A Level Three-Dimensional Design Eduqas

This subject is broken down into 20 topics in 5 modules:

  1. Personal Investigation 7 topics
  2. Materials, techniques, and processes 6 topics
  3. Historical and contemporary design practices and designers 2 topics
  4. Externally Set Assignment 3 topics
  5. Critical and contextual studies 2 topics
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  • 5
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  • 20
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  • 7,842
    words of revision content
  • 1+
    hours of audio lessons

This page was last modified on 28 September 2024.

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Three-Dimensional Design

Personal Investigation

Design processes and methodologies

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Design processes and methodologies

Understanding Design Processes and Methodologies

  • Begin with a clear understanding of design brief- its requirements, constraints, and the expected outcome.
  • Adopt an analytical approach to existing products or systems to understand current market trends and practices.
  • Research is a key step in the design process. It helps in understanding the needs and requirements better.
  • Ideation and conceptualisation form the creative essence of the design process. It involves generating ideas, sketching, and modelling possible solutions.
  • Evaluate and select the best concept with a feasibility study, considering aspects such as cost, production capabilities, and user acceptance.
  • Develop chosen concept into a detailed design using technical drawing, CAD modelling, or physical prototyping.
  • The prototyping process allows you to test and refine the design. This can be done using materials like foam or card, or digitally via CAD/CAM systems.
  • Following creation, evaluate the prototype to ensure it meets the brief’s requirements through testing and gathering feedback.
  • Finally, refine and iterate the design as necessary before production. Implement necessary changes based on feedback and test results.
  • Remember that design processes are often non-linear, meaning they can loop back and forward between stages.

Employing Various Methodologies

  • Understand the importance of user-centred design (UCD). This methodology puts the user at the heart of the design process, ensuring that the product or system is designed to meet user needs and expectations.
  • Co-design involves users and stakeholders in the design process, encouraging their active participation in creating solutions.
  • Become familiar with systematic design which uses a structured, logical and systematic approach to problem-solving.
  • Use sustainable design principles to minimise the environmental impact of your product.
  • Biomimicry is a design approach that seeks out solutions by emulating natural strategies and patterns. It can be a fascinating source of inspiration.
  • Explore the iterative design process, where a prototype is continuously modified based on feedback until the design is finalised.

Evaluating Design Decisions

  • Learn to justify design decisions, explaining why a particular design choice was made over others.
  • Make clear linkages between requirements outlined in the briefs and your design decisions.
  • Regularly revisit the design brief as work progresses. It ensures the solution remains focused on its original purpose and goals.
  • Learn to use critical assessment tools like SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis to evaluate design decisions.
  • Use peer review and feedback as an essential resource to help improve your designs.
  • Finally, develop an ability to self-evaluate, reflecting upon the quality of your work and areas for improvement.

Course material for Three-Dimensional Design, module Personal Investigation, topic Design processes and methodologies

Three-Dimensional Design

Materials, techniques, and processes

Forming, cutting, joining, constructing, and casting

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Forming, cutting, joining, constructing, and casting

Forming Techniques

  • Bending is a deformation process where a force is applied to a material causing it to bend at an angle and form a desired shape. This is common with metals and plastics.
  • Forcing involves using compressive force to shape a material, often using a die or mould. This is commonly utilised in processes like forging or pressing.
  • Spinning is a process where a disk of metal is rotated at high speed and formed into an axially symmetrical part. Used often in the production of kitchenware.
  • Blow moulding is a forming process used on thermoplastics where air pressure forces the plastic into the shape of the mould.
  • Extrusion pushes or pulls a material through a die of the desired cross-section.

Cutting Techniques

  • Shearing is a cutting process where the material is broken down into smaller pieces with the application of great force against its resistance to deformation.
  • Sawing uses a jagged-edge tool or blade to cut through material by way of a back-and-forth motion.
  • Laser cutting uses laser beams to cut materials. Works well on materials like wood, metal, plastic, and glass.
  • Milling involves employing a rotating tool with multiple cutting edges to progressively remove material from the workpiece.
  • Plasma cutting uses a stream of hot plasma to cut through electrically conductive materials.

Joining Techniques

  • Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, typically metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allow them to cool, resulting in fusion.
  • Adhesive bonding uses a substance to hold two surfaces together because of the adhesive’s ability to form strong molecular attractions with the material.
  • Brazing and soldering involve melting a metal filler that bonds to two workpieces and cools to join them.
  • Fastening makes use of devices such as nuts, bolts, screws, clips and rivets to hold two or more objects together.
  • Sewing is a technique that integrates thread and needle to join two pieces of fabric, leather, or similar materials.

Construction Techniques

  • Layering involves building up material in layers to create the desired shape.
  • Modelling is a construction technique where a pliable material like clay or wax is formed by hand or with tools into a three-dimensional shape.
  • Assemblage is a technique where three-dimensional objects are combined to create a new work of art.

Casting Techniques

  • Sand casting is a process that pours a casting liquid, like molten metal, into a sand mold to construct a desired shape.
  • Die casting involves forcing molten metal under high pressure into a mold cavity. Mostly used with non-ferrous materials.
  • Investment casting, also known as lost-wax casting, creates a precise dimensional and smooth finished product by replacing wax with molten metal.
  • Centrifugal casting rotates the mold itself during the casting process. This action distributes the casting material evenly and can create items with a high level of detail.

Each of these capabilities provides designers with unique opportunities to realise their designs in the most effective way, and the final choice depends upon the specific requirements of the project at hand.

Course material for Three-Dimensional Design, module Materials, techniques, and processes, topic Forming, cutting, joining, constructing, and casting

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