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Kinetic Design and the Animation of Products, by Ben Hopson
As a former student of yours I am compelled to tell you how much I enjoyed reading this article. It is clear that your graduate work in motion was inspired by your disdain for boring and predictable mechanics, and I have to agree with you. As a young design student, even I can tell that designers tend to stray from complex mechanics for fear of controversy or misinterpretation. This is unfortunate, because as you argue, there is a whole new world of opportunity for design in motion. I say if my grandma can learn to text message then she can learn to use the faucet differently! My kudos to you sir.
-Ben Gruen, NJIT
I believe that kinetic design will be able to contribute to haptic/visual interface design. So things that move in real life that denote changes in the digital world/info.
also i believe that some products should contain motion for both purpose of aesthetic and functional use. That the owners of these products will definitely not grow tired of there motion especially if its functional. So for the cd tray , perhaps the motion grabs the disk in a way that prevents scratching and also in a way that doesn't pinch a finger or have the potential of snapping off.
I really enjoyed this video segment. It is about comming up with new ideas for switches i think that it ties in well with the motion of objects. These switch concepts by RISD sutdents move in ways most switches do not.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/02/what_is_a_switch_part_ii.html
http://www.nendo.jp/en/works/detail.php?y=2006&t=71
But as you make clear, there's a lot more potential for future innovation.
I do feel compelled to defend Sony a little though. 6 years ago I was looking to purchase a compact hi-fi stereo system. I ended up choosing a Sony CD player mainly because of its beautiful CD opening mechanism. At the time Sony were the only manufacturer's on the market considering the kinetic aspects of their designs, and therefore I feel Sony deserve some credit.
And no, I'm not affiliated with Sony in any way :P
As someone obsessed with books and book design I'd recommend a look at Robert Sabuda's paper engineering. A pesonal favorite is his Wizard of Oz where as you open the pages a tornado lifts from the book and spins in front of you. Kind of amazing the first time you see it!
Love the calculator and the simple models show a great way to develop these concepts.
David
I put together a graduate project with Philips Design on movement as a medium for communicating information, titled The Physical Web Page. Downloadable in three parts here - http://danamaxwellcooke.sitesled.com/
This guy is worth a look for inspiration...
http://vimeo.com/3001833
And this one blows my mind!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcR7U2tuNoY
http://kmoddl.library.cornell.edu/
This site got me started in experimenting with cams and linkages for developing sophisticated movements with simple implementations.
To a certain extent, a little bit of kinetic design is already recognized widely: dampers and friction are often purposely added to doors, lids, and knobs so they turn with a smooth motion and close without slamming.
Having studied both engineering and industrial design, I find that a great place to start to learn about motions is linkages. Yet when I introduced kinetic elements to designs of mine such as sunglasses at design school, none of the students nor the instructor appreciated the work put into it, and it seems that such efforts are not rewarded when students do venture out and attempt to rise to the next level of design.
http://www.ninestoriesfurniture.com/elsie/elsiesmaking3.htm
http://parlor-game.blogspot.com/2009/02/hybrid-fixtures-for-living_14.html
-andrew
IMPRESSIVE DEFINITION
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ENDLESS APPLICATIONS!!!
TX BEN