–NOW OPEN TO ALL!–
(not restricted to SVA students)
In this Preparatory Course for the MFA Products of Design at SVA in NYC, Martijn van de Wiel and Kevin Henry will open your eyes to understand perspective and boost your confidence in design visualization. Get up to speed in just 8 weeks!
Created by:
Martijn van de Wiel and Kevin Henry
Design Visualization – Preparatory Course | SVA – MFA Products of Design
Start: Friday May 31, 2019
End: Sunday July 28, 2019
Modules: 10
Feedback: 8 weeks
Effort: 8-12h/module
Language: English
Certificate included on completion
–REGISTRATION IS CLOSED–
UPDATE: REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN TO ALL! (not restricted to SVA students)
Introduction
Product designers and educators Martijn van de Wiel (founder of Design Sketching Courses) and Kevin Henry (author of Drawing for Product Designers and the lynda.com course Sketching for Product Design) are teaming up again to assemble online resources (specifically for SVA students) to cover a broad range of design visualization skills. The materials will cover everything from traditional rapid ideation sketching to idea mapping, diagramming, and sketchnoting. Below you will find a description of the course structure, the content and the corresponding learning goals.
Kevin Henry (left) and Martijn van de Wiel (right)
We look forward to meeting you and seeing you skyrocket your sketch and visualization skills this summer!
Martijn & Kevin
Member Reviews
“This course increased my technical sketching skills greatly!” – Gustav Dyrhauge
“This course is intensive, but highly valuable. Having such personal feedback and practical lessons for an online course is amazing.” – Hannah
“Definitely worthwhile! Having been a sketching novice, I’m more skilled & confident in capturing and articulating my ideas and designs. The coursework was insightful, professional and very practical. I especially valued Martijn and Kevin’s feedback.” – Kgothatso Lephoko
These reviews are from members of the summer 2018 course.
Course structure and guidance
The class is designed to take place over 8 weeks with one week of review or catch-up. You will follow a guided program with video tutorials and assignments on multiple topics. Because it is an online course you are free to view the content at the start of the week or the middle of the week or even later in the week although that is not advisable since viewing of content is paired to exercises designed for students to practice in order to receive feedback.
You will have a personal project feed inside the course to upload your work for review. We will personally encourage you by viewing all uploads and by giving you weekly feedback on your work during the whole course. The feedback is marked up visually so you’ll know exactly where to adjust and how to improve. Inside the course you will be surrounded by peers working on the same assignments. You will be able to see all uploads by other course members and you can even help your peers by exchanging feedback on each other’s work.
The videos remain accessible throughout the course and beyond. It’s really the exercises that are timely if you want to get feedback. Take note that we can’t guarantee we’ll give you feedback on work that is uploaded for a previous module because we will have moved on to the new material.
The course contains 10 modules. The first 5 modules are required for all participants. The other 5 modules can be used to create your individual learning path by selecting and combining 2-3 modules of your choice.
Mandatory Modules
Module 1. Idea mapping & diagramming (Martijn & Kevin)
You will learn how to map and diagram problems and opportunities. Based on your individual goals and interests we will explore strategies to setup your own learning path.
Module 2. Field trip – To draw is to see (Martijn)
You will discover the basic principles of perspective through observation during an eye-opening field trip.
Module 3. Linear products (Martijn)
You will learn to apply the basic theory of linear perspective by sketching simple linear products (like printers) exploring various points of view.
Module 4. Cylindrical products (Martijn)
You will learn to sketch simple cylindrical products (like flashlights) and explore them in a variety of perspectives.
Module 5. Field trip – ‘Observing to learn’ (Kevin)
You will learn important design research methods for observing and listening to people ‘in the wild’ as they interact with products and services as well as how to synthesize the findings.
Elective Modules
Elective 1. Redesign (Martijn)
You will learn that cheating is OK to develop an efficient workflow in redesigning hand-held products.
Elective 2. Low fidelity sketching (Kevin)
You will learn how to use ‘intentional doodling’ as an effective visualization tool for exploring anything from wicked problems to user-experiences.
