Overcoming the complexity of teaching form and detail aesthetics in product design education

Student ability to design and capture complex product shapes is frequently limited by technical ability and understanding of aesthetic forms and details. Ability is also regularly influenced and often compromised by the complexity of capturing or designing product concepts in 3D CAD software packages. This paper discusses recently trialled methodologies to reduce instances of design compromise within the conceptual design process and thus endeavour to improve skills in form giving and understanding design aesthetics. Two didactic methods were trialled to teach product styling aesthetics: evaluation and identification of broader semiotic elements and iterative sketching techniques. It was found that students following historical semiotic threads had tangible aesthetic points of reference that were easily communicated between tutor and students. Positive aspects of this were an increase in sketch iteration and an increase of aesthetically pleasing products across the student cohort. This paper considers the teaching of styling aesthetics by appropriating semiotic elements of complex historical forms as well as how students design form, communicate complex shapes, gain ownership over appropriated semantic elements and avoid concept compromise when moving into the 3D software environment.