A Study on Traditional versus Digital Model-Making Methods for Industrial Designers
Bjarki Hallgrimsson, IDSA | Carleton University
This paper examines to what extent design students need to learn traditional model-making skills in a digital world. Computer aided design (CAD) has somehow eclipsed traditional skills such as hand sketching and making models by hand. Design research is also increasingly a main focus for the design professional (Arnold, 2001). Educators are faced with the difficulty of balancing new digital skills and theory against hand skills such as drawing and model making, which typically have taken a considerable portion of studio time in the past. Literature reviews highlight the importance of early, rapid and focused qualitative prototypes; extremely simple mockups are often enough to test and explore new ideas. Learning how to make quick prototypes by hand, therefore, underlines the importance of the “fail often to succeed early” mantra (Kelley, 2001).