Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

My name is Mr. Booth, and thank you for joining me today for your Design and Technology lesson.

Today, we are gonna be looking at the work of fantastic designer Yinka Ilori.

We're also gonna be looking at accessible design, and you're gonna be producing designs based on Yinka Ilori's designs, but also making them as accessible as possible.

This lesson forms part of the product and people inspirational design unit where we get to look at all the wonderful people and also their products in design and technology and how they influence us.

Today's outcome, I want you to be able to innovate a product and make it more accessible, and we're gonna use a product that you're very, very familiar with that you're probably sat on right now.

We have three keywords that I want you to keep a lookout for today.

The first one is inspiration.

Now this, of course, is where your ideas come from, something that makes you wanna do something, someone that gives you inspiration is someone just like Yinka Ilori.

The next word is innovate.

Come up with new or better ideas.

And Yinka Ilori's ideas are definitely innovative as you will see as we go through this lesson.

And then finally, accessible.

If we are designing accessible products, they can be used by as many people as possible.

Two learning cycles today.

The first one is looking at Yinka Ilori's work, and then we're gonna design some really exciting accessible products.

So let's start with the first one.

So Yinka Ilori is a British artist and designer.

He works across a wide range of design, including architecture, interior design, graphic design, textiles, sculpture, and even furniture making, which is what he started life out as.

He's best known for his bold use of bright colors and playful designs all inspired, there's one of our keywords, by his Nigerian heritage.

So Yinka was born in April 1987 in Islington in London, England.

Have you ever been to London? You might be in London there now.

He lived with his father who was a store manager and his mother who was an events caterer and his older brother.

But as a child, he would often visit his parents' home, the country of Nigeria, and that was a huge inspiration in his life.

He studied art and design, including furniture and product design, at London Metropolitan University from 2006 to 2009.

And after completing his degree, he worked as an intern in a furniture makers making furniture, but not very interesting furniture.

In 2011, he received a grant from the Prince's Trust.

And this meant he could start his own design business, something he was desperate to do.

And one of the things he started doing was upcycling secondhand furniture using bold colors, themes, and patterns inspired by West African textile patterns.

Now, before we go on, what do I mean by upcycling or upcycling products? Have a little chat to the person next to you.

Pause the video now and come back to me when you think you've got an answer.

So upcycling, of course, what it means is it's taking used, discarded, or unwanted products and giving them a new lease of life by turning them into something else.

We can upcycle lots of products and you might even have some upcycled products in your house.

So where did Yinka get most of his inspiration? Well, he said a major source of his inspiration for his designs were the Nigerian parables, these short stories that his parents will tell him as a child.

He was also inspired by his visits to Nigeria and his parents' vibrant outfits made from colorful fabrics.

You can see some beautiful examples there on the screen.

Yinka saw that sustainability was a way of life when he visited Nigeria.

Everything was reused, repurposed, upcycled, and new uses were found for old things, certainly something we could do better in the UK.

Now, these stories of inspiration, these parables that his parents told him, one of them said, "No matter how long the neck of a giraffe is, it still cannot see the future." And this parable alone inspired a five-piece collection of chairs, which Yinka transformed from broken and cast-off furniture that nobody else wanted into abstract, brightly colored, beautiful new works of art.

And he said that the chairs aimed to share a lesson from this childhood story.

And the moral of that story was that we should not be judgemental.

How beautiful is that? Quick check for understanding.

Where does some of Yinka Ilori's inspiration come from? Is it dreams, A? B, nature? C, stories? Or D, TV? Pause the video now and come back to me when you've got your answer.

It is, of course, the story.

These Nigerian moral parables that were told to him as a child by his parents.

Well done.

Now obviously, Yinka Ilori started becoming famous and he also started becoming successful.

His business was growing.

And in 2015, he founded his own design studio.

He built a team, and that team included architects and designers, but they all had this same interest in bold, bright colors.

And he's worked on all sorts of different projects.

You can see one of them here, which was in Piccadilly Circus in London.

And the aim of this one, "Keep Your Dreams Close," was to try and inspire people to follow their dreams. Anything is possible.

Now, he's worked on architectural and interior design projects with lots of brands that you probably know, Adidas, Nike, Pepsi, and even Lego.

He also has worked on a lot of other projects as well.

He's designed clothing, he designed playground for children, public spaces, and even recyclable shopping bags for Marks and Spencer's.

But you can see that color and design are always at the forefront of that.

His designs are fun and they are inspiring.

All of his designs are innovative.

You can class them as innovative.

They are new and they are brilliant.

They celebrate color and pattern.

And his aim is to improve people's moods through his designs.

In 2020, he launched his own homeware brand and won an award at the London Design Festival.

So you can see he's done really well.

And because of this, he was eventually in 2001 made a member of the British Empire.

