What is the difference between Design and Style? Is one more important than the other? Is one easier to sell? Is the sales method different for each? Do the sales indicate success? How do you judge their individual merits? Is there a crossover where something is both? Is style simply a form of decoration? How original does design need to be to be Design?

Design Management

Design management is sometimes called the design process, it the attempt to get creativity to occur along the same time line as that allowed by a schedule. Unmanaged design will just go around in circles; it won’t move forward and get better. it’s important to recognize that creativity is unique in relation to most jobs. Design managers are usually, but not necessarily designers. The important thing is that they must have a through understanding of design and its unique attributes and processes.

Start by building a schedule that will allow the most design time. When this time is used properly it will result in the best end product. Don’t fall behind schedule. The stress and pressures it creates will significantly hurt the creative process and thus the final product. it’s important to not create an environment that puts pressure on people involved in the creative process. Stress is very contagious and will immediately affect everyone. If you do fall behind schedule, deal with regaining your proper place immediately and return order to the program. If the schedule can have a cushion at its end, like a weekend, it will often reduce stress even if it isn’t used.

The method will always be different, and it should be. life’s a process which must evolve in order to meet changing needs and lessons learned by previous mistakes. There is no one correct way but there are some basic things that almost always need to be considered. Always focus on taking steps that will improve the design.

Share the reasons for the steps you take and the decisions you make along the way with your client. Show him the storyboard and remind him of the importance of the design brief at every review, before showing him the model. The client should be comfortable and happy that he is getting the best design. There should be no surprises for him at the end.

It’s entirely possible to compete with much larger and more recognized design studios by using your resources more efficiently and creatively. An efficient design process makes for great design, a happy customer, high profit and a good reputation.

Model Making

I am an automotive model-maker.  I’ve been making models since 1968. Model-making to me means using clay. I often work in other materials but my expertise is clay modeling.

I’ve spent my life tucked away in different studios working with small groups of people participating in what is usually called automotive design. I like to think of this activity as the collaborative effort of three disciplines; designer, engineer and modeler. The modeler’s responsibility is usually to find ways that the model can meet the needs of both of the other groups without sacrificing the aesthetic qualities of the design or the engineering qualities of manufacturing.

This requires the skill of being able to accurately make surfaces that meet engineering requirements and the aesthetic understanding to capture what the designer intended. These two qualities are often at odds and require creative solutions to be presented by the modeler as well as often some compromises by the other two disciplines.
In that the clay model represents the final product. The end result of this effort will determine the success or failure of the product.

After a 2-D selection process, designs usually get into 3-D with the onset of a scale model. The scale can be 1/2, 3/8, 1/4, or 1/5 depending on the studio preference and the need. ¼ scale is probably the most popular. Sense the digital age, I’ve not heard designers insisting that scales must be cheated to make them look real. This was a misconception to begin with and it now makes it much too difficult and time consuming to bump up the final scale design to full size. Any error in the scale model is magnified by whatever the value of the scale is when it is digitally made full size.
In a fast developing digital world I believe that very soon there will not be the need for nearly as many modelers as there were in the past.

The computer has already greatly changed the way modelers are used. The needs for model-making have evolved in a way that has separated the discipline into 3 separate but overlapping types of work. Modelers are used as computer operators who use tools such as Alias to turn 2-D designs into 3-D designs for designers. They are also used to operate and clean-up the models that are cut by machine into either scale models or full size models. And, of course they are still used to make aesthetic changes or corrections in the cut models that were not seen in the 2-D computer phase.

Fortunately, until the 3-D digital tools become more developed there will still be a place for people like me.