Elective 3. Journey mapping, wireframing, and paper prototyping (Kevin)
You will learn the power of simple mapping and diagramming methods to generate user journey maps, UX wireframes, and low-fidelity paper prototypes to explore and test a range of design ideas
Elective 4. Combined products (Martijn)
You will learn how to combine linear and cylindrical shapes correctly in perspective and practice sketching them from a variety of angles.
Elective 5. Complex geometry (Martijn)
You will learn how to setup products with more complex geometry in perspective and practice sketching them from a variety of angles.
Tips & Other Bonus Material
Examples from the course
Example from Martijn’s ‘cylindrical products’ module
Example from Kevin’s ‘low fidelity sketching’ module
Example from Martijn’s ‘Complex geometry’ module
Examples of annotated feedback on student work.
Example from Kevin’s ‘Paper prototyping’ module
About the instructors
Martijn van de Wiel is a creative entrepeneur, industrial designer, founder of Sketchdrive and creator of the Design Sketching label. He is based in The Hague where he operates from his downtown studio surrounded by artists and creative professionals from all disciplines. Martijn is fascinated by the human ability to explore, learn and create.
Martijn created the Design Sketching label to share insight and experience on the subject of ‘sketching to create’. He regurlarly posts inspiring sketches and video tutorials directly from his studio- and classroom demos. He is currently producing and teaching a series of online design sketching courses to help aspiring creatives worldwide boost their sketching skills and leverage their creative potential. With a background in Industrial Design and more than 15 years experience in teaching courses and workshops at international design schools and innovative companies, Martijn has developed a unique approach in effective training of the sketching skill. His popular hands-on courses and workshops are reviewed as ‘fast learning’ and ‘eye-opening’ experiences.
With Design Sketching Courses, Martijn is on a mission to make professional sketch training available and affordable to all by reaching out to the worlds most talented sketch masters to help them connect and share their expertise with a worldwide community of learners.
As founder and CEO of Sketchdrive, Martijn reaches out to pioneers in online education to help them unlock creativity and amplify learning beyond the classroom. Founded on the principles of ‘learning by doing’ Martijn and his team have developed an interactive tool to easily share, review and give feedback on visual work.
Martijn in action in his classroom at TU/e.
Kevin Henry is an award-winning designer (IDEA/Good Design) and educator based in Chicago. He is currently an associate professor (product design) at Columbia College Chicago. The author of Drawing for Product Designers and the online lynda.com course Sketching for Product Design, Kevin is passionate about the power of visualization to help think creatively about problems as well as opportunities. Kevin recently started the learning company: The Fourth Teacher L.L.C. and will be launching the website (thefourthteacher.com) later this summer. The goal of the company is to provide a broad array of rich multi-modal learning resources designed specifically for the iPad. These resources are designed to assist both teachers and students in blended learning environments where technology can serve as, well, ‘the fourth teacher’. Inspired by the ground breaking ideas of the Reggio Emilia pedagogy and the increased reliance on digital devices inside and outside of the classroom, these resources utilize all modes of communication: text/visual, video/animation, audio, interactives, and review/feedback.
Kevin in action on the whiteboard
Tools & Materials
To get the best results it is important that you acquire the right set of tools. Hereby a list with materials that we personally prefer. You are free to choose for yourself, but remember that the quality of the tools has quite an effect on the quality of the results. The brands posted here are just examples. I am sure if you shop around you can find (cheaper) alternatives somewhere else. Don’t forget to ask for a student discount!
– a portable camera (smart phone is ok)
– a light blue pencil (NO graphite!): e.g. Derwent Studio #32 or #35 or Prisma
– a good quality pencil sharpener
– a couple of felt-tip pens (fineliner ±0.4mm): e.g. Pilot / Stabilo / Uni-pin / read some reviews
– one heavy felt tip pen: e.g. Papermate Flair M / Pentel Sign Pen / Edding 1200
– a set of 3 grey alcohol markers (C2-C4-C6): e.g. Copic / Pantone / Prismacolor
– one Tabloid (11″ x 17″) or A3 marker pad: e.g. 4Art / Copic / Bee Paper
Optional extra materials:
– some coloured markers in 2-3 shades of the same colour (example in picture below)
– A soft white pencil and a white gel pen (for highlights)
Suggestion for pencils, pens and markers.
Follow Design Sketching here:
