Distributed design is an alternative model for product development, fabrication and business, utilising digital tools, open source and global networks. It is about taking advantage of the latest enabling technologies that make it possible to ‘ship the recipe, and not the product’ around the world, and tap into the potential this brings for local, more sustainable and even circular design.
The Design for Distributed is an applicable course for designing products in the distributed design space, taught by a working engineer and product designer, in collaboration with partners, like Wikifactory - a social platform for collaborative product development with over 40K designers, engineers and product innovators developing over 2,000 projects, ranging from robotics, drones and electric vehicles, to biotech, agritech, smart furniture - and most recently - medical devices.
This course is aimed at designers, engineers, makers, artists and students who are looking for a practical guide to distributed product design. This is a hands on course, with something you can take away and hold in your hand from the very first lesson! This course will pave the way in your career to take advantage of new digital fabrication technologies that are becoming a highly sought after skill for recruiters as well as opening up opportunities to scale your product innovation internationally with just a laptop and an internet connection.
There are no formal prerequisites to this course, however it does help if you have an elementary understanding of CAD software (like Fusion 360, SolidWorks or Rhinoceros), product development (hardware) and digital fabrication tools (like 3D printing).
This is a hands on project based course, resulting in you producing a full scale tensegrity chair! If you have access to a makerspace, fablab or workshop facility you can really make the most of what this course has to offer. However, having access to these tools is not a prerequisite either, as this course has been made to be as inclusive as possible, so you will still get plenty of useful online knowledge, experience and resources.
When you finish this course, you’ll take away a framework for distributed design, a toolkit to kickstart a novel approach to how we make things and tangible product design experience using digital tools and fabrication. You’ll be equipped to join the army of designers, engineers and innovators who are taking on the challenges of today, by facilitating a model of production that’s accessible, localised and sustainable. Together, we can offer an alternative model for prototyping, development, distribution and consumption. Our future is distributed.
The course structure follows four core questions:
What is Distributed Design?
Why Distribute Design?
How to Design for Distributed?
What is the Future of Distributed Design?
The learning objectives are:
Conceptual and practical understanding of the state of distributed design.
The pros and cons of a distributed and/or open source product development, fabrication and/or business model.
How to use digital tools, such as CAD and cloud services, to design for distributed.
How to improve your designs and design process to be suitable for digital fabrication, such as 3D printing, laser cutting and CNC.
How to leverage your local and global community for distributed design.
Practical and theoretical product and industrial design heuristics for distributed design.
Deeper understanding of open source business models
You will be able to apply this knowledge and experience in your company, in your professional practice or in your personal or educational projects, so that you can design better products suitable for distributed development, fabrication or business.
Let’s get started!
