What is Good Design?

In a complex and technological world, our young designers can be tempted to seek out complexity, adding ever more detail in pursuit of ‘better design’.  This week the Fourth Form travelled to London for the day, at a time when these GCSE students are forming their own ideas about what good design is, to experience what is contemporary in automotive, interior, product design, architecture and engineering. 

Heather Naylor, from interior giants B&B Italia, spoke with great clarity about the current trends in interior design mentioning that design perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. Their beautifully clean, and elegantly simple, interiors helped our students see the great value of simple solutions to design challenges.  Between the April snow flurries, the boys had the opportunity to get their hands on some of the 20th century’s design classics, as well as contemporary developments of a whole series of products, in Conran. They looked at how both materials and colour have been manipulated to enhance the products and now understand how the processes they have been studying can be applied to join a variety of materials to make both beautiful and witty products.

There was a break to our studies. This year the students had the opportunity to travel to the Sky Garden; high above 20 Fenchurch Street on the top floor of, what has become known as, the Walkie-Talkie building.  From here the boys had panoramic views of the many iconic buildings that now dominate the London Skyline and tested their nerve by looking down, over the edge of the building, into the back streets and alleys of the City of London.

Our day ended with a look at bicycle design in The Design Museum, in what will be the last exhibition in Shad Thames before this landmark venue moves across town into the former Commonwealth Institute.  Whilst in The Design Museum, the students listened to a number of designers talking about their vision for making cycling more accessible and safe. They aim to use design to facilitate a move from the 5% of commuters, who choose to brave our roads on their morning commute at present, to 45%, as is the case in Copenhagen. It was fitting to end the day seeing how product designers, engineers, and architects could all collaborate to help propose solutions to this very real challenge. 

Hugo Hurrell (4g) was heard to mention that, with the amount of walking we had done on the day, he considered the field trip a useful training exercise for his rapidly approaching Ten Tors Challenge!  The students were a credit to the school, asking interesting questions (not all were about when we were next going to eat) and we hope that the day will act as a useful springboard for the design phase of their own projects, which starts next week.

Peter Chillingworth
Head of Design and Technology