Professor, Brigham Young University
Richard Fry is a faculty member of the Industrial Design program at Brigham Young University and has served both as Chair of the ID program and the Director of the multidisciplinary School of Technology. He received his MFA from the University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign.
Professionally, Richard worked at the Seattle based design firm Teague, the global appliance manufacturer Whirlpool, and at Icon Health and Fitness, where he worked on brands such as Health Rider and Nordic Track.
After 23 years in the College of Engineering, the Industrial Design program at our institution is winding down. The different culture in that environment was cause for serious reflection in the face of inevitable philosophical change. One of the rewarding outcomes was clarity in how we defined the space in which ID could thrive, and how that was related to engineering and technology disciplines.
Often, disciplines use a subset model that puts them at the center. Instead, a more holistic model based on the appeals of rhetoric – LOGOS, ETHOS, and PATHOS – provides an intriguing space with fewer disciplinary boundaries.
This paper will describe this model and highlight a particular location that places ID as one of many disciplines engaged in the process of giving RELEVANCE to technology and the outputs of Engineering and Science.
Building Word-Based Communication Skills for Designers
Tom Greever notes that, “Communicating about…designs…[can be] more important than the designs themselves.” However, the aptitudes that might predispose a student towards industrial design in the first place (visual, adaptive and creative thinking), may also predispose them against communicating in ways that resonate better with their process partners in other disciplines—words and numbers. This presentation shares and summarizes an attempt by students to work with both pictures AND words, with the goal of increasing both their visual AND verbal vocabulary. This new vocabulary was shown to increased students’ creative flexibility and has helped them communicate verbally with more clarity about their intent—and their results.
The Future of Design Education is not Art
Although industrial designers always will represent culture and human values, creative may be a more appropriate descriptive term than artist. Based on insights gleaned from being an industrial design program housed in Brigham Young University’s College of Engineering and Technology for the past 18 years—the future of design education doesn’t look like art.
Professor Richard Fry will share six observations: creativity v expression; authentic process partners; creative people everywhere; focus; influence for change; and leadership and impact.
Using Rhetoric to Generate 2×2 Matrices
How do you generate a good 2×2 matrix? What is the difference between a 2×2 that is merely descriptive from one that provides clarity and insight? It often seems that this process is more of an art rather than a science. Using the rhetorical appeals of Ethos, Logos and Pathos as a method for generating potential axis descriptors forces FLEXIBILTIY, which is the characteristic of looking at a problem from multiple viewpoints. ETHOS forces us to ask, “What is valued?” LOGOS, forces us to look at the underlying structure or environmental descriptors. PATHOS, asks us to understand how behaviors or preferences are expressed. Judgment is still required to select a final 2×2 that gives the most clarity, insight, and direction. However, Ethos, Logos and Pathos provide a means of generating axis descriptors that helps novices and experts alike get over the initial difficulty.
