Product Design

Unit 3: The Story of Stuff

Currently in Product Design, students are studying Unit 3: The Story of Stuff. They are learning about the importance of considering the entire life cycle of materials and products to make sustainable choices. This involves analysing the physical, aesthetic, and mechanical properties of materials to determine their suitability for a given application, as well as evaluating the environmental impact of their extraction, production, use, and disposal. To address the limitations of a linear approach to material use, Unit 4: Cradle to Cradle, will introduce students to the concept of a circular economy. Students will investigate materials and products that are designed to be reused or to decompose , creating a closed loop system that minimises waste and reduces the need for new resource extraction. To put these principles into practice, students will respond to a design brief that challenges them to experiment with making their own bioplastics from renewable resources, such as starch, and use it to create products that can be easily disassembled and recycled.

The outcome of Units 3 and 4 will be design work that includes graphical, physical and digital models, using a variety of production and presentation methods, and supported by the experimentation and manufacture of bioplastics into products.

Course AO rubric

A course highlight

As well as units of study, Product Design students are given group challenges that are designed to have them work quickly and collaboratively in response to a design brief. The intention is to get students to approach tasks playfully and to experiment directly with materials. Last term students were visited by talented alum, Manini Banerjee. Manini is studying at Rhode Island School of Design where she is majoring in Industrial Design with a concentration in Computation and Technology, having studied Visual Art at IBDP and developed a love for design. Manini offered students feedback to their outcome for the Team Challenge: Gravity, Light and Movement.

TEAM CHALLENGE: Create a wearable structure that examines the ideas of gravity, light, and movement. Use no more than 4 all white materials

● the majority of materials must be some form of paper or fibre

● use minimal fasteners, adhesives, and support structures (that must remain in their native/natural colour)

● use the movement of the wearer to enhance the ideas of movement, gravity, and light.