Analog of the bone

Not long after completing my undergraduate degree, I was invited back to teach and co-develop curriculum for the inaugural design fundamentals course in UPenn’s new Integrated Product Design graduate program, helping students from engineering and business backgrounds build foundational design skills

Exercise 1: The bone

The human skeleton was presented as an analog of both figural contents and field of operation upon which forces, kinetics, and the possibilities of attachment could be mapped and also projected. Each student was assigned a human bone for the semester and were asked to draw the bone as accurately as possible without the use of any traditional measuring device.

Exercise 2: Analog of the bone

The analog was developed by observing qualities present in the bone that were amplified by their drawings. These were translated into abstracted Euclidian forms via hand drafting. We wanted to show that simple forms have an inherent legibility. Using a restricted language, students learn that it is possible to grow richness and complexity from basic parts.

Exercise 3: Parametric modeling

The analogs developed on paper were modeled as assemblies of solid parts in SolidWorks. Once the analog was seen in 3D, forms and joints were revised. An ABS prototype model was 3D printed when the design was complete. The students presented their drawings and models in a critique at the end of each semester. The jury included members of the PennDesign and IPD faculty.

A constellation of issues

At a time when parametric modeling was just beginning to take hold in design discourse, we believed that these tools were revolutionary in how they directly acknowledge the non-linear path designing often takes, comprised of a constellation of issues that connect, diverge, and affect one another to some degree. We tried to convey to the students that, as designers, we can consider our creations holistically as unified bodies in tension with their issues.

Student work

Nicholas Araujo, Nat Bender, Kelsey Brown, Adam Libert, Amy Montgomery, Matthew Nowicki, Kerim Yehia

More images

• Analog drawings
• Analog printmaking project
• Analog models