Constraints

If I were to sum up design in a single, concise sentence, it would have to be art executed within constraints, within a budget, and on a deadline. No matter how grandiose our visions, things always have to be sacrificed for cost and for the realities of the market.

"The design brief stated that cost was not an issue" Declared a student at our workstation critique on Tuesday, in response to some criticism about the feasibility of his project.

"Cost is always, always an issue," laughed a juror.

Even when we're told not to, we should consider things like cost and feasibility. It's what we do, as designers. No project has a limitless budget and few constraints. If anything we most often drown in the constraints we're asked to work within. The more accepting we are about the realm we've been given to work in, the more successful our work will be.

This quarter I- or should I say, my circumstances- presented me with certain constraints to work within. We were asked to build an eighth-scale model of our workstation. I, in short, didn't want to build one. Because I'm lazy and on a budget. Also, there are valid reasons to be skeptical of the merit of such an endeavor; it my time in the field, limited though it has been, I have never seen or even heard mention of such a model being built. Ergonomics can't be analyzed with an eighth-scale model, and what does it tell you that a slick rendering doesn't? I'm sure there are reasons for building such a model, but I chose to take what little justification I had for not doing so, as well as my limited resources and bad attitude, and half-ass the requirement. I spent- literally- less than $20 and 5 hours on my model. Other classmates spent upwards of $300 and god only knows how much time.

I'm shocked at how well received my project was. Ultimately, I feel as if the story was solid, the solution was well thought-through, and people chose to focus on the giant-ass 40x60 plot I had hung up rather than the model.

Victory.

This summer quarter I've decided to put similar constraints on my chair project. Students have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on the chair project, but I will be working within different constraints. I'm going to build that chair for less that $250, swear to god.

Sounds like I should start sketching stools....