That means he was awarded an MBE and this was recognition for his contribution to art and design.

And he's always said that art and design should be accessible to everybody.

It should bring communities together and create positivity and optimism for all.

And that's what he tries to do through his wonderful design work.

So let's just have a quick look at a timeline of Yinka Ilori's life up to now.

So obviously, he was born in 1987.

In 2009, he graduated with a degree of art and design, remember in London.

He then started his own business just a few years later.

He founded his own design studio a few years later, working with designers and architects.

And then in 2021, he was awarded an MBE for his contribution towards art and design.

Absolutely fantastic.

Quick check for understanding.

What is the main way Yinka Ilori and his team make their designs positive and uplifting? Is it A, to make things really big? Is it B, to make them useful? Or is it C, to make things colorful? Pause the video now.

Come back to me when you've got your answer.

It is, of course, to make things colorful.

That's his aim.

So we're into our first task now.

Now let's look at this quote from Yinka Ilori.

"My work is very much about inclusivity and how people enjoy design." He wants to create designs that promote joy, positivity, and wellbeing.

For this task, what I want you to do is I want you to discuss how color and pattern and accessible design can help achieve this.

How can they promote joy, positivity, and wellbeing? Enjoy your discussions.

Pause the video now.

Come back to me when you've completed them.

So how were your discussions? I bet they were brilliant.

You might have answered something similar to this.

Using bright colors and exciting patterns makes Yinka Ilori's designs pleasing to look at and this could help improve people's moods.

Bright colors and designs make places and products more fun.

Accessible design allows as many people as possible to use a product.

This makes everyone feel included and promotes community and also positivity.

I hope you enjoyed your discussions.

We're now into our second learning cycle where you're gonna get to design some accessible products using Yinka Ilori as your inspiration.

So let's start looking at accessible products.

So accessible products are products that are designed to be used easily by as many people as possible.

It's not always possible to create products that can be used by everybody because some people might have very specific needs.

Now, some accessible products can be made to address specific needs for individual users and are not necessarily designed to be used by everyone.

Examples of these could include prosthetic limbs and also mobility aids.

Now, can you think of any other products that might fit into this category? I want you to have a little discussion on that or maybe have a little think of your own.

Pause the video now and come back to me when you think you've got another example.

Did you think of anything? Well, I did.

My gran, she had a stair lift in her house, which helped her get up and down the stairs.

Certainly not designed for me, but was designed for you, but it meant that her house became more accessible.

I'm sure you thought of a really good example as well.

With thoughtful design, everyday products can be made to be accessible to as many people as possible.

It's a core part of design.

We want everyone to be able to use our designs.

We don't want to exclude anyone and we can do this in a number of ways.

Three examples of this are: having a product with adjustable features such as a desk chair or an office chair.

Keeping things really simple, so you don't need instructions to be able to use a product.

And also making products easier to use.

So three really nice examples here.

Once again, can you think of any other products that fit into these categories? Pause the video now have a think.

Come back to me when you've got an example.

So did you think of anything? Well, I thought of one.

My son has just started school, so he's in reception.

Now, he has to wear a polo shirt, the school uniform when he goes to school, but the buttons are really difficult to do well.

So we bought him a polo shirt where it's actually got fake buttons on the front, but underneath it's got a piece of Velcro so he can really easily undo it when he needs to get changed for PE.

That has made a polo shirt far more accessible for younger children who might not be able to manage buttons.

They might not have the dexterity to undo buttons.

So that's a brilliant product.

Now, designers have to have empathy for the user and consider their experience and feelings when designing accessible products in order to meet their needs.

That is really important.

Showing empathy is another key part of designing products.

Now, what does empathy mean? Well, thank you, Sam.

It means it's like putting yourself in someone else's shoes so you can think about how they feel when they might be using your products.

So quick check for understanding.

What does accessible mean? Which of our pupils has got the correct definition? Is it Sam? It means something has a use or a function.

Is it Lucas? It means something can be used by most people.

Or is it Laura? It means something is fashionable.

Pause the video now.

Have a go at this.

Come back to me when you've got an answer.

And the correct pupil is, of course, Lucas.

It means something that can be used by most people.

Remember we can't necessarily design products to be used by everybody because of specific needs, but what we can do is try and make our products be as used by as many people as possible.

So now I want you to think about the chairs in a classroom, possibly your classroom that you are in right now.

They probably look something like this.

How accessible and inclusive do you think these are? Do you think they're inclusive? Do you think they're accessible? Have a little think about that.

Pause the video now.

Have a little chat to the person next to you and see if you can think about how accessible and inclusive you think the chairs are that you're sat on.

So what did you come up with? They're probably quite suitable to you at this time, but they're probably not accessible and inclusive to other pupils maybe in older years or maybe pupils with specific needs.

