Electric Guitar Design

Electric Guitar Design is a type of industrial design where the looks and efficiency of the shape as well as the acoustical aspects of the guitar are important factors. In the past many guitars have been designed with all kinds of odd shapes as well as very practical and convenient solutions to improve the usability of the object.

Electric guitars were originally designed by an assortment of lather, electronics enthusiasts, and instrument manufacturers, in varying combination. Some of the earliest electric guitars, then essentially adapted hollow bodied acoustic instruments, used tungsten pickups and were manufactured in the 1930s by Rickenbacker. In 1935, a Soviet scientist working separately from his western colleagues was known to have produced an electric Russian guitar called the "Kuznetsov electromagnetic guitar". It was exhibited at a technology expo in Moscow, but its development was halted since the Stalin regime was hostile to guitar music.

The version of the instrument that is best known today is the solid body electric guitar, a guitar made of solid wood, without resonating airspace within it.

Process of design

Although the process of design may be considered 'creative', many analytical processes also take place. In fact, many industrial designers often use various design methodologies in their creative process. Some of the processes that are commonly used are user research, sketching, comparative product research, model making, prototyping and testing. These processes can be chronological, or as best defined by the designers and/or other team members.

Industrial Designers often utilize 3D software, Computer-aided industrial design and CAD programs to move from concept to production. Product characteristics specified by the industrial designer may include the overall form of the object, the location of details with respect to one another, colors, texture, sounds, and aspects concerning the use of the product ergonomics. Additionally the industrial designer may specify aspects concerning the production process, choice of materials and the way the product is presented to the consumer at the point of sale. The use of industrial designers in a product development process may lead to added values by improved usability, lowered production costs and more appealing products. However, some classic industrial designs are considered as much works of art as works of engineering:

Industrial design has no focus on technical concepts, products and processes. In addition to considering aesthetics, usability, and ergonomics, it can also encompass the engineering of objects, usefulness as well as usability, market placement, and other concerns such as seduction, psychology, desire, and the sexual or affectionate attachment of the user to the object. These values and accompanying aspects on which industrial design is based can vary, both between different schools of thought and among practicing designers.

Industrial Design

Industrial design is an applied art whereby the aesthetics and usability of mass-produced products may be improved for marketability and production. The role of an Industrial Designer is to create and execute design solutions towards problems of form, usability, user ergonomics, engineering, marketing, brand development and sales.

The term "industrial design" is often attributed to the designer Joseph Claude Sinel in 1919 (although he himself denied it in later interviews) but the discipline predates that by at least a decade. Its origins lay in the industrialization of consumer products. For instance the Deutscher Werkbund, founded in 1907 and a precursor to the Bauhaus, was a state-sponsored effort to integrate traditional crafts and industrial mass-production techniques, to put Germany on a competitive footing with England and the United States.

General Industrial Designers are a cross between an engineer and an artist. They study both function and form, and the connection between product and the user. They do not design the gears or motors that make machines move, or the circuits that control the movement, but they can affect technical aspects through usability design and form relationships. And usually, they partner with engineers and marketers, to identify and fulfill needs, wants and expectations.

Dynamic Diagrams

Dynamic Diagrams is an information design consultancy based in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Its services include information architecture and design for web sites and applications, as well as diagramming complex processes, systems, and data to help clients explain and sell their ideas. The company provides visual design capabilities supported by research and analysis to understand user and business needs.

Dynamic Diagrams was founded in 1990 by Paul Kahn and Krzysztof Lenk, who first worked together to design the hypertext system Intermedia (hypertext) at Brown University’s Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship (IRIS). The company retains strong ties to Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where Krzysztof Lenk is a member of the graphic design faculty. Dynamic Diagrams has been affiliated with Cadmus Communications Corporation, Inc. and Ingenta, but has operated as an independent studio under the leadership of Tim Roy since 2002.

Dynamic Diagrams is known for using isometric projections or Z-diagrams to map web sites (Dodge, 1999; Kahn & Lenk, 2001; Kahn, Lenk, & Kaczmarek, 2001), for developing the software program MAPA (Durand & Kahn, 1998), and for publishing the Information Design Watch blog. The company's work appears in several books on information architecture and information design (see Further Reading).