Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mr Donnelly.

I'm one of the design and technology teachers here for Oak Academy.

I've got a great lesson plan today.

Is all about how we can use nature to inspire both the function and the form of a product.

I hope you enjoy it.

So in this lesson, there are three things that we're going to do.

Firstly, we're going to take a look at some existing products, then we're going to sketch some design ideas.

And, we're going to consider the needs of the consumer.

In today's lesson, we're going to explore three things.

Firstly, we're going to look at some of the key features of a product.

Then, we're going to look to see if nature can help us design the form of a product.

And lastly, we're going to see if we can use nature to inspire the way that a product will function.

In this lesson, there are only two things that you'll need.

One of them is some paper, ideally, this will be plain and a pencil to draw with.

I'll let you pause the video now, while you go and get those things and I'll see you in a moment.

In this lesson, there are three words that I'll use quite a lot.

The first word is aesthetic.

Have you heard that word before? So aesthetic is a word used to describe the way that something looks.

If you consider aesthetics, that means that you've spent some time focusing on the way that a product will look.

Sometimes it's just to do with the shape.

Sometimes it could be to do with a surface finish or a texture, but it's overall the way the product looks.

The second word is function.

This is a consideration of how the product will actually work.

So if you've considered it function and aesthetics, your product might look good and work well.

The last word is form.

This is mostly just to do with the shape.

So aesthetics is more than just shape, it's surface finish, texture, function is how the product will work and form is the shape.

So the first thing that you see when you look at a product is the form.

If you can get all three right, you'd be on the way to designing a winning product.

The product that we're going to redesign today is going to be some sort of WiFi enabled camera.

In my house I've got a webcam that I'm using now to record this lesson, I've got a baby monitor to watch my children at night, and I've got the security WiFi enabled cameras, at various places in my house.

Many of you have this type of cameras at home, and I thought it would be a good product for us to design together.

We'll try to use nature to inspire the way that the camera will look and the way the camera will work.

At the start of the lesson, I said that we were going to analyse a product.

Whenever you do that, you always need some sort of design strategy.

The simple strategy that I like to use has got an acronym called 'FACE.

' So an acronym is a word that you use, but each letter makes up another word or sentence, and it helps you remember.

So the acronym 'FACE' focuses on the function.

So we'll look at the function of the camera.

A is the aesthetics, that will be how it looks.

C is the consumer.

So the needs of the consumer can impact on the way that the camera looks and works.

And lastly, maybe one of the most important for me, is the environment.

What environmental impacts will the design of our product have? Sometimes environmental impact could be related to the way a product is made, transported and what material is actually made from.

Designers play a huge part in making sure that environmental impact is less.

So it's really important that we start to think about that now, right at the beginning of our task.

So before we start, you need to decide what type of camera you'd like to develop.

There are three that spring to mind, but there may be others that you could research yourself.

The first one I thought of was a CCTV camera.

Now sometimes you want this to blend in and you might use nature to make sure that a camera is a little bit more camouflaged, so you can't see it.

Sometimes you want a CCTV camera to look quite aggressive and noticeable so that it is a deterrent.

The next type of camera is a webcam.

So the one I'm using now, doesn't look dissimilar to the one here in the middle of the screen.

The last one is a Baby Monitor.

They all work in a similar way.

They all function as a camera and they all send their camera images to either a computer or some sort of viewing console or even a phone normally by using the internet.

So we've got three different cameras they all have a similar function, but they all look very different depending on the need of the customer.

If you've seen any of my lessons before, then you know I like to use mood boards to help with my design work.

This lesson is no different.

I produced a mood board and we're going to use this just to design the aesthetics and form of our camera.

We'll focus on the function a little bit later on in the lesson.

All I want you to do, is study each picture.

When you see the pause icon hit pause on this slide and take a closer look.

What I have decided to do is use all of the images to come up with camera designs, but I've not used the whole image.

I've just used part of an image.

