Idea generation, Concept Idea & Preliminary mockups

Idea generation, Concept Idea & Preliminary mockups

Moving forward from the constructions I created in the studio sessions I chose to develop an initial concept idea to begin working on visual outcomes to represent this.

I began mindmaping a few ideas how I could turn my design process flowchart into some type of content alongside a main concept idea. I think its important to have a concept idea generated after analyzing the briefs problem, it then allows you to again analyze further on how this concept idea can fix the problem you have at hand. From this concept idea you then start to think of how it can be turned into a visual solution. 

The concept idea I have arrived at and want to take forward into the visual idea generation stage is based on how I see my design practice & process as well as an interpiration of how I see other people critique artwork or design work. 

The design process is made up of complex design stages, and these design stages are often overlooked when someone views a finished product. People see something simplistic and instantly think that not a lot of work has gone into it. So to visualize this I want to present an idea of complex simplicity and how on a personal level I cover a range of stages to arrive at this finalized functional outcome that can sometimes be overlooked as just "simple minimal design". 

I intend on doing this by creating a visual outcome that is made up of complex elements but appears simplistic in its final form be it when its folded up or built up however I go about creating the construction. 

To emulate this idea I went forward with a few techniques I found on the youtube videos from the Cut & Fold book. The Engineered Masu Box, a Japanese type of fold technique that creates a strong box from a series of folded squares. It creates a nice final outcome narrowing down from lots of tabs of squares and rectangles into a neat and functional box. 

This idea of narrowing down from something quite complex to something simple and functional emulates my concept idea well but the aesthetic of the finished box really isn't that good. It doesnt have much potential for the addition of content.

The next fold I tried out was the Cube illusion construction, the final outcome works well for my intended concept so I will be taking this idea forward.

I intend on using a key to demonstrate what each pattern, colour or shape within the construction represents. 

This idea originally came from the start were I created a terrible example of a folded construction that hid irrelevant elements so only the start and finish design stages were shown, it sort of spins off from this but instead of hiding these in-between stages it shows them as complex shapes and ties them altogether into a final simple function shape. 

I love how the construction creates this convex cube illusion when infact its a concave cube, it really does a good job at representing an idea of bringing together complex elements into something simplistic because when you look at it from other angles all sorts of shapes can be viewed. But when viewed from above it all makes sense and comes together. Much so like the design process stages, the abstract shapes viewed from different angles represent the design stages, and the top birds eye view represents the final outcome and how all the different stages come together.