.

What shapes do you think you could replicate? Feel free to just pause the video here and have a little think about that question.

Perhaps write some ideas down, have a discussion with somebody else in the room, or even just make some quick sketches if you're inspired to do so.

All right, let's just do a quick check for understanding on biomorphism then.

Which one of these is an example of biomorphism? Is it A, a lamp featuring a minimalist cylindrical base and a plain rectangular shade? B, a lamp designed with geometric patterns and sharp angles.

Or C, a lamp inspired by the curve lines of growing vines in a jungle.

Pause the video here just take a moment to think about that.

And the answer was C.

So a lamp inspired by the curved lines of growing vines in the jungle is a great example of biomorphism as it's been inspired by nature and the patterns and shapes found in nature.

Now, Jacob suggested using nature to inspire us when designing.

By looking at the stimuli, Jacob has sketched an initial idea inspired by a fern using three steps.

So let's just take a look at Jacob's idea.

Now he has stuck with that image of the growing fern.

He's then what's done what's called a response to fern stimulus.

And then he's designed a measuring spoon inspired by a fern.

But let's just take a look at each one of those steps in turn.

So step one, you need to find a stimulus or an image that inspires you.

And this case Jacob has chosen a growing fern.

Step two is when you do a sketch or a copy of part of the stimulus that inspires you.

You can see here that he's done a quick sketch of the shape of that kind of curve shape.

That's obviously the thing that's attracted his attention.

There's lots of other shapes and patterns on that image, but that's the one he's focused on.

You can see in this sketch, he's not in any way tried to turn it into a product or a design.

He's simply doing a quick sketch to really get a feel of that shape that he has been inspired by.

And step three, he's then at that stage, adapted that shape or the pattern into a rough idea.

And this is very much an initial idea.

So he's done, if you remember, a design of a measuring spoon.

And he's taken that kind of curve shape that he's seen and sketched in his response to the fern stimulus and turned that into the handle of the spoon.

Now let's take a look at a really famous example of biomorphism, and that's the design of the Juicy Salif, by Philippe Stark.

Here's the Juicy Salif, and this is a citrus fruit juicer.

You may have seen it when come across it before.

Now, it said that Stark came up with this idea while dining a seaside restaurant in Italy, and he was eating calamari and calamari is made out of squid, and he was squeezing lemon over it.

When suddenly inspiration struck.

And Stark reportedly immediately began sketching the design directly onto the napkin.

And you can find images of that napkin where he sketched his ideas.

And he was aiming to create a citrus squeezer that was both functional but also sculptural, something completely different to what had been seen before.

Have a look at these images then, there you can see an image of a squid, and can you see how Stark was inspired by the image and the idea of a squid for his design of the Juicy Salif? Feel free to just pause the video here and really analyse those two images and see if you can see where that inspiration kind of formed from.

Okay, let's just do a quick check for understanding on that.

What was Philippe Stark inspired by in his design for the Juicy Salif? Was is it A, the design of the napkins on the table.

B, the calamari or squid he was eating.

Or C, the shape of the chairs in the seaside restaurant? Pause the video here.

Let's take a moment to think about that.

And the answer it was of course B, he was inspired the calamari or squid he was eating.

So let's have a little look at Laura.

Now, Laura had a page of initial design ideas already for her idea of a herb planter, and she was looking at the brief or the design opportunity of making the herbs accessible to wheelchair users.

Now she's generated a page of initial designs using images from nature to inspire her, and you can pick some of these out.

So she's been inspired by some shapes in mushrooms, also the kind of squid kind of tentacles there as well, as well as some shapes from shell patterns.

She's used those to move her ideas on and generate some initial ideas.

And she's used the three steps to help her generate these ideas from initial stimulus images.

So let's have a little look at these in a bit more detail.

So the first stimulus that she took was mushrooms or fungi.

Then she did the step two, which was to sketch or copy part of the stimulus that inspired her.

And you can see she's done a really quick sketch of the patterns or the shapes that caught her attention.

And remember, these don't have to be perfect.

Nobody's going to see these as such or judge these sketches.

These are merely just as an aid to help the design process.

And then lastly, she's taken that shape or pattern and turned it into a rough idea.

And here she's done initial design of a herb planter system inspired by that fungi.

You can see it's almost got layers and the layers or the shapes of those layers are very much kind of similar to what she's kind of sketched out in step two.

Right, it's over to you guys to have a go at this.

I'd like you to sketch at least two different ideas for your chosen design opportunity from the list below.

Now, you're gonna use nature as inspiration.

And don't forget to use the three steps shown on the previous slide to help you with this.

Now, just remind you of what these design opportunities were.

You could have chosen any of these.

An efficient leaf collection system.

Making the herbs accessible to wheelchair users.

Reusable packaging for foods.

A way of teaching people from the cities about the Countryside Code.