Most classroom chairs are a simple one size fits all design.

And that's because they're usually designed to be easy to make because they've gotta make a lot of them.

There are a lot of pupils at school in this country.

They need to be hardwearing.

They do get battered about, they get dropped, they fall off tables, they get knocked together, they get bags bashing into them, so they've got to be hardwearing.

They also need to be stackable.

They've gotta sit on top of each other because quite often we wanna store them out the way or we wanna get them out of the way 'cause we need to do something else in our classrooms. So they are the main things, the main reasons that classroom chairs have been designed.

But could they be designed differently to meet the needs of different users or as many users as possible? I think they could.

To be accessible to a range of different needs, chairs should also be adjustable so they can be at different heights.

Maybe you can adjust different back rests or you can even have other different features on them to make them more adjustable.

They should be comfortable to sit on for long periods of time.

How long have you been sat on your chair that you're sat on right now? Sometimes in a school day, you could be sat for up to three and a half, possibly even four hours on your chairs.

We also need to think about how they support your body.

Do they have back support and possibly even armrests? The design may have other features too, but not everyone will need all these features, but all users should be able to use the product or as many users as possible.

Now as we know, chairs come in a variety of styles and are used for lots of different purposes.

Whether you're lounging around watching the TV or you're at school doing the best work you possibly can, they all have different features and different purposes.

But if we go back to our brilliant designer, Yinka Ilori, you can see these chairs will still have the same purpose, but look how much more fun they are.

And what he's done is he's put his stamp on his product, he's put his design ethos on these products to make them more exciting.

And even though they probably do the same thing, they might make us feel a little bit better.

Don't you think? Now, designers can adapt existing chair designs or they can create innovative new designs by combining styles and features.

Designs must be accessible to a range of users.

We've already talked about that, but also functional.

They've gotta work as classroom seating, so functionality definitely has to come into play.

But they can also be fun and promote wellbeing.

Something we probably don't do with the classroom chairs that we have in our classrooms today.

True or false? To innovate means to reproduce or copy an existing design.

Is that true or false? Pause the video now.

Have a go at this.

Come back to me when you think you've got an answer.

It is, of course, false, but why? Tell me why this is false.

So again, pause the video, see if you can come up with a why.

Come back to me when you've got your answer.

Well it is, of course, to innovate means to come up with new or better ideas.

You might build on existing designs, but it'll probably be new.

You're not gonna copy something that's already existed.

Well done.

Now we're gonna look at Sam and Andeep and the work they have been doing on their chair designs.

So these pupils have been working together on accessible chair designs for their classroom.

They sketched out some ideas.

So let's see what Sam says.

"The spring allows movement for pupils who struggle to sit for long periods of time, making it slightly more comfortable." And Andeep says, "The seat height and backrest are adjustable to suit different people." So you can adjust it depending on your posture.

But they've also critiqued their work.

They've identified a problem and thought of a solution.

So Sam says, "This chair is not stackable, so it'd be really hard to store in a classroom." So Andeep thinks of a solution to this.

"Well, we could remove the circular base and put lockable wheels on the legs instead." What a great answer that is.

And then they can also take this design and go further with it.

So we're now onto your final task, Task B.

What I would like to do for this task is to work in pairs or small groups to design an innovative and accessible chair for the classroom.

Now if you can't work in pairs or a small group, of course, you can do this on your own.

But we have a success criteria that I want you to work with.

You need to make sure that your chair design is accessible.

It can be used by as many people as possible.

It's gotta be functional.

This is gonna be used in a classroom, so it's gotta work really well.

It's gotta promote positivity through pattern and color.

We want these designs to be fun and I want you to think about Yinka Ilori's designs.

Use him as your inspiration.

Pause the video.

Have a go at this.

Come back to me when you've got your brilliant designs.

So how did you get on? I bet you've come up with some fantastic ideas and I bet they look brilliant.

So you can see Andeep and Sam, they've got now there their modified design from their feedback and they came up with their innovative design.

It's accessible, it can be used as many people as possible because, of course, we know it can move around and it's got those adjustable features.

It's functional, it can be stacked, it can be sat on for long periods of time.

And finally, they've used pattern and color just like Yinka Ilori to make it really positive.

I'm sure your designs look just like this and are probably even better.

So well done with that.

So that brings us to the end of this lesson.

Well done today.

Let's have a quick summary.

So Yinka Ilori is an artist and designer whose work is inspired by traditional Nigerian stories, those parables that his parents told him.

Ilori's first designs were pieces of furniture upcycled with bright colors and fabrics.

He believes that art and design should be inclusive and accessible and have a positive impact on society.

Classroom chairs could be more accessible and could use Ilori-inspired designs, which is exactly what you've done today.

Well done, everyone.

You've been absolutely fantastic.

I look forward to seeing you next time.

Goodbye.