So I'd like you to pause the video in a minute, look at the small detail within each photo and see if you can come up with a way that you'll design the shape of a camera, just based upon that image.

So hit pause now and have a look at the photos closely.

How did you get on? Did you see any of the same shapes that I've decided to focus on here? What I've decided to do is use a technique that's called a View Finding.

So rather than to look at the whole picture, I decided just to look at a small part.

I've dropped the opacity of the original photo and I've left the bit I focused on just as bold as the original.

In a minute when you see the pause icon, press pause to study what I've done more carefully.

When you're faced with looking at an image, rather than looking at the whole image, you might want to take a sheet of paper, cut a small hole in it and slide that around over the top of the image.

And that will allow you to just look at a small part.

What I sometimes do, is just cop my hands a little bit like this, and just look through the gap, and that stops me looking at the whole image, and I just look at a small part.

If you were to look at the picture of a snake, you might just think, "well, it's a picture of a snake.

How can I model that and use it to help design a camera?" But if you look at a tiny little bit of the snake, then you could think, "well, that shape could be used." Or that shape of a duck, of a goose.

You think, "how on earth can I use that?" But hopefully as the lesson continues, you'll start to look at pictures a lot more differently and think, "I could use that image to design anything." So, hit pause now and have a little look and see what I've done.

So what I've done now, is I've taken the little bit of an image from the previous slide and I've decided to use that to sketch parts of a camera.

So the goose's neck, I've decided to turn on each side.

I've looked at the grasshopper and took a little shape from part of its head and thought hat would be a good side profile for a camera.

All you need to do, is go back to the original slide and try to map backwards the way that I've done the task.

So I've started to sketch some simple forms, concentrating just on the aesthetics from the mood boards that I've produced.

So I'd like you to pause the video now, have a look at what I've done, and in a moment, you'll be able to see if you can do the same task yourself.

When I did this, I just allowed myself 20 to 30 seconds for each drawing.

So they don't need to be the most thought out design solutions ever.

It's an initial thought that you could take further as we go with the lesson.

So hit pause now, and have a little look to see if you're going to be able to do the same yourself.

So in a moment, pause the video and make sure that you read the words on the slide carefully.

This slide explains your task.

You may have an already about what the task is from listening to the previous slide, but you're going to get a mood board, either your own online.

And you're going to use parts of an image to design the form.

So just the aesthetic quality of the camera that you've decided.

You should be at a position now where you've got one sheet of paper with some quick little designs on, similar to me on the previous two slides that shows the shapes that you found from the mood board.

So far, you will have used nature to inspire the form and aesthetic quality of your camera.

From this point onwards, we're going to use nature and see if we can use that to inspire the way that our camera will function.

By now, you should have a sheet of paper with some simple designs on, where you've looked at the form and aesthetics of your camera.

And you've used nature in the form of a mood board to come up with those shapes.

You just put that paper to one side while we focus now on nature and the function.

What I've decided to do is find a couple of pictures that we can use as a discussion point, just to start thinking.

I've got some solar cells and you can see there that this has been inspired by the photosynthesis that takes place within a leaf.

You may have heard the term, new and emerging technology.

So going against traditional manufacturing methods, new and emerging technology simply means that we're going to use the newest and best technology available to help design the product that we're working on now, which happens to be a camera.

Would it be possible that you could design a camera with solar cells so that you charge it during the day and then it could be used in day or night using the power from the sun? Another thing I thought is if you're designing a security camera, so a CCTV camera, would it be possible to use the same sonar technology that's used on ships and submarines? And that was inspired from a bat.

Another thing I've thought is the way that many things are waterproofed, use something called a nanotechnology and nanotechnology means really small particles.

And that's inspired by a hydrophobic coating, which is sometimes found on the outer surface of a leaf.

So if you've got a jacket, which is particularly waterproof, it could be that it's been sprayed with a solution that contains nanoparticles.

So really, really small particles.

And that's inspired by hydrophobic coatings from leaves.

So you've got to try to repeat that word with me.

