Michael Tovey

Sketching, concept development and automotive design

Abstract Sketching and its key role in concept design are identified, and the particular circumstances of automotive design described. A brief summary of work in the general field of concept sketching and visual thinking is presented. The particular characteristics of automotive design sketches; form lines, crown lines, area lines, shading and colouring are described, and a de-layering analysis undertaken. This demonstrates the primacy of form lines in the automotive design sketch. Observations, by video, of post-graduate students and six professional designers while sketching confirm the importance of the form lines in the design process, the interactive and iterative nature of concept development and the central role of the activity of sketching in this process. It is proposed that the design of CAD systems to support concept development must take account of the importance of sketching activity.

Styling and design: intuition and analysis in industrial design☆

Abstract In order to both research the subject and to realize the benefits of introducing CAD, it has been necessary to define industrial design more closely and to understand its context. Industrial designers employ visual, creative and intuitive techniques in making their special contribution to the design process. This can be seen most clearly in the car industry. Research at Coventry University has addressed these issues, and progress has been made in the development of effective CAD support techniques for automotive styling.

Drawing and CAD in industrial design

Abstract Drawing is an essential component in the industrial design process, facilitating visual thinking and creativity. It constitutes one type of design model, along with specifications, 3D representations and CAD techniques. The design process involves movement from one model to another, and by using representations of different types and at different levels of detail a fluid and inventive design approach is facilitated. Examples of schematic drawings, ideas sketches and concept drawings demonstrate this in product design and transport design. CAD has proved to be highly effective in evaluative and analytical design development, and in manufacture. It is inherently unsuitable for innovative design, but has potential for contributing to evolutionary design, as is evidenced by its proven effectiveness in engineering optimization. Automotive design is almost always concerned with design evolution, and procedures for car stylists to work productively with CAD are being developed in Coventry Polytechnics SERC funded research project Computer Aided Vehicle Styling. Vehicle stylists design thinking is characterized by holistic, right-hemisphere processes informed by tacit knowledge and dependent on visual representation. They have particular difficulties with CAD systems. Nonetheless, design techniques that capitalize on CADs potential and may be applicable to industrial design are briefly described. CAD drawings and conventional design drawings are compared by using examples from the car industry, and from the research project. Tentative speculations about future design procedures are made.

Intuitive and objective processes in automotive design

The characteristics and specialist responsibilities which distinguish industrial designers from engineering designers are most strongly evident in the automobile industry. Car stylists use intuitive processes, and private form and graphic languages. Design managers control the styling process through a number of management intervention points which provide a precise objective framework for the process. If conventional processes are to be computerized then any system must both permit the intuitive processes and fit into the managements objective framework.

Thinking styles and modelling systems

Abstract In solving design problems designers use a combination of analytical serial thinking and holistic synthetic thinking. This can be seen both in how the process is described by design theorists and in the practical activities which designers undertake. In common with most other forms of design, the industrial design work which will be described is mainly concerned with defining the physical form of objects and this requires visual thinking. The whole process involves modelling the design ideas using various techniques, and for the visual thinking they are externalized in the form of drawings and three-dimensional representations. Using drawings is the quickest and most fluid modelling technique, and such drawings will often reveal the combination of analytical and holistic processes which the designer employs. Project work from Coventrys Industrial Design Transportation course is used to demonstrate such strategies.

Sketching and direct CAD modelling in automotive design

This paper examines two methods of computer-based car styling: texture mapping and direct computer modelling. An overview of current activity in the field precedes a comparison and evaluation of the methods within a typical framework for automobile concept design. Three case studies illustrate the direct modelling method, showing differences of computer use in each case. Further developments of texture mapping are reported, with a proposal for iterative combining of texture mapping and direct modelling.

Designing with both halves of the brain

Abstract There appear to be distinct differences between the two hemispheres of the human brain in terms of preferred styles of thinking. In designing, it seems necessary that both styles are engaged, with the designer switching from one to the other as appropriate. This paper briefly reviews the differences between the two hemispheres, and relates the differences to the cognitive styles implied by different design methods. It offers a dual processing model as a basis for designing.

Form creation techniques for automotive CAD

Abstract Although there is a significant commitment to the use of CAD in the car industry, the industrial designer makes less use of it than engineering designers do. Vehicle stylists responsible for the early stages of the process have found that CAD systems and procedures are ill-suited to their methods and needs. As there are considerable potential benefits to the overall proc if it can be based around integrated CAD systems using common data bases, there are good reasons for devising procedures for automotive stylists that overcome the problems which CAD systems seem to present. This project has been concerned with devising such procedures. It has included a collaborative exercise with a motor manufacturer and has resulted in a collection of recommended techniques for form creation on CAD for automotive designers.

Computer-aided vehicle styling

Abstract The motor car industry subdivides the design process to separate the conceptual, visual, and package considerations from engineering evaluation and production. Vehicle stylists responsible for the early stages of the process are currently working without CAD in most companies, although the rest of the design programme uses fully integrated CAD. Because car design is evolutionary, it should be possible for car stylists to use CAD. Currently their methods of operation make this difficult. Various companies and Coventry Polytechnic are investigating procedures for stylists to productively use CAD in a fully integrated design process. Although conventional engineering CAD may be able to contribute to the latter stages of the styling process, this will entail new strategies and techniques. For initial design sketching a new system will be required, probably along the lines of the system being developed in Coventry.

Concept Design and Sketch Mapping

The use of CAD is product. Its use is widespread in the car industry, through most of the process of designing a new most uneven and various at the concept stage when stylists make their contribution. The appearance design of a new vehicle is crucial if it is to be a success in the marketplace. CAD is contributing to reducing lead times and hence to a greater responsiveness to the market. If stylists are to make their contribution effectively they need to be able to maintain the ease and productivity of conventional concept sketching, whilst adding the 3D capability of CAD. Sketch mapping provides the tools and techniques for doing this, and recent refinements to the interface have enhanced its utility.