A system for the cats to notify us for when they want to come in and a place for them to wait in comfort.

And a way of teaching young children about animal conservation.

Now just to remind you, you're gonna use those three steps.

And what I've done here is I have put some images that may act as a stimulus for you.

Feel free to use these, but you don't have to.

You can use your own.

Right, now pause the video here to have a go at this task and good luck with it.

All right, how did you get on? Quite a tricky task if you were doing this for the first time.

And hopefully you've got a real nice range of different ideas.

Those first ideas you should have as lots and as varying of ideas as possible.

Let's just have a little look at what Laura has done here.

So Laura's explained that her drawings are drawn quickly and mostly in 2D with some 3D elements shown.

So when we're doing these quick kind of initial sketches, don't be afraid of using 2D more than 3D.

I've included my responses to the stimulus to help inspire me as I sketch.

So you can see she's not a bit afraid to include those quick little sketches.

You can see the one on there of the fungi.

It's on the same page, and that's absolutely fine.

This is a working document.

When you're doing initial sketches, it's there to be your process.

It doesn't have to look perfect, so feel free to use those initial sketches and doodle on it and draw quick little ideas.

She's also said that I've added annotation to explain my ideas further.

Now, annotation is a great way to explain your ideas to other people, but also just kind of to make notes for yourself, to kind of help direct your own thinking when you are drawing out your ideas.

Of course, your designs are gonna look completely different to this, and that's absolutely fine.

In fact, that's great 'cause that's what means, it's what's inspired you and their original ideas.

But just have a look at Laura's and see if you've got a range of ideas all inspired by nature.

Again, I'm just gonna show you a little bit of a closer kind of step by step of what Laura did for hers.

So if we just take this example from her page, the ammonite, she's taken the ammonite and in step two, she's sketched a copy or a part of that.

And all she's really focused on is that kind of swirl pattern that she's seen in the ammonite.

And you see she's actually drawn that really, really quickly.

It's not a perfect sketch, and she's even written onto its shell pattern just to kind of prompt her own thinking there.

And then the last step, she's adapted that shape or the pattern into a rough idea.

Now if you took that third idea, you wouldn't be able to tell that that original idea came from an ammonite, and that's fine, that's not a problem at all.

It's just inspired her to think about something with that kind of circular pattern.

And you can see each kind of pot is getting smaller as it moves up.

Alright, let's move on then.

We are now gonna look at using SCAMPER to avoid design fixation.

So using a stimulus to help with designing can generate ideas, but it is still possible to then sometimes become stuck after a few ideas.

And sometimes designers can get design fixation, which basically means that they can't think of any more than one idea.

They've got one idea and now they are stuck.

Now, designers can use various techniques to help ideate a range of further ideas and avoid that tricky design fixation.

And I'm sure you've all had that feeling at some point when you've been working through your design tasks.

And when it comes to design ideas, of course we know the more the better.

So we really wanna try and avoid that design fixation wherever possible.

Now, one technique the designers use is something called SCAMPER.

And SCAMPER is a creative thinking tool that helps to generate new ideas.

It basically works by getting you to look at your designs differently and developing and altering them using kind of keyword prompts.

It's really great to have this ready to go.

So if you do get stuck, you can refer to this or use this as a little bit like a tool to help you move on.

So let's just do a quick check for understanding what is the purpose of SCAMPER? Is it A, to organise your tasks and manage your time better? B, to learn how to build things step by step using instructions.

Or C, to help come up with creative ideas by changing and improving things in different ways.

Pause the video here just to take a moment to think about that.

Okay, how did you get on? The answer is C, to help come up with creative ideas by changing and improving things in different ways.

Well done if you got that right.

So let's have a little look at SCAMPER in a bit more detail.

In SCAMPER, each letter stands for a prompt to try with your designs to help generate further ideas.

So the S stands for substitute.

C is combined, A is adapt, M is modify, P is put to another use.

E is eliminate, and R is reverse.

What do all of those mean? Let's look at them in a bit more detail.

So substitute, what we mean by that is try swapping one thing for another to make it better or different.

So this is when you take one thing out of an existing design, get something from another design and put that in its place.

And that might be a very small element of the idea, such as it's just going to change the hinge or the shape of the hinge.

Or it might be changing the end of the product if it's a spoon, for example, changing the top of the spoon for one idea that's from another.

Next is combine, and this is where you mix two ideas together to create something completely and utterly new.

Adapt, adapt is where you change your idea to make it work in a new way or a new place.

So just think about the use of it or the function of it and think, okay, if the function of this was to change, what would I do differently to it? Next is modify.

And this is where you could make your idea bigger or smaller, or you could change the size of an element of it.

So just one part of it, try messing around with the size of that, or you can just do something different to improve it in some way.

Next is P, which is put to another use.