So, "hydrophobic." You might have heard of the word hydro, that's normally to do with water.

So to keep hydrated and phobic comes from a phobia.

So if you've got a phobia for something, means that you might not like a certain thing.

So hydrophobic, if you said that are hydrophobic, that might mean you don't want to go out in the rain.

But you're not hydrophobic, it might just be that you don't want to go out in the rain.

But in this case, if you are designing a camera to go outside, could it have a hydrophobic coating that could be sprayed with nanoparticles that have been inspired from the waxy coating on a leaf.

I'll let you decide before you move on with the video.

So to recap quickly, you should have one sheet of paper with some little drawings on that will inspire the way that your camera might look.

And now, you have the opportunity just to have a think about how your camera might function based upon nature as well.

This slide is a summary of where I'm up to with my camera design.

So, I have decided to design a webcam.

The next thing I've done, is I've taken the form of my webcam from a seed.

So the shapes within that seed caught my attention.

And I thought that would be a good side profile for a camera.

The next thing I'd like, because I really don't like powering things by batteries is to benefit from having a solar cell on the top so that I could charge the camera during the day and then use it at night without having to plug it in.

I'd also like some movement from my camera.

So I've decided to use a ball joint, which is found within the human body to allow movement for the camera.

If you got a phone holder, that it's in a car, you might see that the way that it moves that sometimes has got a ball joint.

So phone holders and sat nav holders often have a plastic ball that's contained within a thing called a ball joint, and that will allow movement of the device.

I'm going to use that to help inspire the way that my camera moves and that's been taken from a skeleton.

So you can pause now, look at the things that I've decided while you think about what to do yourself.

In a moment, please pause the video, read this slide carefully, because this is the main task for the lesson.

You're now going to focus on designing the whole camera.

You'll take the shape from nature, such as a biomorphic.

So from a previous lesson, you may have seen of mine.

You'll notice that the word biomorphic and biomimicry have been used extensively.

Biomorphic, that means that we've taken a shape and we've morphed it into our product.

So in my case, I've taken a seed and I'm going to use that to inspire the way that my camera looks.

Biomimicry is using nature to solve a problem.

So I've thought of the leaf and solar cells.

I'm going to use that for my camera.

Two of the words that I've used a lot for this lesson is function and form.

So the form I've taken from the seed and the function I've taken from the solar that's come from a leaf.

And also, I'm allowing some movement that's going to come from a ball joint.

So if you go back to my previous slide, you'll be able to see how I have summarised what it is that I'm going to do for the task.

So pause this slide now, read carefully.

You might want to go back and have a look at some of the previous slides, just to make sure it's clear in your mind what it is that you have to do.

So here's mine.

This is my camera.

I's a webcam, it's based upon the shape from a seed.

It functions with movement from a ball joint taken from a hip, and it charges using solar power, which has been inspired from a leaf.

In a minute, when you see the pause icon, hit pause yourself and study the work that I've done.

So the camera itself is quite simple.

But I wouldn't have come up with the shape without the seed, and I wouldn't have thought of solar if I've not investigated new and emerging technologies and found that solar is taken from the functionality of a leaf with photosynthesis.

I've written my notes using capital letters, just to make sure that my annotation stays shot, and it's clear to see.

So in a minute, pause the video, have a look at what I've done and tried to make sure that you've got one finished piece of work yourself, which is clear to see, and you've highlighted where your inspiration has come from.

So now that you've finished the task and you've got a design on a sheet of paper where you've got your camera designed and inspired by nature, both the function and form, it's time for us just to revisit our keywords.

So these three words, I've used quite a lot in this lesson.

The first one was aesthetic.

So if you've got something at home, which you think looks particularly good and it's beautifully designed, that means that a designer focused on the aesthetic qualities of that product.

The next word is function.

This is a word used just to describe the purpose and the way that a product will work.

So how does it function? And the last one is form.

Don't get form mixed up with aesthetics because form is mostly associated with the shape.