Materials, Processes and Drawing

This unit introduces you to practical and thinking skills in communicating ideas, perceptions and design through processes in drawing and making; development of hand, eye and brain co-ordination skills, resulting in the understanding and appreciation of visual aesthetics through use of materials and processes in drawing and making.

Apply drawing and making techniques with investigating the materials, and experimentation, using technical explorations in answer to the 2 live project ‘briefs’. describing the who, what, when, where, why and how of a design project. You will advance knowledge of design research through a short lecture and have the opportunity to practice and produce a reflective piece of research set against a topic.

This unit is the summation of your learning journey which will enable you to synthesize the learning, skills and knowledge of your experience. The final outcome will be an artefact/tool/public space using local materials and/or paper and cardboard for the community. You will be expected to answer how might your project add value to the community and how might this project be scaled to work in other neighbourhoods and community scenarios. Simplicity and usability though people centered design is key to this project’s success.

This unit focusses on developing rapid prototyping techniques as a research and development method for people centred design through the lens of craftsmanship, structural integrity and attention to details in the design execution. You will reflect with a short annotated descriptions of the idea and design sketches of your final project including supportive materials, technical samples and explorations (most notably, appearance and behaviour), and providing an approach covering a wide range of levels of granularity, fidelity, and abstraction.

This Tier 2 kick off unit prepares you to consider applying for design programs in higher education. Emphasis is on shortlisting a variety of programs and allowing sufficient time to research the courses of study; in particular visiting degree shows either face to face or online; networking with program graduates and formally writing to the program office or teaching staff for a prospectus, or meeting to discover what the program is looking for in terms of incoming student skill competencies and mindset.

This unit prepares you for communicate their work and more importantly, your mindset to peer design students, design practitioners and design educators. Having the ability to discuss verbally and critically engage in subject discourse is an essential part of design education and practice. You will discover that simple and succinct rhetoric is far better than a long-drawn-out monologue. Interview panels are looking for mindset as much as design comprehension; realising student ability through self-actualisation goes a long way to convincing design audiences that you have what it takes to be accepted to an undergraduate program.

This unit invites you to develop your own practice through materials, processes and drawing making and doing. In many ways this program is the start of what hopefully will be a lifelong journey of self-discovery by and through design using local materials. You will formulate projects beyond the program and continue to develop their reflective practice through sketch booking and journaling. You are required to submit photos of the final outcome using the materials, and a presentation of your sketches with annotations to receive your e-certificate of course completion.