And this is where you get your idea and use it for something completely and utterly different.

So say you take that spoon idea and with that spoon idea, you decide that instead that's going to become a candle.

E stands for eliminate.

Now, eliminate is when you remove parts that aren't necessary to try and make the idea simpler.

It's very easy as a designer to sometimes make designs overly complicated, but actually simple design is a real challenge and is usually the most effective.

So have a look at design and there's bits that actually aren't really needed to be there, whether that be for aesthetic reasons or functional reasons, could that bit be removed and try it out.

And lastly, R, if just remind you, that was reverse.

And this is to change the order of how it's put together for a fresh twist.

So just play around with how you actually put this design together and can you change that in some way? Now, of course not all of these will be relevant to what you have sketched.

So it's down to you to pick one that you think, actually I can work with that and I've got an idea of what I can do with it.

Remember, they are prompts to help move your ideas forward.

Let's just do a quick check for understanding on that.

So what does the M stand for in SCAMPER? Is it A move B, modify, or C, minimise? Pause the video here just to take a moment to think about that.

And the answer was modify.

Well done if you got that right.

Right, so we're gonna have a little look now at what Laura's done.

So Laura has combined that C in SCAMPER.

She's combined the layered idea of idea one, with the hanging concept of idea two.

So this was her idea one, this is this kind of layered shelving idea.

And she's going to mix it or combine it with her idea two, which was this hanging kind of tentacle looked idea.

Now, what she's come up with from that when she's combined those two together, is this design.

So she's still got these kind of layers or different height shelving on idea three, which comes from idea one, and it's also still something that's going inside of the window or in front of the window, but she's mixed it with the hanging concept of idea two.

So each one of those shells is hanging from a pole that goes along the top.

So that's an example of combining two different ideas to create a third.

Now, if she picked a different one of SCAMPER and she picked the A, that would be adapt.

So in this example, Laura has adapted the window stepped idea of idea one, and changed it to the box stepped design for the kitchen work surface.

So I'll just show you what I mean by that.

So she's taken that layered idea again of the shelving and that kind of layering of the shelving of idea one.

And she's come up with this idea, she's adapted it slightly.

So she's taken the kind of stepped or layering idea, but turn it into a stepped box.

And this is something that she envisions would be sit on the work surface itself.

So you would have the height and create lots and lots of space with lots of different herbs, but you'd have a stepped kind of access to it.

Right, so it's gonna be over to you now.

So using your ideas from task A, continue to fill your design page, but you're gonna to use SCAMPER to help generate new ideas.

You can use whichever SCAMPER prompts you want to.

Remember it's completely utterly up to you.

You can use the same one over and over again.

Or if you get inspired of some ideas for some different ones and mix it up a little bit.

And you don't have to use them all either.

And by the end of the task, you will have filled your design page.

So you should have a really broad range of ideas by the end of this task.

Just to remind you, these are the SCAMPER prompts you have substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to another use, eliminate, and reverse.

Now pause the video here to get on with the task.

And good luck.

Right, how did you get on? Now it was again, another really challenging task, and hopefully you've managed to really fill your page with lots and lots of different ideas.

Now, we've already had a bit of an idea of Laura's ideas and how she's developed them using SCAMPER, but let's have a look at another example.

So here she has said, "On my example, I have substituted." So she's taken the S from SCAMPER and used substitute.

"I have substituted the hanging chains for the tentacle idea to further develop this design." So we saw that design from her before of this kind of hanging shelving unit, but she's twisted it up again and substituted the chains for this kind of hanging tentacle idea.

She's happy with that, you can see in her notes she's even said it's a more organic look.

And she seems to really like that.

Now, of course, remember your designs will be of completely and utterly different to this, but hopefully you've got a real good range of ideas using that SCAMPER methods.

And you filled a page full of lots of different ideas.

Okay, so let's just summarise today's lesson.

So we were looking at generating design ideas using SCAMPER.

And we started by looking at inspiration.

And designers often need inspiration.

And this can be in the form of a stimulus or a stimuli.

A stimulus is any element or factor that triggers a response or inspires creativity.

It's gonna inspire some form of change or an activity, if you remember.

And a stimulus is not something that you copy.

This isn't copying or cheating in any way.

It's instead something that sparks an idea that leads you to generate designs.

Now sometimes even with all of that in mind, sometimes designers can still get design fixation.

And design fixation means they can only think of one idea or they get stuck on one idea.

And this is where they can use different tools to help them.

And one of those tools is SCAMPER.

And SCAMPER is creative thinking tool that helps generate new ideas and could hopefully avoid design fixation.

Thank you so much for joining me for the lesson today.

Hopefully you've learned a lot and you've been inspired to kind of continue with your designs.

Feel free to add more into your designs in your own time, and hopefully you'll get more and more ideas as you go along.

Thank you so much, and I will see you next time.